Baker and Martin’s script is great, they have always been good at strange and psychedelic sci-fi concepts. Unfortunately their (admittedly ambitious) work is let down by the direction. Derrick Goodwin, in his one and only story on the show, does not manage the difficult balance of comedy and action the script gives him. The pacing is totally off, with plenty of awkward pauses throughout the 4 episodes which rip any tension out of the performances and presentation.

There are excellent model shots and of course the amazing creation of K-9 to distract you. The way he is written in as a regular character is clunky, but you’re happy to have him (I hope he gets less noisy though). Some of the humorous characters work - the receptionist woman in particular is inspired. Others don’t. K-9’s original owner is a bit on and off form, depending on the scene - his last words “I hope he is TARDIS trained” were definitely not good enough for the whole story to go out.

Totally off putting makeup on middle aged men that look very uncomfortable in it makes for unintentionally pitiable villains. If these are bad then don’t get me started on “the nucleus”. The downsides are so unfortunate, because at the heart of this story are some great gags and an interesting concept - an infectious disease in space. I’d love to see this story re-done as a new production. Or even as a Big Finish drama. There’s so much to love