✅8/10 = VERY GOOD!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY:

I love the opening scene, and how it harks back to Susan's very first scene in An Unearthly Child!

The calm before the storm is short-lived, though, as Susan reels from the events of The Shoreditch Intervention and is instantly shoved away on a new mission—to find a missing child on the planet of Materos and recruit the planet into the Time War in the process.

Susan has a rough time, as Materos is a planet that strongly affects her psychic abilities, taunting her with visions of her grandfather and deceased son. These scenes are done very well and wonderfully encapsulate the emotional turmoil she goes through.

Debuting writer Sarah Cassidy also takes the opportunity to explore Materos, their two races, and their decision to stay out of the war to protect the people. This is mostly about Susan’s past haunting her and her using this weakness as a strength instead.

Carole Ann Ford is marvellous and very effectively taps into a mother still feeling the loss of her son. Veklin is around to be snarky and to explore the politics of Materos but has minimal function beyond that. We also hear the War Doctor briefly as well as Susan’s son Alex, played by the Doctor’s real son Sonny McGann.

The other takeaway is the apparent resurgence of Alex, to the surprise of both Susan and the listener. It is a trap, of course, but used well to explore Susan’s emotional trauma.

The resolution is simple but logical and ties to the overall theme of democratic rule as opposed to hereditary rule.