A fairly decent introduction to Ann Kelso, with an interesting concept for a monster, if it can fall flat on its face from time to time.

The Doctor is just so wild in this story - Tom is clearly having a blast at just being himself, roaming about and sticking his nose into stuff he doesn't need to. I mentioned in the previous story how much I love the Fourth Doctor on his own - this is the Doctor unchained! The cliffhanger to this story is him pointing a gun at someone! He definitely wouldn't have done this around Leela or Sarah Jane! We also meet new companion WPC Ann Kelso... I'm not too sold on her yet. I don't know whether it's the performance (Jane Slavin wasn't too good in The Valley of Death either) or just the writing, but Kelso just feels a little unrealistic. She doesn't have much of a reaction to the TARDIS, Time Agents or her friend being an alien, she just accepts it. Okay, I guess. There's not really a defined relationship between her or the Doctor either, she just asks to come aboard, and the Doctor's just like "why not?"

The Sinestran Syndicate is a great idea - I don't think we've had a proper mafia-styled enemy in Doctor Who before, and I wish we had something like that more - I'm hoping to see them in future Big Finish audios. However, they can become a little generic at time - I swear half of their lines are "We need to kill him!" and they don't ever kill him...

Where are they exactly? It's just a bit of a generic Earth location, and no effort is made to explore the area at all, really.

Nicholas Khan is the best here. Even if the writing's a little lacklustre, he's hilarious at all times, and kind of stupid, but that makes him lovable. I'd love to see more of him in the series - unfortunately, I can't say the same for Kelso's police mates, and they often just come up a bit lame.

This doesn't give me too much hope for this season, but we've got Drashigs next, so I'm looking forward to their return.