I was lucky enough to be at the first of the live performances for this story, back in September of 2024 so this release has brought back a lot of happy memories for me. My thoughts at the time was that the story was 'OK', nothing too special but that the experience of being in the audience and to be able to watch Paul McGann and co. perform Doctor Who live on stage made up for any shortcomings in the story itself.  The question was, would I feel the same when it came to relistening to the story months later.

Happily I can say the story is just enjoyable second time around.  This is a classic Doctor Who story, basically The Dalek Invasion of Cornwall with some Master shenanigans added.  It's definitely been written in the full knowledge that there will be a (mostly knowledgeable) audience watching as there's lots of fun lines and in-jokes designed to get a reaction from those watching (or listening).  That said, I missed one or two of the in-jokes completely and only got them after listening to the extras on this release. But every one else seemed to enjoy them.

The performances are all excellent and it's clear that every one was relishing the opportunity to perform in front of an audience.  I was particularly impressed by Alex McQueen's Master.  I've not really experienced his version of the Master before so this was quite a revelation to me - in equal measures silly and sinister. I will definitely have to listen to more of his work.

I don't often listen to the extras on these releases as they often tend to be rather samey. However I am going to recommend listening to the interviews on this one as they really highlight how much time and effort was put into this show by all involved and how different making this was to recording a standard Big Finish release.

In short, this is a fun, easy to follow story that was just what was needed for this sort of live show.  If you didn't get to go and want to know what it was like or if you did go and want to re-live the experience then this is well worth a listen.