This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Brink of Death

That was... alright? I've heard so much hating on it, that it's one of the worst if not the worst story of Classic Doctor Who and it just ended up being a passable if not enjoyable little adventure. It's definitely not great but it absolutely doesn't deserve it's reputation. There were a lot of things to like in this story, the soundtrack is brilliant, the direction is brilliant, Sylvester McCoy's performance is great (and really funny).

Speaking of McCoy, he comes out swinging. His Doctor is so immediately different from 6 (and refreshingly kind (atleast compared to Sixie on TV)). I love his little gimmick of constantly quoting things but getting them wrong, it's really funny and it doesn't get old - especially when they start acknowledging it.

The Rani's plot is a bit nonsensical but you definitely feel the stakes. "When the Rani dabbles, she dabbles on a grand scale." It was a bit odd having people like Einstein in the story and then hardly using them beyond the odd joke about relativity. I do think this story is quintessentially Classic Doctor Who, it's got all the hallmarks; set in a quarry, silly looking alien drama, hammy performances. But it does all those things a lot better than most; they atleast try to make the quarry look like an alien planet with the whole pink sky thing, the Tetrap props are genuinely really good, the effects for the traps are also really good.

Overall, I can't say I understand the hate for this story. If this is the worst that McCoy gets on TV then I'm going to enjoy these next three seasons very much.

Next Story: Unregenerate!