A pretty solid adventure with some rather meta themes of pirate radio being evil. A lot of fun though!

I've heard that, due to their messy relationship, Tom and Lalla have to record separately. Considering that, I think they do really well to blend the conversation together, and the pair do seem to have a lot of fun, even though behind the scenes they're not. It's fun to see Romana get involved with 60s culture and be a bit uncomfortable with it because she's not human, and then become a DJ! The Doctor's having a lot of fun, like always, and it's good to hear the proper K-9 again!

The worst part about this story is the return of the Vardans. I'm sure that they could've come up with a unique and interesting monster that used the radio to survive rather than just rehashing old ideas. However, I like how there's a bit of Gallifrey world-building as Romana knows about them from their previous invasion (of time), and the plot twist that the daughter isn't really the daughter is great.

I may be a little biased towards this story as I am a fan of the 60s pirate radio era, but it's a great location with lots to explore, working especially well on the audio format! The mid to late 20th century is an especially interesting time period for me, so it's great to have a story set during that era.

The side characters are fairly standard - pretty good in servicing the plot, but nothing too memorable.

The music and sound design for this episode is absolutely superb! Some really original stuff, yet it harkens back to the Dudley-esuqe themes, creating something really awesome and fun!

A strong start to Season 5, and from what I've heard, it only gets better! If the villain was a unique one, which it definitely could've been, I'd give it a higher mark.