I quite enjoyed this story. It definitely drops you in the middle of things without much explanation, but it is easy enough to follow if you have a sense of Romana, Leela, and the Gallifrey series.

It's fun to have a story that is pretty much entirely politicking and bickering, the exact climate the Doctor likely fled from decades ago and the exact sort of stagnation I feel could lead to the corruption we see by the time of the Last Great Time War. Darkel in particular really stands out here. Love the subtle shift of her from a sense of authority, power, and justice into one much more desperate, greedy, and dangerous. When we finally get around to the "Mindbomb" stuff, I feel it was well handled as a threatening prospect with some fun twists and turns along the way.

It's good fun and I would definitely recommend, but, like I suspect the bulk of this series, it really is only going to appeal to a fan already deep into Doctor Who lore and content.