Nightmare Country

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

Previous Story: And You Will Obey Me

About halfway through this story, I was ready to rate it something like 2 stars, because that first half was mind numbingly boring. The trope of an amnesiac Doctor is way overdone, and it didn't even change anything about the Doctor here. He was fundamentally the same character. That would have been OK if it wasn't for the fact that it was fully explained what was happening to him about 10 minutes into the story.

All in all, the story just felt pointless and annoying. That was until the last half of the story, where it picked up immensely. Suddenly all the half-interesting concepts that had been toyed with over the last hour were fully utilised, the twists were great, the cast were great. The lack of the Doctor's presence in the A plot let Turlough take on a hero role. Excellent performance from Mark Strickson.

I was fully sold on this story by the time they sent the copy of Tegan into the Reality Engine, the implications of that were haunting and accompanied by a fantastic performance from Janet Fielding. The Vodyani, while not a remarkable villain, served their purpose really well in the story.

And that ending, what a way to top this story off and it will leave me thinking for a long time. It would have been interesting to see this story on TV, but I don't think it would've been handled with all the tact and elegance that Big Finish have brought to it.

Next Story: Frontios