Resistor

On their way to visit Tegan's grandparents, the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa find themselves in a Warsaw nightclub in 1982, just in time for a performance by new punk band "Resistor". The band's drummer has gone missing, the nightclub has been raided by the secret police and something alien is taking people away too.

From the off the story feels fresh, a nightclub is the type of setting less often explored in Doctor Who and as listener's we're even treated to a sample of Resistor's music which feels like the auditory equivilant of having a big set piece, it brings an extra bit of production value to the story. On the whole the sound design is excellent, selling physical action particularly convincingly, even by the high standard set by previous stories, a standout example being a scene involving a motorcycle crash.

It seems like a fun story for the cast too, the Doctor and Tegan get some funny scenes when dealing with the secret police, in one instance involving Peter Davison having to attempt an Australian accent, I can only imagine how entertaining a recording session that might've been if Janet Fielding was present for it. When Tegan's own status as an Australian comes into question, an offhanded reference is made to making a lamington, something I'm choosing to believe is to bring the year's two releases in this range full circle, seeing as Tegan's first scene in the previous box set has her complaining that the TARDIS food machine can't rustle one up for her.

The story is strongest in its first half, when it's dealing primarily with avoiding the secret police, trying to find the missing drummer and band member Roman's moral struggle the story is brilliant. Unfortunately I feel like it loses a lot of steam when the focus shifts onto the alien, I appreciate the way it links to Roman's story, there really is a strong parallel to work with there but I didn't find it quite as interesting. The alien could've done with a little more fleshing out and buildup, and I'm not the biggest fan of the choice of effects on the alien's voice either, it leans a little too much on the generic for my liking. This story might've been able to reach its full potential as a pure historical but I'll set aside my championing for the format for now, as it stands the story is still strong.

The one other niggle is that a small part of the story hinges on the band being familiar to Tegan, having heard of them before joining the TARDIS, the impression I got from this was that Resistor must be based on a real group but they aren't, so it felt a little odd, it's another element that could've used a little more buildup than it got but it's a mostly inconsequential element of the story.

Even though it has an incredibly tough act to follow, Resistor won't leave you disappointed, it's a fun two parter that moves at a good pace and is just generally well produced. I can only hope that my criticisms of it haven't come across too harshly.