Serpent in the Silver Mask

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

Previous Story: Ghost Walk

Fairly predictable but by no means generic. It follows the usual murder-mystery story beats but with a nice timey-wimey twist on it. The characters are, for the most part, fun. The only exception to this are the brothers Paul and Peter. They were infuriating and I was genuinely glad when they died although it was unfortunately far into the story.

This story starts with the Doctor arriving on a planet to collect a specific type of crystal to build a new sonic screwdriver, this plan is not realised however as he gets wrapped up in a murder mystery. I found the Doctor to have a very entertaining role in this, but he isn't really the star of the show. The main focus here is on Tegan.

Tegan's romance in this story is very interesting. You get a nice insight into her character, something that is sorely lacking on TV. I don't want to raise the expectations too high though as Big Finish has done much better character explorations for this team elsewhere, especially Tegan.

The way the story is wrapped up is very satisfying if a bit confusing, I'm not really sure the paradox makes the most sense even as a paradox but it's forgivable and makes for a very poetic ending, the villain dies by the very shots he fired a few hours ago.

Overall, a pretty good story, most notable for being Adric's last appearance in the Main Range. I'm glad this little set of stories ends on a high too, but even the lowest of lows in these stories have still been well above average.

Next Story: Black Orchid