When I see a solo Doctor adventure in the MR, I tend to breathe a sigh - often I find companionless Doctor stories to be tedious at worst and dull at best. Unfortunately, Davison is in no way my favourite Doctor either, so I was gritting my teeth for this to be yet another one I'd have to power through. I was then delightfully surprised to find I actually very much enjoyed it.

On reflection, I should have paid more attention and noticed it was a Dorney script - John Dorney has been know to write duds but they are very few and far between, and this is not one of them. The story to begin seems simple enough; a prince is marrying for the sake of peace between warring factions, but the woman he is to marry has been kidnapped and, because he loves her, he has gone to rescue her.

Though it is perhaps a little obvious by the nature of this kind of story that the princess is inevitably going to be a double agent, only going into the marriage in order to obtain the DNA of the opposition so she can help wipe them out, the twist is still well realised and didn't leave me with the sense of yeah, of course it was her as twists often do. Overall, I had fun listening to this one. The pace was good and I didn't feel bored, and that's about all I ask for from a Main Range episode.

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

Previous Story: Omega

I didn't expect this story to be as good as it was, I was going into it expecting something fairly dull, and at the start it definitely seemed like my expectations were correct. Around the second half, this story picks up incredibly. The main twist is fairly well-done even if I saw it coming a mile away. This is mainly due to the unabashedly evil performance of Princess Aliona, she's certainly not the most despicable villain (That says more about Doctor Who than it says about her) but I couldn't help but genuinely despise her.

Peter Davison gives an all-star performance here and really channels the Time Lord Victorious when he confronts the princess. He also adds an emotional punch to the end of an already bleak story considering everybody died by the end. I love how blunt this story was with killing off it's characters, none of the deaths felt cheap either, they all had a lot of weight to them.

Overall, a fantastic story that genuinely exceeded my expectations tenfold, I very much recommend this story.

Next Story: Cuddlesome

This story feels very much like Orphan 55, but better. It's not amazing, but it's better.

The Doctor continually takes on a role of pacifism in this rather grim, violent story - this wouldn't work in any other era, only under JNT would the series go this far. I think Davison is perfect for this role, he manages to strike an interesting balance between being the warm-natured Doctor, but also having to be aggressive, without any companions and often without any support, a lot like Midnight. John Dorney provides a lot of range for him to explore, and he does to the best of his ability - the final moments where he is broken by the fact that he couldn't even save one. This is a brilliant interpretation of the Fifth Doctor that kept me gripped throughout.

The Igriss make for a formidable threat, showing the danger of one by ripping through most of the crew in the first episode, then the stakes are already raised by crashing onto their planet! From that point on, they're never as fierce, but I do enjoy episodes with a high kill count. These monsters were really cool and one of Big Finish's most interesting, even if they didn't contribute much beyond their rampage in Episode One, except for another obstacle to overcome. Aliona felt like a bit of a panto villain, and she wasn't amazing, but she served the role of main antagonist well, and I liked the idea that she actually won, managing to fulfil her mission, even if she died at the end of it.

There's a really grand scale with the setting, taking place across two main locations - the rescue shuttle and the planet surface. The setting of Episode 1 (and the way it was used) felt quite similar to The Tsuranga Conundrum, and it was intriguing and constantly exciting as the story starts up and never drops in pace, but as soon as it crashes, it does start to slow down, and I feel like the location wasn't used as well, though it was still engaging.

This story was mainly centred around the characters, which I did appreciate - all of them were unique and contributed something worthwhile to the table. The arranged marriage was not unlike the one seen in Kingdom of Lies, but I thought the title "The Burning Prince" wasn't particularly apt, because the prince didn't actually play a main role until the second half of the episode. Tuvold was probably my favourite side character, because his chemistry with the Doctor was fantastic, and the two could relate to each other so well, and the uncle of the villain played an interesting dynamic in expanding her character (even if it wasn't done particularly well...)

The score was interesting and really set the tone, but it wasn't anything amazing, like usual. It suited the episode well though, and kept me in the mix, which some soundtracks don't always do.

Favourite Line: "Well, I say - There's a hell of a grief-stricken, maniacal arsonist behind!"

This isn't the best story, but there's a lot of charm behind it, the characters are usually engaging and the story is gripping. And that ending is so sombre and brilliant!