This is a story that, on paper, is very good. Avril comes back! She wants to steal Peter! Ruth and Jack discover their pasts and Brax finally defeats Pandora from Gallifrey for good! All that sounds great, and what's more it's set at Christmas, how lovely. If you like a plot, this sure is a plot that seems great.

But despite all this, it manages to be exceedingly boring.

As I say, there's nothing strictly bad in this. The acting is fine, the sound design is a little saccharine in places but servicable, the plot is theoretically fun. But I can't make myself say anything else about it but 'it's fine'. I found it to chug slowly along, and even all the twists were like 'and now this is happening'. I couldn't feel sad about Peter because I've not connected to him at all since Boxset Era began, and Ruth and Jack are so nothingy to me that their shady pasts didn't hit at all. Even Benny, who I adore, doesn't make me feel anything in this one.

I wish I had more to say, but I don't. It's fine. This is the worst boxset of Boxset Era.

Well here's one for long time fans of the series! Fenman is the woman who swopped bodies with Bernice, got herself pregnant with Adrian Wall and then swopped out again leaving Benny to give birth to Peter. This all happened in the novel The Squire's Crystal which I haven't actually read - but enough of the story is filled in for the listener (as Benny needs to explain it for the benefit of Jack, Ruth and Peter). Fenman is after 'her' son and has, apparently, been manipulating our regulars for a long time, using mysterious crystals to swop in and out of various bodies, watching through her subjects eyes and controlling their actions where necessary.

Set on Legion's equivalent of Christmas Day, this is a story with only a very slight plot as it is more concerned with various flashbacks for Ruth, Jack and Irving Braxiatel explaining how Fenman has manipulated them and how they all ended up on Legion. It also fills in a little bit more background to the Epoch box set that kicked off this new era of Benny adventures. These flashbacks are a lot of fun. I particularly liked the revelations about Ruth. Jack's segment is a little less convincing as it requires David Ames to play not only Jack, but also two of his brothers and his father. It becomes a bit weird having four very similarly sounding characters in the same scene all played by the same actor. The story also ties up the loose ends surrounding Peter's mysteriously invisible boyfriend, Antonio and those scenes are very satisfying.

Being absent from the first two stories, Irving is given a lot more focus and it's interesting to see how this version of Brax differs from the manipulator from before the 'box set' era. This is a Brax from another universe, forced into this one and having to deal with the repurcussions of his other self's actions and attitudes. It's interesting and kind of made me want to go and re-listen to all of Brax's stuff in 'chronological' order (including his Gallifrey appearances) to get a better handle on the character and his machinations.

Ultimately it's Irving's underlying nature that saves the day and sends Fenman on her way and Benny's new family set about reconciling their pasts with their current situation.

A strong end to a fun box set.