It's not a badger you spastic!

I'll come right out and say it now... The Devil of Winterborne is hands down the best thing I've seen from BBV and hell even Reeltime never reached this peak in its storytelling. It's one of the longest spin-off productions to date running at 80 minutes in total, it even has a sequel which I'll get to at a later date...

When P.R.O.B.E. is summoned to investigate the savage murder of a retired headmaster, Liz Shaw is disturbed to find evidence of satanic rite near the scene of the crime. She soon discovers a web of deceit and corruption that extends back in time, threatening the current occupants of nearby Winterborne School. With P.R.O.B.E. under threat from within and the death toll mounting, Liz finds herself under increasing pressure from all sides to produce results... The Devil of Winterborne is at large and only Liz can stop it!

From the get-go, The Devil of Winterborne tackles themes of satanic rituals, blind faith and hell, even touching upon reincarnation and immortality. Mark Gatiss has excelled himself here as per the norm, even if he is dismissive of his efforts for BBV, this is really an amazing achievement. The dialogue is something else entirely and really delivers some brilliant scares and dramatic weight, again a testament to Gatiss' writing. There are too many good moments to list but Gavin Purcell's interrogation is truly a centrepiece in how to build suspense even on a very low budget with some ingenious camera work and utterly brilliant performances from the leads. Peter Davison steals the film as Gavin Purcell unlike his brief cameo from The Zero Imperative, he's on top form and delivers a performance that rivals even some of his best work in Doctor Who. Terry Molloy, Louise Jamerson, Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith, Geoffrey Beevers and of course Caroline John all work together fabulously.

Overall, The Devil of Winterborne is a disturbing serial killer story with an occult twist, which puts K-9 and Company to shame. The adult themes are tackled maturely, giving it a nasty edge without seeming gratuitous, and the uncompromising nature of the violence on display (especially the skinned dog's head and assorted bloody corpses) makes for an effectively disturbing feel.

Have you ever known real fear, Miss Shaw? It's a beautiful thing. The power it gives you. To hold a human life in the palm of your hand and crush it. If that's what you want.

The Devil of Winterbourne - 8/10

When I saw that runtime, I really didn't expect to enjoy this at all, especially after the pacing issues in The Zero Imperative, but wow did this surprise me.

The pacing felt noticeably better here, there's some really gruesome imagery in there too, I'm especially thinking about the [spoiler]skinned dog head scarecrow[/spoiler] nearer the beginning. There's familiar faces from classic who, but none of them take away from the driving force of the actual plot itself like they did all too much in The Zero Imperative.

Liz gets more time to actually shine here, and you're immediately more invested with the potential of P.R.O.B.E. getting shut down. Also on thinking more, I like that P.R.O.B.E. sets itself apart from U.N.I.T. by being UK government based, rather than UN based.

Mark Gatiss' acting in this is really bad though, with his character's stammer. For the most part it's alright, but there's one scene where he's talking to Liz, and Mark seems to almost keep forgetting that his character's meant to have a stammer. There's a few characters who are meant to be like 17 or so as well, and the actors clearly aren't which takes you out of it a bit when they mention it, but isn't too bad.

As for the villain... At first when the villain was revealed I had an immediate ick. Great, a gay murderer, it's not inherently bad to do that, but it's definitely a harmful trope that's usually not great. The more it went on though, the more I actually really liked the choice to make the character gay. The murder isn't actually haunted by some devil, but he's a guy who's been convinced he's the reincarnation of this famous occultist.

If it were a straight adult man who'd been convinced of it, it'd still work, but making that person a gay teen, someone who's still growing up, who doesn't yet understand his place in the world, who probably feels othered from society even more than others his age due to his sexuality. To take a person like that and tell them they have a place, that they matter.

It just works so well, and honestly made me feel a bit emotional thinking about it.

TL:DR: I highly recommend watching this, of all the wilderness years things I've watched so far this is by far my favourite.

Apparently Mark Gatiss thinks that the whole "P.R.O.B.E." series was just a "learning exercise" and I can agree that this story is not the most inventive or original, but it honestly surprised me cause I liked it very much! Nice horror story, which definently uses the whole potential of a "supernatural Doctor Who spin-off". And I will always appreciate the fact that 'Doctor Who' has the ability to inspire people to create

The runtime really was daunting, but whilst it could've had a shorter one I think it really worked being so long. I thought that this really has us hitting the ground running with the supernatural spin on the Whoniverse. Loved seeing the beginnings of Liz/Patricia's relationship, the DI was a great addition to the cast and Peter Davison acted his socks off! The doomed toxic yaoi of it all!!!

The Devil of Winterborne is a story with many problems. From a somewhat confusing ending to straight-up ableism, it is deeply flawed. However, I had a great time watching it. I kept me entirely entertained throught and I enjoyed the mystery that it presented. The acting was largely solid, the sets were fitting and the directing was nice. I really do feel like there is a lot to like here, but it's let down by a few large issues. Even still, this is probably the best BBV film I've watched yet.