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

Previous Story: The Cloisters of Terror

With the sheer amount of stories that Briggs puts out, it's not a surprise that most of them are fairly mediocre, but when he strikes gold, he strikes gold. This story is fun, but it doesn't completely shy away from being serious either.

It's got a small cast of characters, the main focus is on the core three as they explore a seemingly normal planet. Unbeknownst to the Doctor and Leela, K9 is interfacing with the TARDIS when he finds something seriously wrong. The planet outside isn't around for long and this leads to an arguement between the Doctor and Leela about the morality of saving the planet, which the Doctor attempts to brush off. It's the usual "companion begging the Doctor to save [insert thing here]" but I just can't complain because it's acted so well by Baker and Jameson. While all this is happening, K9 gets taken over and this sets up a brilliant cliff-hanger.

I think Briggs is at his best when he doesn't put nonsensical action sequences into his stories all the time, they just don't work on audio. This story, however, is full of intrigue, surprise and drama. Overall a very good, low-stakes story.

Next Story: Return to Telos

SAME REVIEW AS RETURN TO TELOS

I had my concerns about this story, and it seems that the story failed to hit the mark as I suspected.

The Doctor and Leela get time to bond in Krelos, building on the relationship of the two companions - from the interviews, I know that's something Nicholas Briggs really was aiming for with that story, yet Telos seems to render both characters as dull robots - especially Leela, who just seems to ask questions. However, the final scene was quite sweet, ending on a quiet note, unlike what we've seen between the pair before, with the Fourth Doctor's Big Finish theme playing underneath. I think the idea of K-9's inclusion within this story was quite clever - I watched a video considering the Cybermen which mentioned Nardole in the Doctor Falls, being a cyborg, and proposed an interesting plot thread on his view of the Cybermen, and whether he sees a point to them - this plot thread is, in a way, explored here, with the robot dog working for the robot men.
(You can watch the video here)

Speaking of the Cybermen, I was extremely worried that this would spoil their long hiatus until Earthshock, as well as spoiling Tomb of the Cybermen, my favourite Cyberman story. It’s a nice idea to make this a sort of prequel to Tomb, but the problem I have with prequels is they're never as exciting as you sort of know what comes next. The Cybermen are generic robots, and the body horror that is hinted towards with Geralk and everything else happening on Krelos isn't unique. It also doesn't help that the Cybermen don't appear until halfway through Episode 3 (Episode 1 of Telos) and the reason for their involvement is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. "Jamie picked up some Cyber particles which transferred to me which then transferred to Krelos." What the actual hell.

The cross-cutting between Krelos and Telos is very confusing - Whilst Krelos seems quite beautiful and appears to be a mountainous, picturesque planet that would be very interesting to visit, I don't see why Krelos is so important to the Cybermen apart from the "cyber particles". It doesn't have any strategic advantage, it's so close to their homeworld so they're not really spreading across the galaxy. Telos is not utilised well at all. Thumbs down.

I have to admit, I did squeal like a fangirl upon hearing Hines' impression of the Second Doctor once more. It's just so good, isn't it? Despite this, it's a completely wasted use of this impression, as neither TARDIS team meet - what's the point of bringing Tomb of the Cybermen in at all aside for some hype? The other characters left me bored and I can't tell you anything about their personalities because they don't have one.

This story is a waste of money and production. It's set during Tombs of the Cybermen for some reason, the Cybermen are just mindless robots, and the only positive thing that comes from this is the development of the Doctor and Leela's friendship.

A kind of mediocre start to the finale but let’s see how it concludes