Definitely a Who story worthy of the Hinchcliffe era, and it does a great job for something trying to recapture the feel of that golden period. I've seen it described as Talons of Weng Chiang meets Ghost Light and that's a good comparison. It's long but really enjoyable with Tom Baker and Louise Jameson being on top form throughout, and Leela being back in the Victorian era is just as entertaining as it was in Talons. The fifth episode in Africa does feel a bit like padding but it's not bad by any means. Looking forward to listening to the rest of these.

This was a very difficult story to listen to considering it's six parts and I've recently been listening to a lot of two-parters.

The Doctor shows a few more deeper emotions like anger and aggression, which isn't shown much in the TV Series - this works really well because it shows the extent of the issue that they're facing. I'm surprised how independent Leela is in this story, as she's slowly becoming closer to the Doctor, learning from him, and doing what he says, yet she ignores him A LOT and does his own thing.

Mordrega is a pretty interesting villain, but because there's quite a lot of different plots, it's hard to understand what her plan was. However, Caroline Seymour makes Mordrega sound really creepy. The Corona has a very magic feel, and fits really well into Season 14.

I'm surprised we returned to Victorian London so soon after Talons, but there wasn't much between the two. It was nice to hear Jago and Litefoot get a mention. Unfortunately, the amount of plots really confused the story and, while it was fun to go to Africa, felt like a lot of padding to get to six parts.

The relationship that developed between Abasi and Leela was beautiful, and it was heartbreaking to see them part. It was a shame that they didn't get married, because it would've been a better end than her suitor in the Invasion of Time. The other characters weren't particularly distinctive because of the amount of side plots there were, and it meant that there were a lot of unanswered questions.

It's a decent Hinchliffe story - Feels very 70s, and I found it great - but due to its complicated nature, it's very "blink and you miss it." Nice to have a longer story though.
9/10
The Devil's Armada
Quite a decent historical - and about 6 days too early.

It seems that the Thirteenth Doctor isn't the first to stop a witch trial! Both Tom Baker and Louise Jameson give this story their all, and the last couple of minutes to the story is a testament to their beautiful friendship. The Fourth Doctor is having a lot more fun in this story, and there were quite a few lines that felt like they came from the TV show itself. Leela didn't have too much in this story, and she felt a lot weaker than in the previous story, but the pair still have a great dynamic together!

The religious themes in this story work very well. I'm currently studying the Spanish Armada, and this was a pleasant surprise. The fact that my teacher wants to carve into my brain is how religion was an extremely significant cause of the Armada, so including the Devil in this historical piece was a stroke of brilliance. However, because it's Doctor Who, the Devil is really... an alien! The buildup to Vituperon was executed well, but the Vituperon itself was rather dull and yelly, especially near the end when I could not understand what they were saying because they were far too loud. However, I thought it was damn clever for Vituperon to disguise themselves as the Devil, as the time period considered anyone who saw the Devil to be a witch and then would be killed off, so their plans would not be uncovered.
William Redcliffe had quite an interesting arc, starting off as an aggressive, self-centered man and eventually being the one to finish off Vituperon. However, the character himself was not really anything that special.

As I've already mentioned, there were themes of religion, and that plays off really well in the eyes of the side characters, showing the struggles of Catholics in Elizabeth's reforming England.

I've read a few reviews on the boxset, and although most people prefer The Ghosts of Gralstead, I find that this one is far superior - it's not too complicated, has a decent side plot and the main characters are excellent - even if the "impersonating the Devil" ploy is a bit old hat. Love the creepy element as well, even going to mention Halloween (considering it's less than a week away at the time of reviewing!)

God this was just awful