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

Previous Story: The Moonrakers

A fairly mediocre ending to top off a mediocre arc. While I like Abby and Zara more than I did when i finished The Judgement of Isskar, they are still to me some of the most forgettable companions the Doctor has had. It's a real shame because on paper they should be really unique but end up really bland. I thought they would die at the end of the story, and that would have almost made me care for them but instead it led to a pretty anticlimactic resolution where everyone goes back to doing what they were doing before without any consequences.

The smoke people's voices are really hard to understand and I had to infer what they were saying half the time, they might aswell be voiceless because all they say is "feed" and it leaves them quite generic. The Doctor regenerates towards the end which feels like a cheap excuse to have Dan Starkey play him and a bit of shock value, of course it's reversed aswell so the Doctor's "sacrifice" barely had any consequences. I think the only thing I liked in this story was Leela and the Doctor's interactions, they finally have the chemistry they had in Time in Office again and it's a fun pairing that I'd like to see in more traditional stories.

I like Big Finish trying to be a bit experimental and shake things up but it leads to things falling flat and this whole arc in particular feels like a way to force their own boring spinoff characters into the main continuity.

Next Story: Exotron