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

Previous Story: The Planet of Witches

This is a story with a very promising start, it's got a good mystery, a captivating villain and some great performances. And for the most part, it follows through with that promise. Until the second half, where the story suddenly turns into the usual get captured then escape formula. It all just sort of falls apart andbecomes quite difficult to follow.

I do want to say that the Engineer is a really interesting villain and I like the reveal that his motivations are saving his wife. It happens at the very end of the story gives you a very short time to feel bad for him before he's blown up.

Overall, it's a decent story but I think it had the potential to much better.

Next Story: Warriors' Gate

4DA Series 9 Review: 7/10

I have really mixed feelings about this series, I love how it depicts E-Space, it brings a lot of depth to the TV episodes and definitely makes the Doctor's quest to find a CVE fell much more important, I really enjoy the chemistry between the 4 (I count K9) companions. Matthew Waterhouse as Adric, while it did take me a bit to get used to his performace, is especially great and much better than he was on TV.

But then, there's only one really good story in the series, Chase the Night. The fact that there's only 4 stories in general is also a bit of a disappointment. The stories all feel a bit muddled and hard to follow. It's not a bad series, but it's a shame given this is the last appearance of 4 on full-cast audio in the extended timeline.

The Fourth Doctor Adventures are over. Thank god.

The role of the Doctor really goes to Romana in this episode, doesn't it? Whilst the Doctor spends his time making sure the side characters survive the ordeal and rescues them, Romana is off confronting the Engineer, and I have no idea what Adric is doing. I think he was helping the Engineer - once again! After his spectacular role in Planet of Witches, it's a shame he's relegated to brute force again. This is standard territory for the Season 18 TARDIS team - unfortunately, standard territory isn't particularly interesting. It's a shame these guys didn't get to spend much time together. On TV, they only got three stories, but this season I was hoping they'd explore more of their relationship, but they spend most of the episodes split up, and there's so many fakeout deaths, especially of Adric and K-9. However, Lalla Ward did splendidly here and her final outing in the role makes me yearn for more. Even though I'm sad to see her go, I'm excited for what's coming next. But more on that in the next episode.

The idea of a planet-sized warship is fairly unoriginal (it reminded me of Starkiller base from Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and it heading towards another planet to kidnap the population gave off The Tenth Planet vibes. Despite this, the Engineer is a rather compelling villain. His calm and collected manner conflicts with his maniacal personality so well and it's rather uncomfortable to hear how Nicholas Woodeson plays him, which is perfect. His backstory was a little confusing at times, but his performance more than makes up for it. The part is really sold and he's just brilliant at the role. The horror of the dead being converted into robots is unique and the part of Jonas really helps to sell the illusion, especially with the reaction that his mother has - but more on her later.

The opening scenes on... I wanna say it's called Landis? Whatever planet Regis Tel is from, the soundscape of this rather primitive world helps sell the story immediately. It creates such a vivid picture and it's such a shame that it wasn't primarily set on this world, because the world-building could've been so excellent. The planet warship, however, is alright. I like the strange dynamics and the science of this world, following different physics and laws - once again, I love alien worlds being ALIEN. I thought it'd be very interesting if they went to the CVE the Engineer found (It's so clever that they found it by a comet disappearing, by the way, I really love that idea), leading into Warrior's Gate, but unfortunately they didn't happen and that whole adventure was rendered pointless.

The slavery angle was a bit boring, unfortunately. However, the performances of the side actors were so fantastic, and Anla Jessick is one of the best characters in the episode - at last, a character who isn't so stupid as to believe that her son is still in there, and spends the entire episode trying to appeal to him. It takes her two minutes to get over it and gets on with the job.

This is a stellar finale to the Fourth Doctor Adventures. There could've been more to keep the story engaging and epic, but it does the job. The actors are fantastic, the writing and dialogue is good, on the whole, enjoyable but not outstanding. This range is a mixed bag - when they try, they hit big, but a lot of the time it's subpar or even pure trash. It's a shame that Tom gets material like this, when his voice is just so perfect for audio. This season has been, mostly, phenomenal, and the range ends on a high. However, I wouldn't try and binge it all - firstly, it has taken me MONTHS, and secondly, there are only a select audios I'd strongly recommend. But it's quintessentially Fourth Doctor, and that's what Big Finish is all about.

Fourth Doctor Adventures: Series 9: The Quest for the Engineer

(4,K9 Mrk II, Romana II and Adric)

Pretty entertaining

7/10