The Story itself is not too much to write about I must admit, like there are some good solid Ideas here (especially around the End), but frankly it’s nothing that sticks too much out in my Mind. And this may sound negative, but I actually think It’s for the Story’s Benefit, then while it doesn’t strike me with a freshly new Story, it strikes me with great Character Chemistry, Character Moment and brilliant Dialogues.
Cornell shows off how well he knows his Tardis Trio of Benny, 7 and Ace here, all of them have such an electric Chemistry with each other and just feel rightly characterized. The Dialogue as well sticks out so well here, you get plenty of witty lines here!

That transformation Scene is such a good Cliffhanger and the whole transforming Idea is used rather well, I find. And I especially adore the longer Aftermath we have after our main Plot ends, it just puts the Story in a nicely tightly Place, which I like!

This was a great first outing for this team on audio. I really liked how they didn't give a ton of exposition for Benny as it would've been a bit clunky perhaps. Seven had some great moments in this, one of the rare occasions where his plotting and scheming doesn't work and he has to think on the spot which I really liked. There was some great conflict between the Doctor and Benny, which reminded me of a lot of conversations he's had with Ace on TV! The villains were great, and this story felt really epic in scale from start to finish.

Early BF tends to be clunky and this is no exception. While this might work well in a book and possibly even on TV or film, in an audio story, it's not very effective. I do applaud it for bringing Bernice Summerfield into the Big Finish world but that's pretty much it. McCoy himself is actually absent or takes a back seat for considerable spells of the story but when he is there he's only passable. Everyone else talks and acts like fictional characters from the 90s and not like real people. The Scourge are a typical villain of the week that's hyped up as extremely powerful but in the end up being toothless because of plot armor.

High-concept story, lending well into the creepy, unnerving horror is always up my street and this did not disappoint. This throughout was a wonderful concept, executed well, with fantastic performance. The Big Finish debut of Bernice Summerfield was great, and she already cements herself as a good part of the Doctor Who lore well from just this for me - I'm excited to hear more, and read some of her VNAs. The Seventh Doctor in his scheming, and more manipulative demeanour also is good for me - I think these additional layers are always fascinating too.

paul cornell doing what he does best: using common scifi tropes to explore some really important things