Bloody Northern Line. I could have flown to Spain and back in the time it took me to get here.

The Zero Imperative is the first in the PROBE series and makes a major departure from BBV's previous works on The Stranger and The Airzone Solution by being a direct instalment into the Whoniverse rather than an almost canon work of the show. Written by Mark Gatiss, The Zero Imperative certainly has strength in its writing and its devoted performances of the cast.

Former UNIT luminary Liz Shaw and her assistant Louise Bayliss are investigating a series of bizarre murders, all committed near a soon-to-be-closed psychiatric hospital. When the hospital is unexpectedly reprieved by rich industrialist Peter Russell, events seem to move out of Liz's control. Are the incumbent director of the clinic, Doctor Dove and his predecessor, Doctor O'Kane, harbouring the killer? What is the centuries-old horror hidden in the grounds? And what exactly is the secret of room zero?

The Zero Imperative doesn't exactly get the series off to the best of starts but isn't at all bad. Mark Gatiss is positively stuffed with ideas but I think what let this film down, in the end, was the rather rushed nature of it, another 10 or so minutes would have allowed those ideas to fully flourish to the surface and make the ending have much more of dramatic weight. The direction isn't all that but Mark Ayres' musical score more than caries it through its weaker moments alongside the stellar performances from the cast of Who actors. Caroline John as a returning Liz Shaw is simply excellent and Sylvester McCoy really shines as the villainous Dr Dove with Mark Gatiss even getting a few decent moments to shine as Dr Bruffin, showcasing his proficiency for acting as well as writing. Jon Pertwee is just kind of here but is a warm and pleasant presence.

Overall, while not perfect, The Zero Imperative presents an intriguing study of psychology and philosophy with themes of abuse, the occult and even pure obsession.

This is a hospital Ms Shaw... not Scooby-Doo!

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed that, or, well, the second half at least. The first half of the film tends to drag a bit, and I feel it could probably have been better if they cut it down to 40 minutes and focused more on the more horror aspect of the second half rather than the 30/40 mins of setup.

When they do get to that god part though, it's really good! I knew the cast were going to be fun to watch, being mostly former doctors, but the cinematography was great, especially some of the lighting at the end.

An 8/10 film brought down by messy plotting, a first half that drags, and a bit of a tonal shift with in jokes for the audience in the first half being a bit jarring compared to the ending.

A nice introduction to this spin-off which, I'll admit, I knew nothing about. I'd heard about Liz having a wife somewhere ages ago but I didn't know anything stemmed from this! So, I loved the cast, they were really on fine form in this. I love Liz as a companion a lot so this is right up my street as Cheryl Cole would say. The last 10/15 minutes lost me a little I'll admit, but the plot itself was really quite good, mysterious and surprisingly very tonally dark compared to Doctor Who! The end intrigued me a lot, as I expected this series to be a monster of the week kind of situation, but it appears not to be. Excited to continue and learn more about this obscure corner of the Whoniverse.

I enjoyed this quite a lot! The plot felt tight and mostly made sense. The characters all seemed solid and the acting was strong (which is to be expected considering how strong the cast is). I also liked how the story is directed and shot, and the score was good (Mark Ayres made it so that's not suprising). I felt that bits of it were a little messy, with the timeline being a little inconsistent between scenes or characters moving between locations in seemingly no time at all (of course, this is not the case, but I don't feel the story communicated this very well). I also felt that some bits nearer the end started to make less sense and be a little confusing. Overall, this is an enjoyable watch!

I enjoyed this one quite a bit!

I wasn't sure what to expect going in, despite the mostly positive reviews, considering BBV's other output. I'd previously heard a decent bit about PROBE, mostly for either a) being the spinoff that gave Liz Shaw a wife or the more recent ones being absolutely dreadful.

I will admit the first of those definitely colored my enjoyment. I dont know I ship it, probably, what you you want from me. Definitely had me smiling at things I likely wouldn't have otherwise.

The audio and visuals were... not great, but that's about what I've come to expect from BBV.

The plot made sense for the most part! It fell apart a bit at the end, though.

And finally, the acting. It was very strong for a BBV film. It may come as no surprise to hear that the highlights of the entire film for me were the lovely Caroline John and Louise Jameson. Caroline John is wonderful as always and Louise Jameson is possibly my favorite actor in the whoniverse, nay, at all. I'm not sure I'm capable of disliking her performance.

Four stars! Dethroning Zygon as my favorite of the BBVs.