Another bizarre setup for a story that might only work because John Dorney wrote it. Though it does work very well. There's a lot of setup here for the final volume, and I'm very excited to see how it ends.

A+.

I'm always a fan of a format screw, especially if it's done well, and here? Here it's done fine.

Telling a story starting from the end and then working your way backwards is an interesting concept, and while at first it seemed to the story's detriment here, I ended up enjoying it by the end. There's a bit of weirdness with the pacing at the start as all of the heavy action of the story ends up happening right then, not giving you a chance to pause and let you understand what's going on and why, but then the puzzle pieces all slowly fit into place as you go along and get the necessary exposition.

It does however rob the cliffhanger of the emotional impact it might've otherwise had, getting it at the start of the story when you're already thrust into the middle of things it ends up feeling more confusing than anything.

The final scene we get though, with Eight and Robin, is a brilliant ending. We've seen Robin as a villian, we've heard him talk about his motivations, but it's this scene of him, much younger, first meeting Eight, that lets us understand where he's coming from better than anything else we've had.

Plus, it gives a nice 'three months ago' which'll definitely help with the Torchwood Timeline!

I also really like the double meaning that it gives 'Stranded' here. It started being a series about the TARDIS Team being stranded on earth, and now it's a series about what happens when The Doctor leaves 'stranding' the people he's left behind.