A super mindf**ky, machiavellian scheme from the fantastic 7 and Ace again. Tennant plays a genuinely vile villain here, and all the characters are fleshed out incredibly. Also, another fantastic Big Finish Pseudo-Historical!

Absolutely fantastic story, expanding the tardis team and offering another absolutely brilliant pseudo-historical to 5's repertoire. The Egyptian politics are interesting, the sci-fi additions are used really well, and we get the first instance of Big Finish having a doctor-lite episode with Part 2. While I understand the complaints with Five and Peri "weakening the sacrafice of Caves of Androzani", I think we'd be depriving ourselves of an incredible dynamic without the two together - and the sacrafice becomes reframed within the friendship they now have, while still being appreciated through the lens of TV canon.

All that is to say - this is a must listen.

A perfectly fine story, that ultimately suffers from basically just being an adaptation of Doctor Who and the Silurians. That said, everything with Charles Darwin and Evelynn is great, and Sixie is as good as ever.

Really great episode - can take a while to get going, and the level of action is perhaps overly ambitious, but the fantastic soundtrack, constantly developing intrigue and general vibe of the episode gives it this sort of mature subterfuge vibe that you don't really see elsewhere in the show. Pertwee's Doctor is commonly compared to James Bond - and nowhere is that more evident than in this episode. Genuinely a great time, all things considered - though I do wish Liz got more to do.

Godspeed, D84 my beloved. Genuinely fantastic episode - brilliant set design and costuming, pretty good pacing, great characterisation of Leela and a thoroughly enjoyable plot, too. Little aspects like the sandstorm mining, mentions of previous expeditions, the Robophobia and the general extensiveness of the set really make it feel like a lived in world. Possibly my only complaint is that some of the crew die off before we can know much about them, and the episode ends rather incredibly abruptly - like they knew they were running out of air time. Still, incredible episode!

The Stones of Venice has a somewhat meandering plot with a frankly obvious plot twist - and yet I couldn't help but love it. It's deeply theatrical, dripping in atmosphere and worldbuilding, playing out almost like a historical despite its future setting and sprinkling of sci-fi elements. There's an air of gothic fairy tale about the whole adventure, and Charley really gets a chance to come into her own as a character worthy of being a protagonist. Good stuff!

I really wanted to like this, but honestly, it's a bit of a snoozefest. It spends way too much time doing absolutely nothing, with lackluster worldbuilding, lackluster characters and setup for negative payoff.