Not terrible but pretty generic overall. Its strength lies in the characterisation of Ben and Polly, actually exploring them beyond their tv counterparts quite nicely. It’s a shame that the story itself is fairly generic, with dull villains and too many side characters to keep track of. The murder mystery is fun, but once it leads into the base under siege I found myself losing interest.

I wasn't huge on this one. The base under seige is pretty generic, and not all that memorable. Though, it does do a good job at giving Valerie some more development and insight, her story is probably the strongest aspect of this.

Didn’t love this one really. I will say that it captures the era well, with the Third Doctor, Liz and the UNIT characters well written, and adds something to their characters quite nicely. It’s just a shame the story around it is a bit of a bloated mess.

sadly the villains are dull, the aliens and the human villains, and the spy/political intrigue side of the plot is confusing and doesn’t really lead anywhere all that satisfying. There’s so many characters that sadly a lot don’t get much to do, and the finale of the book feels rushed after all the build up.

“They are monsters, they don’t deserve to live!”

Sadly, it’s possibly one of the worst, if not the worst of the Pertwee era. A story with some great ideas, and some really great direction and visuals but it’s just so boring and drab. Six repetitive episodes that don’t particularly say it do much, with rather boring characters other than the Marshall, who is a fun, albeit scenery chewing villain.

The visuals are decent however. Some great direction, and really great use of lighting, especially in the caves and some fun use of the space ship. The costumes for the mutants themselves is decent too, even if they feel underutilised overall.

It’s sadly just boring, far too long, with a lack of material to really manage to capture any level of intrigue over six episodes.

An enjoyably meta tale about stories and development of characters. It's unique and fun, but perhaps the pacing is a little off at times, veering from super quick and snappy to sudden stopping dead in its tracks. It still works pretty damn well though, with a compelling central character.

A really strong ending to the first set. A great concept, well explored, with great character moments, and villains that work so well, even on audio. This feels like a Moffat era episode dropped onto the boxset, perfectly fitting with Smith's Doctor. Just brilliant.

Another olid story, and probably better pacing than the first. I like Valerie a lot, a great companion, and the story here is fun, albeit a little predictable.

A pretty fun opening for Valerie and the 11th Doctor. A strong companion introduction and Dudman is great as 11. It's perhaps a little too quickly paced, not giving much room to breath, but still, the runtime flows past quickly.

"Come on universe, I thought we had a deal."

Fun enough little prologue as the 11th Doctor tracks Clara. Not listened to a Dudman version of this Doctor before but he does nail Smith pretty well. Cute and fun!

 “Lady luck will show you the way, win the game, or here you stay.” 

Rewatched this with the new animated reconstruction. The low rating is for the story overall, as I actually quite liked the animation style and how it fitted with the story.

Much like the previous story in this season, it’s got good ideas and concepts, but the overall execution and story is rather boring. The Toymaker is a brilliant idea for a character, and Michael Gough an excellent choice, but he’s not even in the story much. Him and Hartnell get a few moments, but it seems such a waste when the Doctor is off screen for so long.

We’re left with an awkward story with different segments and different games for the companions to play again different sets of characters. It’s really hit and miss, some of the side characters, like the clowns, are extremely irritating and while one or two of the games are entertaining, it’s mostly fairly repetitive and leaves you with a sense that it could have been more.

Not a favourite, it’s a shame as the ideas are all good.