Audio CD review
Starring the voices of Deborah Watling, Helen Goldwyn
Big Finish
Release date Out now

The second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria investigate problems on an elevator that links land and sky...

Narrated by Deborah Watling in character as an older Victoria, this feels more like a pastiche of the second Doctor's tales, rather than a new contribution to the mythos.

Elements are taken from throughout the Doctor's era, many of them unfortunately from Victoria's own stories, leading to a general feel of "been here, done that" during the adventure. Here There Be Monsters showed how to evoke an era without actually repeating too many of its clichés, and it's a shame that the normally dependable Jonathan Morris falls prey to writing a generic story.

Anyone reading a second Doctor story is going to be compared with Frazer Hines' impeccable rendition of Troughton in last year's Helicon Prime, and Watling sensibly doesn't try to do an impression. Instead she gets a lot of her Doctor's inflections and general demeanour, with the odd Scottish burr added to indicate Jamie.

Helen Goldwyn doesn't get that much to do as the guest voice, and it's actually one of the first of these tales that could quite easily have coped without a guest star. Peter Quentin

VERDICT: 6/10
The odd bright moment, but otherwise average.