Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Frazer Hines, Michael Cochrane, Veronica Roberts, Bernard Holley, Nicholas Briggs.

The name Telos is enough to have long term fans of Doctor Who reaching for the nearest bottle of glee and asking their friends and neighbours to pour it all over them without hesitation or complaint. Telos, the stuff of legends, it’s up there with Mondas and St. Paul’s Cathedral in terms of iconic homes for the Cybermen.

Revisiting Telos though is problematic for The Doctor, for a start getting in the way of a previous incarnation is always going to stir up agitation.

In both The Fate of Krelos and Return To Telos, time in all its forms becomes a slave to actions all ready undertaken and the thought of advanced mechanics, of a species so well developed that they are integrated into each other as well as their homes and appliances, is one that starts to rise the heckles and the small hairs on the back of the hands to rise and become startled; for nothing can ever come good when man is dependent on machines for everything.

This natural two-part couple of episodes is perhaps arguably one of the most inventive to include the Fourth Doctor and the noble savage on the Big Finish range. The set up is clear, beautifully written and the boldness to carry on the action through to the series finale as though it was all bound together in one C.D. case is to be congratulated by the Big Finish team and by the writer Nicholas Briggs, who has undoubtedly delivered one of his finest pieces for the franchise across the board.

Using the huge thrilling aspects of a near two Doctor story, Frazer Hines reprising his much coveted role as one of the Doctor’s most faithful companions Jamie McCrimmon and the original Cybermen stalk the Doctor’s life once more, it’s no surprise that The Fate of Krelos and Return To Telos are such an enjoyable feast, a simmering cornucopia of time inclined presents that even John Leeson as the voice of K-9 gets easily so much air time that it makes up in a way for the lack of presence he has had during these new Fourth Doctor stories.

This double header is by far one of the best stories involving Tom Baker, the devouring of a Time held story involving the second Doctor Patrick Troughton and giving it an off-beat soul, an invasion of personal space and the merging of time lines is only to be applauded with high regard. A story that builds up in pace perfectly because it has the time to breathe and explain the more delicate parts of Time and one that has the cast performing with great fervour, time finally has given a wink and a nod to the Fourth Doctor again.

Doctor Who: The Fate of Krelos and Return To Telos are both available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.

Ian D. Hall