Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Colin Baker, Alex MacQueen, Neil Edmond, Kate Kennedy, Catriona Knox, Elliot Levey, John Standing.

That moment when an old adversary is in town and you don’t know whether to avoid them like the plague, or greet them on their patch with a knowing smile in which you are the one carrying the means of their destruction, the choice is flattering, the decision is absolute, and it is one that we rarely get to follow through upon because of propriety, because we are human.

For The Doctor, coming face to face with an old enemy, with the oldest adversary and once friend, is fraught with the inevitable mistake, for such is the nature of the laws governing the Timelord’s ability to regenerate that meeting someone out of synch is almost inevitable, and failing to recognise them the first time is certainly, and can become, a nightmare.

It is Justin Richards’ enormous literary wealth that the Colin Baker’s incarnation of the Doctor is introduced to the evil and danger that lurks on a once familiar island, an island that houses a very particular being that can bring humanity to its knees if it so desires, all in the name of the power it holds, and the company it keeps.

Doctor Who: Vampire Of The Mind is one of those great examples of how the personality of the sixth incarnation of the Time traveller could divide the fandom, especially in its early, tentative stages, one of pomposity, and one of absolute courage, and as the listener is taken aback by the sometimes brusqueness of his words with the companion of the episode, Heather Threadstone, it is to the joy of  the fan that such dialogue is once more administered into the conversation.

The story also marks the encounter of Colin Baker’s Doctor with that of Alex MacQueen’s Master, and it is one of sheer depth, a meeting of minds that perhaps in the Big Finish world can be matched by Paul McGann.

With the excellent Kate Kennedy providing the voice of Heather and Elliot Levey giving a terrific performance as Sir Andrew Gobernar, Vampire Of The Mind is a trip, a mindful one to the canon, but also one of exuberance and empathy, a monster to defeat, a creature to acknowledge, and one that shows off Colin Baker with generous affection.

Ian D. Hall