Excelis Rising

Long after his first visit to Arteris, the Doctor returns. The TARDIS delivers him to a museum in the city at the foot of Mount Excelis just as someone attempts to steal a religious artefact known as "the Relic". Knowing that this can only mean trouble, the Doctor becomes involved in the investigation, but finds a familiar face on the scene - one he thought died during his last visit. Greyvorn, now wearing the guise of Maupassant, is very much alive, and still schemes to get his hands on the Relic for his own purposes.

So here we are again on Arteris, without Iris along for the ride this time. This is Big Finish's first attempt at their own multi-Doctor umbrella theme, aside from the loosely-bound Dalek Empire adventures that encompass all Doctors from the fifth to the eighth.

Does the Excelis experiment stand up? It certainly does. Anthony Stewart Head delivers a very calm performance as Maupassant with hints of Greyvorn seething under the surface, but with the personality of the Mother Superior bound to him as a result of his first encounter with the Relic, he wants to be free. She herself does not emerge with the same prominence as before.

Again, the sixth Doctor on his own, and it's all good. You can feel how comfortable Colin Baker is with this role, able to play off anyone he is paired with. As more of these solo trips pile up it's easy to question the need for a companion with this Doctor; he's far more independent, not as lonley as others, quite content to do what needs to be done and get out at the end. Sure he got along with Peri, as he will with future companions, but the sixth Doctor could go either way.

No sooner have I said this, though, than we will join the Doctor with a new companion; perhaps the most unusual one to date...

NEXT EPISODE : THE MALTESE PENGUIN