Doctor Who: Red Planets

The Doctor drops Ace off in 1961 before heading off with Mel to 2017, where he arrives shortly before the USSR makes the first manned landing on Mars. Which is disturbing for a number of reasons...

The result is a story that's about time travel itself, although not in the timey-wimey sense where events occur out of order. Which, at least to my mind, means that isn't so hard to follow as some more heavily paradox based stories can be. Rather, something has changed in European history and it's focussed in some way on Ace. The story alternates between the communist-run dystopia of present-day London and Ace's attempts to save a British agent trapped behind the newly erected Berlin Wall. East Berlin was not the cheeriest place in 1961 anyway, but here something strange is happening as the new version of history begins to assert itself.

For much of the story, we're completely in the dark about what's going on, and how events in East Berlin can possibly be linked to whatever it is that's happening on Mars. Indeed, it's never fully explained at all - although the cliffhanger ending may indicate that we'll get the answer in an upcoming episode. But the story is tense, and often grim, despite the absence of a regular ‘monster'. Mel has the main companion role here, and while she is on her own for some of the story, she doesn't achieve much. On the other hand, Ace has a far more significant role, trying to win the trust of the wounded agent as she fights alone against the changing reality around her.

McCormack is better-known for writing Star Trek stories but here she's doing a good job with the theme of time travel and does better at characterising the older Ace of the audios than some other writers have recently in this series.