Doctor Who: Smoke and Mirrors

The fifth story in the series is read by Janet Fielding, who played long-serving companion Tegan Jovanka on the TV series.

The Doctor arrives in 1920s America to help old friend Harry Houdini investigate a fraudulent medium who may be using alien technology. We're into the plot arc segment of the story quite quickly, which is probably a good thing, as its becoming formulaic by this point (assuming you're listening to the episodes in order, which technically you don't have to) and, this way, you don't find yourself sitting around waiting for it to show up.

From there, though, the story is a basic revenge plot against the Doctor, rather than any broader threat to the Earth, or whatever. Fortunately, it's quite well done, with what I found to be an air of genuine menace at points - there's no logical reason why a tiger should be more threatening than, say, a myrka, but the reality of it means that it is. On the other hand, while it's perhaps not essential to the plot, I didn't find it clear how the villain was there in the first place.

But the characters are well written, with Adric less irritating than he typically was on screen. Fielding does a particularly good job with Nyssa's voice, and it's also notable that, even using the larger cast of the era, everyone gets at least one chance to shine. It may, however, be worth noting that those not familiar with the TV stories may be a little lost, since a lot does rely on some of them. 3.5 stars, rounded up.