Doctor Who: The Boy That Time Forgot

Yes, this is the infamous one in which Adric turns out not to be dead! What you think of it, is I suspect, likely to be heavily influenced by just what you think of that particular twist. Certainly, one can't help but imagine that it would put a lot of people off, but let's try and put it to one side for the moment.

The story follows on directly from The Haunting of Thomas Brewster, and both the beginning and the end are likely to be rather confusing if you haven't listened to that. The bulk of the story, however, is nothing to do with it, and would have worked perfectly well on its own. (Presumably, it was originally written as a stand-alone).

The intended flavour of the story is that of Victorian derring-do in a lost jungle city, in the style of, say, H. Rider Haggard. To be honest, that doesn't quite work, largely because of the repercussions of the main twist, which necessarily take centre-stage after the 30-minute mark where it occurs.

For my money, those repercussions are handled quite well, and Andrew Sachs is also very good as the title character, slowly regaining what passes for his humanity as the story progresses. The story doesn't quite win a star for excellence, but I found it rather more fun, and more sympathetic, than its reputation might suggest.