Doctor Who: The Cradle of the Snake

With Janet Fielding, playing Tegan, now a Big Finish regular, it was inevitable that one of the first stories BF would do would feature the return of the Mara. Here, the Doctor travels into Manussa's past (relative to the TV story Snakedance) to try and find a way to remove the Mara's influence. Which naturally doesn't go as well as he'd hoped.

The story doesn't expand terribly much on Manussa, which gives the impression of having been pretty much the same as 21st century Earth at this point in its history. The large central cast does also tend to edge out some of the guest stars - one imagines that Safety Officer Yoanna would have had a bigger part in a story with a smaller TARDIS crew, for instance. And, of the guest stars, the tribal shaman is more annoying than anything else, the actor having chosen a rather stilted form of delivery (or had it thrust on him by the director - who knows?)

These flaws are, to my mind, offset by the quality characterisation of the main cast, whose varying personalities are a key part of the story. The Mara itself also does well, unhindered by a purple sock puppet and getting to spread its influence rather further than usual. As with the other two stories in this loose ‘trilogy' (and honestly, this is stand-alone), a lot of the joy comes from seeing the full cast back together again, and in how well that dynamic is written. But it probably helps if you already have some investment in, and knowledge of, the characters.