Doctor Who: Wicked Sisters

The time-travelling twins Abby and Zara were introduced in a Fifth Doctor audio back in 2009, and subsequently got their own spin-off audio series. While I enjoyed the grittier, more adult tone of that series, it doesn't seem to have done very well in terms of sales, and was soon scrapped. This release brings the sisters back to their roots to wrap up their storyline.

In point of fact, it's not necessary to have listened to any of the Graceless series to follow this, which makes only the vaguest of references to its events. On the other hand, it certainly helps to know who the sisters are, so the 2009 Fifth Doctor audios that introduced them are much more useful (although, apart from the first one, they're not really that strong compared with Graceless). If you have followed them all the way through, though, this is a good conclusion to their arc, and brings in many themes from their own series, albeit lacking in the “adult” edge that often characterised them.

Here, the Doctor teams up with Leela (apparently middle-aged by this point, despite what the cover shows) to try and stop the sisters from unwittingly damaging the space-time continuum. The story takes place over three episodes, each with a different setting, but it's very much a single story - perhaps too long to listen to in a single sitting, but not something you'd want to leave too much of a gap between, either. Sontarans are involved at one point, showing a clearer connection with the rest of the DW universe than Graceless typically did. These are serious Sontarans, if behaving in what initially appears a strange manner, and there are call-backs to the classic episode The Sontaran Experiment - which was very much not in the comical mode modern viewers may associate with Strax.

The other two stories feature a homage to Logan's Run and a finale that's more intimately tied to the sisters specifically. The way that these, and the Sontaran story, are tied together to make a whole is cleverly done and the result is a strong wrap-up for these characters, with some unexpected twists and at least one shocking moment. If you don't care about Abby and Zara you can probably skip this release - it doesn't tie into anything else - but if you've been following them, it's a good send-off.