Missy: Series 2

Four more stories featuring Missy, often as an anti-hero, although in one case as a more direct antagonist. The stories are set sequentially, but they're largely independent of one another, although a couple are sequels to stories in the first volume.

The Lumiat – The first story provides a clever idea in the particular form of Missy's antagonist. Unfortunately, there's not a lot to recommend it beyond this because the character in question turns out to be rather dull and doesn't really do much once she stops stepping in to foil Missy's plans. What we get is a sequence of hops through time and space and one-sided bickering without too much really going on. On the plus side, if you're interested in that sort of thing, it plugs a gap in the Master's history between two Doctor Who TV episodes... although one of them (Spyfall) hadn't actually aired at the time and would have been outside the terms of their licence if it had, leaving the listener to fill in the blanks. And the concept itself is very good, giving the opportunity to explore the Master's motivations and personality. But the story just didn't quite work for me. 3 stars.

Brimstone and Terror – The second story loosely follows on from the first one but, more importantly, acts as a sequel to one of the stories in the first volume. Written by the same writer (Roy Gill) this sees one of the children that she oversaw as governess now a couple of years older and at a boarding school that she just happens to have taken over. There are other similar themes and direct callbacks to that story so that you can't just leap in here, but it's also enlivened by the appearance of Strax. He's slightly more serious here than he often is in the Paternoster Gang audios but still provides some levity in a story that (unlike the previous one) is not primarily told from Missy's point of view. This makes for an entertaining story that suits both characters, providing a sense of interconnectedness that doesn't feel simply tacked on for the sake of it. 4 stars.

Treason and Plot – There's a general rule in these four-part collections that at least one story has to be set in Earth's past, and here it's the turn of 1605 and the Gunpowder Plot. It's a fun caper with Missy trying to change the events around the Plot (although quite how she expects the second part of her plan to work is less clear) and a rookie Time Agent trying to stop her. There's quite a bit of humour at the expense of Fawkes and Catesby, with this story leaning more heavily towards the comedic side than the previous two. The real strength is the force of Missy's personality and the fantastic way Gomez performs it, full of sarcasm and switching accents, often in mockery of those around her. Despite the madness, it's also quite historical and there's a twist in the tail that leads into the final story. 5 stars.

Too Many Masters – The final story is even more clearly a comedy as Missy and the Monk become prisoners of the Ogrons (both, of course, promised on the cover). This is a sequel to the story featuring the same two Time Lords in the first volume, although it's slightly dented here by them being apart for much of it. Even so, there is room for plenty of banter as well as jokes about the general stupidity of Ogrons. This does require the Ogrons to be more talkative than they usually are, which ends up a bit laborious because of their slow dim-witted speech but the two leads help to make up for it, with some help from fourth-wall breaking and trolling of those fans who object to a female Master. The mild cliffhanger ending is clearly setting things up for the third volume, which looks as if it may have a more connected plotline. 4.5 stars.