Audio CD review
Big Finish
Starring the voices of Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Leslie Ash, Christian Coulson
Release date Out now

The fifth Doctor and Nyssa are separated in Victorian London...

On the surface, this audio has a lot going for it, particularly as it introduces a new companion, whose background in the Victorian era will make him a good contrast to Nyssa. It experiments with the format, with the first episode far closer to a Radio 4 dramatisation of a Dickens novel than the usual Big Finish fare.

However, the temporal paradoxes at the heart of this story require some concentration, so it really doesn't help to be pulled out of the story regularly. The Haunting... has the most irritating incidental music ever composed for the show – a three note motif that is repeated ad nauseam. It also features an incredible error: a character jumps off a moving train. A second character is told by a third that she should jump off too – because the other person (who, remember, is now presumably some way back down the track) will catch her. To quote the tenth Doctor, "What? What?!"

When other Big Finish stories have crossed with TV plots, the audio company has had to change things. So why, in the month that The Poison Sky airs, do we get a tale about protecting a house from gas coming in? Peter Quentin

VERDICT: 5/10
Not the strongest addition to the range.