Doctor Who: Classic Doctors, New Monsters Volume 2

Another collection of four hour-long stories in which classic era Doctors face off against monsters from the modern series. This time around, all of the monsters are from the Tenth Doctor's run, which is quite a while ago itself by now, especially since none of them have so far made a repeat appearance since their first one.

• Night of the Vashta Nerada - We begin with the Fourth Doctor encountering one of the more memorable Tenth Doctor monsters for the first time. The story concerns a group of hunters/pest exterminators trying to find out what has been threatening an off-world amusement park – and kill it. It effectively contrasts the Doctor's attitude to those of the hunters and their employer as well as providing a tense story as the (initially) mysterious foe starts to stalk them. It's a bit like Aliens, only with a less tangible opponent and more one-liners (mostly from the Doctor), and it builds up a great atmosphere as well as fleshing out the personalities of the team. 5 stars.

• Empire of the Racnoss – The Fifth Doctor travels back billions of years to a time when the then-nascent Time Lord civilisation was fighting against the Racnoss (who he had believed were destroyed when he encountered them later in The Runaway Bride). On the face of it, the Racnoss are just rather nasty-looking aliens with a propensity for bloodlust, but the story manages to make more of them than this. It shows further elements of their culture as well as depicting them as more complex beings than we see on screen, although still staying true to the televised version. Despite the lack of companions, it also manages to convey some of the themes of Five's television era, with the most peaceable of Doctors caught up in another bloody war. 4 stars.

• The Carrionite Curse - I can't say that I find the Carrionites particularly interesting in their own right, but I'd have to admit that this story does have a number of things going for it. Not least among these is that it's a sequel to The Shakespeare Code rather than a prequel - at least from the perspective of the witches. Links to that earlier story abound, including cheeky references to Harry Potter, and there are connections to other aspects of DW lore as well. It's let down slightly by the Carrionites' weakness to words making some of the scenes come across as too reminiscent of The Knights Who Say Ni, but the supporting cast are great (I love the idea of the Goth girl in the surrogate companion role) and there are some nice touches in the story. 4 stars.

• Day of the Vashta Nerada - We come full circle for the final story in the collection, although the links to the first one are largely incidental. Here we see the Eighth Doctor crossing swords with Cardinal Ollistra (from the War Doctor audios) on a space station where the Time Lords are sponsoring genetic manipulation of the titular monster in order to use them as a weapon in the Time War. Like the first story, it is a base-under-siege, although arguably more typical in its format and with it being harder to feel sympathy for most of the supporting characters. It doesn't break much new ground, modified monsters aside, but at least the Time War provides obvious connections with the new series. 4 stars.