Doctor Who: Doom Coalition 1

The beginning of a new arc of 8th Doctor stories, this continues with the companion from the previous arc, but otherwise kicks off the story from scratch – although it does make a number of indirect references to earlier stories from across the range.

• The Eleven – The first episode introduces us to the Big Bad for the new ‘season', the titular Eleven. The villain himself is an interesting one, a Time Lord suffering from a sort of multiple personality disorder in which the personae of his previous incarnations keep re-surfacing and conflicting with one another. At this early stage, only about four or five of them are readily identifiable (at least to me), but there's only so much one can do in a single hour-long story, and there's plenty of time to flesh out the others in the episodes to follow. On the other hand, the story itself isn't particularly remarkable, being set entirely on Gallifrey and not anything very interesting with the setting. Much is made of what the Eleven might be trying to achieve, but it turns out to be pretty much what you'll have expected all along. 4.5 stars.

• The Red Lady – This is effectively a standalone story, which doesn't really need to belong to the larger arc at all, beyond the fact that it introduces new companion Helen Sinclair. It's also set (again) in 1963, which feels redundant by this point. It is, however, a very good story, a horror piece about something deadly in an archaeological collection. Helen immediately seems to have potential as a companion, with her Earthly background perhaps making her easier to identify with than existing companion Liv. The story has a strong build-up, with the entity remaining mysterious throughout, even as the Doctor and Liv try to piece together its background. It may have nothing much to do with anything else, but it's the strongest story in the collection. 5 stars.

• The Galileo Trap – The Doctor visits Galileo towards the end of his life, while he was under house arrest near Florence. Both of the companions are used well here, contrasting Liv's experience at time travel with its novelty for Helen, as well as emphasising Liv's medical background. The historical parts of the story are well written, creating a nice atmosphere, and at least some insight into Galileo as a character. The focus, however, is more on the alien interlopers, who have some nice touches but are mainly just a generic threat. 4 stars.

• The Satanic Mill – The climax is, unfortunately, not as strong as the stories that precede it. The idea of the setting – a space station built like a Victorian workhouse – is nice enough, but it's often not terribly clear what's going on. It's clear enough what the villain is trying to do, but less so why he thinks this is a particularly good way of going about it, and at times it's also hard to follow the action. The Eleven is back again, of course, but while his motives are clearer, there's little further development of his character(s), which is a bit of a pity, given his potential. Since there are three further releases in the series, the ending is obviously left open, but it's not a clear-cut cliffhanger. 3.5 stars.