Doctor Who: Infamy of the Zaross

For the second collection of Tenth Doctor Adventures, we're back to the pairing of Ten and Rose, with Billie Piper making her Big Finish debut. Rose is perhaps not as distinctive a companion as Donna in the previous set of 10DAs, but her appearance provides a feeling of nostalgia nonetheless, and, at least in this release, it's enlivened by the re-appearance of Jackie Tyler as well.

This a light and fun story, not quite a full-on comedy, but with a number of elements that move it in that direction. A race of pig-like aliens start their invasion of Earth by landing in Norwich... and that's just the first of a number of hints that something isn't quite right about this particular alien attack. The result is rather meta, a spoof of Doctor Who itself, but also offering a more serious commentary on the nature of fame.

As usual, Camile Coduri comes out rather well here and is given almost as much to do as the Doctor and Rose, her faith in the latter serving as a counterpoint to the attitude of another character towards her own teenage daughter. Rose is slightly overshadowed as a result, but has plenty of agency and plays a key role in the resolution. Split between three viewpoints - the characters are separated for much of the story - things fit perfectly into the one-hour run-time enhancing the resemblance to the modern series. It also clearly fits into its ostensible placing in series 2, with a throwaway Torchwood reference and a quirky tone that's reminiscent of, say, The Christmas Invasion or Love and Monsters.