Doctor Who: Signs and Wonders

The final part of the “Hector Schofield” trilogy is by far the strongest of the three, and also brings to an end what could be regarded as an even longer story arc that started way back in 2004 with The Harvest. And, arguably, another, more intermittent, one that dates all the way back to the TV series.

Here, the TARDIS crew travel back to the Liverpool of the near future, as Hector, unable to remember his previous bonding experiences with the Doctor and Ace, asks to be taken back home to try and lead a normal life. Instead, of course, the TARDIS arrives just as an apocalyptic prophet claims - seemingly with good evidence - that the world is going to end.

The story makes good use of the Liverpool setting, with plenty of references to local landmarks, as well as a few digs into aliens always seeming to invade southern England, rather than the north. It's real strength, however, is two-fold. Firstly, there's a decent plot, with a number of twists and turns that change the listener's perception as to what the real threat is, as consecutive layers of the onion are peeled back. While there's a fairly dull military officer involved at one point, the rest of the guest cast do a great job with some well-realised characters.

And then, secondly, we have the resolution to the trilogy's arc, with Ace desperate to recover Hex's memories, and the latter less sure that he even wants them. The characterisation is particularly strong here, with Fitton following up on his earlier Afterlife with a story that further explores the relationship between the main characters, and how far they are willing to go for one another.

Which naturally brings us to the fact that (and BF didn't keep this as a secret at the time), after ten years with the audio plays, this is the last story to feature Hex. This is doubly tricky, since he was seemingly written out once before, so that a clearer sense of finality was needed this time around. But it's this section that edges the story into five-star territory for me, with a wonderfully fitting - and, yes, very final - send off for the long-running character.