Doctor Who: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster

One of the better recurring guest characters from Big Finish's line-up (DI Menzies) meets one of the less successful ones (Thomas Brewster) in this tale of robot mosquitoes, alien jungles, and London criminals. In fairness, Brewster here is a lot better than in most of his other appearances, and it's probably relevant that the only previous two instances that worked were the ones written by Morris. Indeed, there's a clear link with the character's debut in The Haunting of Thomas Brewster, giving him a sense of background, rather than merely being annoying.

There are also some really great scenes in here, from the action set piece on the Thames to the transportation of a tube train to the afore-mentioned alien world (one should note, though, that this was likely written after the broadcast of the TV episode Planet of the Dead, which does something similar with a bus - although Morris may, of course, have come up with the idea independently at an earlier date). The plot is also a good one, with quite a few strands going on, and making full use of the 2-hour running time.

There's some humour to be had, with various people trying to impersonate the Doctor, and some digs at his usual choice of attire. David Troughton does a great job as a gangland boss, and even the minor characters of Flip and Jared come across well. Overall, it's perhaps not a quite a classic, but it's certainly very good, and I might have rated it higher, had it not been for what I listened to immediately afterwards...

But, as it is, 4.5 rounded down to 4.