Doctor Who: The Crooked Man

The Doctor and Leela visit an English town in the modern day, to try to solve a series of mysterious killings. At the heart of it all are a young couple who have just inherited a house where something strange is going on in the library.

The first half of the story unfolds rather like a procedural, as the Doctor talks to the police and possible witnesses about the murderous goings on. This attracts the attention of the killer, and both the action and the strangeness of the setting ramp up in the second half. What initially appears to be a standalone story does turn out to have links to a certain televised story, and I confess I didn't see that coming until the big reveal.

However, that's not really the big twist, and the one that is is so well telegraphed, it's hard to imagine that many listeners won't have figured it out long before the Doctor explains all in the closing segment. In fairness, it makes perfect sense, and does give a sound justification for a plot motif that was used less convincingly a few times during the Moffat era on TV.

Leela is perhaps used less well here than in some of the earlier stories in the era; she does get to reflect on her father's death at one point, but there's nothing particularly new or insightful in it. There's some decent banter, too, although it doesn't really sparkle. None of this is a fatal weakness, however, and some of the more surreal elements of the story do raise it above the merely average. But only to 3.5 stars, which I'm going to round down.