Doctor Who: The First Doctor Adventures, Volume 2

The second in the series of recast stories featuring the show's original line-up of characters consists, once again, of unconnected two 2-hour stories. As before, one of these is science fictional in nature and the other is a straight historical, mirroring the roughly 50/50 split of these kinds of story in the show's first season.

• The Invention of Death – Many of the SF stories of the First Doctor's run were, or were at least trying to be, relatively high-concept SF for the day. There's also a tendency for them to be set on entirely alien worlds, rather than future Earth or colony worlds. The most extreme example of that is surely season 2's The Web Planet, but all three of the first-season SF stories also fit the description. This is very much in that mould, although it obviously benefits from having no budgetary restrictions on the visuals.

The travellers land on an alien planet inhabited by immortal and unchanging beings that are very different from humans both biologically and culturally. The first half of the story is particularly sedate, exploring the setting and explaining how the aliens live and think. It's something that you'd never do in the modern show, or honestly, for much of the classic run, but it's a good piece of conceptual SF that's reminiscent of some parts of, say, The Sensorites. In the second half, though, a threat does rear its head and the story changes pace as it escalates and the Doctor turns to science for the solution. Accompanied by reflection on the nature of mortality and what it means to lack it, as well as the unspoken love between Ian and Barbara, this is unusually cerebral for Doctor Who which, depending on your tastes, may be a good or a bad thing. But I liked it. 5 stars.

• The Barbarians and the Samurai – It's hard not to think of this as simply ‘The Samurai', since that's clearly what we'd be calling it were it actually a Hartnell TV story... but for some reason they went with a longer title. But I digress.

The TARDIS lands in 1820s Japan, which is a bit of a problem, because it's during the “Sakoku” period of isolation when foreigners (at least outside of Nagasaki) were put to death on sight. The first part of the story focuses on that threat, but soon the travellers are involved with the schemes of the local daimyo as they struggle to return to the TARDIS. It's an action story, for the most part, with peril, sword fights and daring escapes, but it also explores the cultural gulf between 20th century Europe and 19th century Japan. Along the way there are disgraced ronin, a tea ceremony, and much talk of bushido.

In many ways, it does feel like the stories it is emulating - The Aztecs and Marco Polo both spring to mind, although those also involve an extended stay in the past, where this only occupies about three days. The Doctor and Ian are more the focus than Barbara and Susan, who fall more into the role they often had on TV of being held captive - although Barbara does get a few good scenes and at least gets to deliver some of the exposition of the relevant history. 4 stars.