Doctor Who: The Ghosts of Gralstead & The Devil's Armada

It's hard to imagine that anyone buying a release with this title won't already know the background, but just in case: Philip Hinchcliffe was the producer/showrunner for Doctor Who at the beginning of the Fourth Doctor's run, one of the most highly acclaimed periods in the classic show's history. Under pressure from moral campaigners who felt he was making the show too scary for its intended audience, however, the BBC suddenly removed him at the end of his third season.

The two stories in this box set both derive from plans that he had for his fourth season, had it ever happened. They never got as far as a formal outline, let alone a script, so we can't really say that this is what we would have got had Hinchcliffe remained in charge for another year - even allowing for the difference in format. But here, with the assistance of a modern writer more used to working with audio, he gives a good stab at revisiting the style of the era that he shaped together with then script editor Robert Holmes.

The Ghosts of Gralstead - We're certainly in full gothic mode with the first offering, which runs to an unusually long three hours. The Doctor and Leela arrive in 1860s London, and become involved with a tale involving body-snatchers, freak shows, and a family curse, among other things. It is, of course, immediately reminiscent of The Talons of Weng-Chiang, although it's set thirty years earlier (the Doctor says ‘forty' in the script, but he seems to have mis-calculated). Indeed, while the plot is quite different, there are more similarities than merely the setting, with the thematic links including some Robert Holmes-like commentaries on social division.

The longer running time allows a larger cast than usual, with quite a number of guest actors. The first two hours are rich with setting and characterisation, and don't at all seem to drag. It is, however, a little weaker in the final third, with one 30-minute segment being devoted to what feels like something a of a side-quest to bulk out the length – it is directly relevant to the plot, but, for example, uses a different villain to the main story. This is followed by an ending that is, arguably, a little overdone, moving away from some of the more character-based story we have had up to this point.

Leela gets to do a lot in this story, showing many of her skills, not just those involving combat, and is treated respectfully by the authors. It's interesting to note that she's given a love interest here who actually makes sense (obviously, it can't go anywhere, but at least you can believe it, which is more than can be said for Andred in the TV series).

Despite this, it undeniably has the feel of a Hinchcliffe-era story and has plenty of the dark, gothic elements, it was noted for – but perhaps with more gore than they would have got away with at the time.

The Devil's Armada - The Doctor and Leela arrive in Elizabethan England at around the same time as the Spanish Armada, and become involved not only with the abortive invasion attempt, but also the anti-Papist hysteria surrounding it. It's worth noting that co-author Platt wrote Flames of Cadiz, involving the Armada from the Spanish perspective, only a year or two earlier than this, and, indeed, that story is referenced again here. But that was a straight historical, which, given the conceit that this is a season 15 story “that might have been” won't work here, so, instead there's aliens involved.

In fact, while the tone has some of the darkness of Hinchcliffe's era, it's also reminiscent of The Daemons, and even, perhaps, of The Massacre. It's at its best dealing with the human side of the story, with the monster just egging things on from the background, and falls a little flatter once the creature actually has to move into the foreground. Leela is also slightly less effective here than in the first story, too often held back and out of her depth, but at least she gets into a rapier fight.

Even so, it's a good story, with a decent resolution at the end, a decent secondary villain, and a foreboding atmosphere.