Doctor Who: The Mind Runners

This is the first half of a two-part story. I am reviewing both parts here.

The Doctor and Leela arrive on a planet undergoing an energy crisis that will soon render it uninhabitable... and, while that's relevant to the plot, it isn't even really the focus of what's going on here. In fact, while we're told about it, we don't see much direct evidence of it impacting anyone's day-to-day life (i.e. there's no power cuts or food shortages, or whatever). Instead, we get... well, quite a lot of different science fiction elements.

There's the titular mind-runners, using advanced tech to surf the experiences of other people. There's the Digitals, using similar technology to do something quite different. And there's the seemingly unstoppable villain who appears in the pre-theme music teaser. And even that's not all of it. Granted, it's not hard science fiction - there are quite a few holes in it if you really want to poke - but there's plenty of themes here and more disparate and interesting ideas than we'd normally get in a single Doctor Who story.

This makes good use of the 2-hour length to not only bring in those ideas but to have the story travel in directions that I didn't initially expect. Both Baker and Jameson are on top form, and Leela proves as useful as ever even in a vaguely cyberpunk urban setting. K9 is in this one as well, despite usually sitting out the 4th Doctor adventures, adding to the era's feel. A well-crafted story, even if some of the background isn't as wholly plausible as it might be.