Doctor Who: The Sword of the Chevalier

The second of this trilogy of 10th Doctor stories is the historical setting of the bunch, with the TARDIS landing in 18th century Slough. Here he encounters the duellist and former French spy the Chevalier d'Eon - a real historical figure who spent some of their life as a man, and some as a woman. Beyond the Doctor getting to deliver a speech about gender not being important that fact is really just background detail and their fencing skills are far more important to the story (which I'd argue is as it should be).

Of course, this being in the style of the modern TV series, we don't get a straight historical, and alien slavers soon turn up to menace Georgian high society. The use of the audio format is a little mixed; at times it's hard to follow what's going on when, for example, there are rapid scene changes, but, on the other hand, it does enable Adams to keep the connection between the two slavers secret for longer than would be possible on TV.

In many respects, it's an average DW story, but there are just enough elements of humour and witty dialogue to raise it to, well, let's say 3.5 stars. (Plus a couple of dropped references to stories from the 3rd and 5th Doctor's eras). The Chevalier, in particular, is a fun character, beautifully acted and working well alongside the two leads. On the downside, the resolution feels too easy, and is arguably a bit deus ex machina (I don't recall it being mentioned before it suddenly became relevant, but perhaps I missed it).