Concluding the 8^th Doctor’s latest boxset linked by themes of abandoned spacecraft and distress signals, the final story in the series is a two-part serial that aims to introduce Liv and Helen to one of The Doctor’s more slippery foes, the Zygons.

A distress call draws the Doctor, Liv and Helen to a remote world and a crashed ship, where Captain Elhan is searching for her lost sibling…

As the storms close in, the two crews must investigate the wreck together. In the darkness, the Zygons are waiting…

Big Finish Synopsis

Having made numerous appearances on both the TV show and extended media, the latest serial for these fan-favourite bodysnatching villains takes a deep dive into the psychology behind their abilities to imitate, assimilate, and ultimately camouflage themselves as humans.

Gill, the story’s writer, takes an interesting narrative approach to explore these themes, as he frames the first half of the story within a retelling between Liv and Helen. While not necessarily interesting in a vacuum, Gill uses Liv and Helen’s conversations about events on the spacecraft Martlet to draw Liv’s suspicions to the fact that Helen is not who she claims to be. As they talk about their recent adventure, Liv uses this time to probe Helen unknowingly, peppering little references of their time together here and there to reveal Helen as a Zygon.

Although this doesn’t really work as a shock twist (as it was quite obvious), that wasn’t the point of these segments. These moments are used to showcase the flaws in a Zygon’s transformation, revealing the eccentricities and emotions that they find impossible to replicate, adding new dimensions to their species. As the serial moves into its second half, it delves even further into these issues, as Liv is forced to reckon with and correct this disconnect, which, like stories such as the Zygon Invasion, proves they’re more than just one-note villains.

Aside from the story’s Zygon introspection, this two-part adventure also features some fun character moments for both Liv and Helen. For Liv, she gets some great material talking with the Zygon about what it means to be human. Through the questions the Zygon asks, we hear just how emotionally intelligent she is and how well she understands others. Helen, for her part, gets her time to shine on the Martlet. Her skills in linguistics are instrumental in solving the ship’s scrambled distress signals and figuring out why the ship feels so off to everyone whilst on board.

While its characters and Zygon development are fantastic, there are still problems to be had within this story. The most notable of its issues is with its pacing, especially during the second part. At just over an hour in length, it ends up feeling a tad overlong. The scene where The Doctor and Helen converse in the TARDIS or those on Shay’s ship could all benefit from being shaved down, as they don’t offer enough to the plot to warrant their excessive length and focus.