Daniel Mansfield reviews the first instalment of a new series for The Paternoster Gang.

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Twelve years after they debuted in 2011’s A Good Man Goes To War, the Paternoster Gang are still going strong as Big Finish gives us their second series of audio adventures: Trespassers. This new series begins with Rogues Gallery, a collection of three stories which sees Vastra, Jenny and Strax take on a series of new cases, and come face to face with a terrifying new threat.

Barnaby Kay‘s opener, The Ghost and the Potato Man, serves as a kind of bread-and-butter Paternoster Gang story to kick things off, giving us a simple but entertaining yarn that shows off the three leads well. Dan Starkey probably gets the best material here, as Strax has an all too brief stint treading the boards at the Regency Theatre, but Neve McIntosh and Catrin Stewart are on top form too as their characters investigate the titular phantom.

The much-loved Ellie Higson (Lisa Bowerman) also appears here, making the leap over from the Jago and Litefoot series, and, while it’s nice to hear her, she doesn’t really have much of an impact on the story. In a way, that kind of encapsulates my thoughts on this episode as a whole: it’s enjoyable to listen to, but there’s not a whole lot to it.

Dan Starkey‘s Symmetry of Death has a little more meat on its bones, presenting the Gang with a murder, a locked room mystery and a series of acts of vandalism for them to solve. As the team investigate, they come across a variety of colourful characters played well by the guest cast, while Vastra finds a link to her past which may prove the key to these odd occurrences.

This a compelling mystery story, and it feels very Holmesian- though, of course, with a suitably sci-fi twist. Aside from that, though, there’s not much more to say about it; like the previous story it’s an entertaining listen, but lacks substance.

Thankfully, Lisa McMullin‘s finale Till Death Us Do Part has both an interesting plot and some nice character work, comfortably taking the title of best story in the set. It’s nice to have a story where the characters’ motivations set things in motion, with Jenny’s desire to have a proper wedding to Vastra leading her to uncover a strange series of events involving a familiar face.

Yes, Paul McGann appears here as the Doctor, who, it seems, has been causing heartbreak by ditching his bride-to-be at the altar! He doesn’t get a lot of airtime here (though I have a feeling he’ll be featuring in future boxsets) but what’s here is good stuff, allowing McGann to play something slightly different to usual as McMullin finds interesting ways to fit him into the Paternoster Gang’s world.

This story also sees the story arc for the Trespassers series begin to take shape, as strange doppelgangers of characters we know and love begin to crop up all over the place. It’s certainly an interesting way to kick things off, and I look forward to hearing how things develop in the next set. There’s a doozy of a cliffhanger too, meaning the next boxset, releasing in April 2024, can’t come soon enough!

Overall, this is a nice re-introduction to the world of the Paternoster Gang, with two solid but unremarkable stories and a genuinely interesting finale. Let’s hope the stories in the next set are more in the vein of Till Death Us Do Part, as that takes us into truly new territory. Recommended.

Rogues Gallery is available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com