Review by Daniel Mansfield

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This latest Fourth Doctor Adventures boxset opens with a pair of linked episodes in the vein of some of Doctor Who‘s onscreen adventures in Series 9. Set on the planet Kaerula at various points in its history, these episodes, written by Phil Mulryne see the Doctor, Leela and K-9 become embroiled in a desperate fight for survival involving time travel, warring factions and monstrous cave creatures.

Opening instalment The Remains of Kaerula is the weaker of the two, feeling like a bit of a runaround with the TARDIS team wandering through caves. There are some interesting ideas here, but the side characters are thinly drawn, and there’s little in the way of incident.

Sequel The Ruins of Kaerula takes us back in time to the events that led to the previous story, but nothing here feels like it really enriches its predecessor. Delroy Atkinson impresses as Devish Maldra, and it’s nice to hear more of Barnaby Kay‘s Nim, but otherwise this feels like a bit of a dull continuation of an already dull storyline.

Far and away the highlight of the set is Tim Foley‘s Cry of the Banshee, which sees the Fourth Doctor reconnect with the Brigadier at a World Peace Conference haunted by the titular creature. Soon, the Brigadier is whisked away to a space station orbiting Jupiter as he, the Doctor, Leela and K-9 meet a pair of Adjudicators (Rakie Ayola and Reece Pantry) who are investigating a spate of disappearances.

While well-performed as always by Jon Culshaw, the Brigadier feels a little superfluous to proceedings here, not getting a whole lot to do despite some nice interactions with Leela. K-9 at least gets some interesting material, serving as a mouthpiece for the Banshees, which turn out to be… well, that would be telling, but it’s a great idea.

The eventual revelation of how events on Earth are connected with those on the space station is a great one, giving us some pointed commentary on war that echoes similar sentiments from recent TV story Boom, though this was, of course, recorded several years before the Fifteenth Doctor burst onto our screens.

Overall, this is one of the weaker Fourth Doctor Adventures boxsets out there, with a thoroughly average opening two-parter, though Cry of the Banshee elevates things somewhat. That said, an interesting cliffhanger leaves me excited to hear what happens in the next boxset.

The Ruins of Kaerula is available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com