‘When I ask a question I do not expect flippancy.’ Sharaz Jek is a truly frightening villain, as insane as Hindle, filled with hatred and motivated almost entirely by vengeance. Like many of Robert Holmes’ previous villains he has a nice line in vitriolic peroration: ‘To think that I, Sharaz Jek, who once mixed with the highest in the land, am now dependent on the very dregs of society, the base perverted scum who contaminate everything they touch’ is very much like ‘I, Morbius, who once led the High Council of the Time Lords and dreamed the greatest dreams in history, now reduced to this, to a condition where I envy a vegetable.’ But he’s more frightening than most because he’s so unpredictable, suddenly turning on the Doctor to strike him in the middle of a conversation with Stotz. ‘I am mad,’ he tells Peri: and I believe him.

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‘Your sense of humour will be the death of you, Doctor. Probably quite soon.’ Davison’s performance in this is subtly different; his insouciance and sarcasm are more pronounced than ever. I have the weird sense watching this of it feeling like the movie version of a British sitcom, where the characters are familiar but seem strange because everything is a bit more definitive. I suppose this is Davison’s final statement on his Doctor, he was enthused by the script, and is putting in even more than usual.

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‘These people are the lowest type of human being. One only has to look at them to realise the extent of their depravity.’ Trying to put myself in the shoes of “Joe Public” rather than someone who’s known for years this is one of the all-time classics, it’s very much of a piece with Season 21. There are dour military types in grey coveralls with coloured flashes, poison gas, gloomy caves, lots of tough dialogue, and a monster that’s only better than the Myrka by virtue of being less exposed. This is absolutely not exceptional.

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‘Quickly, to the ruin!’ Like Resurrection of the Daleks, this has two plots that have no thematic or character link between them: the Master finding a way to restore himself; Turlough forced to blow his cover, turn to his own people and return home to face the music. Of the two, the latter should be the most interesting: finally understanding who Turlough is and why he’s constantly nervous (if the Trion network of agents track him down, he’s for the high jump): it could have been one of the best companion send-offs because it actually pays off the mystery of the character.

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‘The Master must have precipitated an eruption.’ You can tell this is a post-Return of the Jedi story because suddenly everything’s about fathers and brothers. Turlough’s discovery of his own brother means that we’ve met family for every JNT companion (and he introduced Sarah Jane’s auntie, too) compared to none bar Leela’s dad for pretty much any previous era. At the end of this it’ll be a surprise if the Master doesn’t turn out to be the Doctor’s secret brother.

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‘I’m Perpugilliam Brown and I can shout just as loud as you can.’ Nicola Bryant does more running about on location. It’s a chance to show off the filming, which is very good – but it would have been better if she’d had more chance to develop a character. So far, Nicola Bryant is doing the best with what she’s being given: a damsel in distress who’s defiant in the face of danger. At least Mark Strickson is getting some surprising material in his last story: he’s never mentioned a father before, or Trion, or pretty much anything about his shady background. You can tell this is his last story because suddenly it’s all coming out.

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‘You’re finished Kamelion!’ Did anyone remember the android was on board? The loss of that scene in The Awakening means that Kamelion is reintroduced only when it’s going haywire. I don’t think it’s a huge issue – a lot more recent series reintroduce characters to write them out – and I like that it’s shape-shifting/psychic manipulation properties are relevant to the storyline. It’s a bit more of a stretch to accept this in the same episode that Turlough’s own past seems to be coming back to haunt him, but anything that gives Mark Strickson decent material is good for me. And we finally get to have him strip down to his underwear, having been thwarted by the removal of the Warriors of the Deep sauna sequence.

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‘This is lunacy!’ What is the main story of this? Is it the Supreme Dalek’s attempt to revive Davros coming up against Davros’ own plans for the destiny of the Daleks? Or is it the Dalek plan to conquer Gallifrey and Earth using duplicates? Either would have been ok, both just makes this into a tangled mess, denying each the chance to develop into anything interesting. The easy fix would have been to eliminate the duplicates plot as it’s the less interesting of the two, and to build out the possibility of Davros reengineering the Daleks. That’s the concept Saward explores further in his next Dalek script, and that’s picked up again in Remembrance of the Daleks. Here, because it’s so unfocused, it feels as throwaway as the invasion of time being reduced to an off-hand comment by the overly chatty Supreme.

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‘This is madness!’ The centrepiece of Davison’s final season aims to do for the Daleks what Earthshock did for the Cybermen, restoring some credibility after a fairly derided previous appearance, and reinventing the monsters for a new generation. It will probably be obvious to anyone following this pilgrimage that I’m not the world’s biggest Saward fan, but even I have to admit this is quite powerful and stylish, from one of the show’s strongest cold opens, as Metropolitan Police officers gun down what look like refugees from Blake’s 7 on the rain-lashed streets of London, to the Daleks’ first appearance on board the prison ship, and the image of the new Davros, swathed in blue fog.

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‘Don’t mention it… to anyone.’ A story that ends without a massive body count, and where the solution comes from the Doctor’s ingenious riffing on Turlough’s recollection of the Tractators’ true nature. It could do with a slightly tidier end to the Rets vs colonists sub-plot (even Cockerill shaking hands with Plantagenet would do it), and Brazen’s death seems tokenistic (and badly staged), but this is excellent: Full Circle with more sense of humour. I like it more than Bidmead’s previous stories.

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