Written by Terrance Dicks, based on Robert Holmes’ scripts for the 1973-4 TV serial

The prologue, written by Robert Holmes, is brilliant: an insight into the final combat flight of Jingo Linx, with details of Sontaran battle strategy, a dogfight with Rutan warships and a grisly description of the recharge process that shows, in much more detail than any TV episode, the purpose of the probic vent. But there’s no dip in quality when Dicks takes over for the novel proper. As is usual, he seems to relish Holmes’ gallery of grotesques and the mordant dialogue. He also takes time to characterise the mindset of the story’s medieval folk, and the reality (to them) of tangible evil and the existence of demons.

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