The latest volume of Tom Baker’s exploits sees the Doctor involved in the fate of the planet Kaerula, and provides a rare trip in the TARDIS for an old friend.  

Fresh from their adventures in The Hellwood Inheritance box set, the Fourth Doctor and Leela find themselves embroiled in the fate of a planet across two linked stories. After that, they respond to a summons back to Earth, which grants the chance for Leela and K-9 to meet the Brigadier.

The Remains of Kaerula / The Ruins of Kaerula

The tale opens with the TARDIS disrupted an anomalous time wave and materialising in a damp cave. There, they meet environmental refugees who have escaped down a time tunnel into their own planet’s future. The setup sees these refugees kept in a camp by the locals, who blame them for the planet’s ecological disaster.

With the Doctor separated from Leela and K-9 by a rockfall, she makes friends with the rebels while he is captured. Barnaby Kay guests as Nim, the scientist who create the “Time Drill” which now threatens to suck the whole planet into the time vortex until the Doctor intervenes.

However, instead of making their “French exit” at the end of the two-parter, the TARDIS crew find themselves drawn back to the planet at an earlier time. Like a reverse take on the Hartnell era tale ‘The Ark’, but with the Doctor dealing with the actions after grappling with the consequences.

For ‘Ruins’, writer Phil Mulryne then takes us back to the start of the project, where we find Nim having second thoughts. The story also introduces another scientist, lost during the development, who has become a dangerous ethereal force. We also meet Stack (Aaron Neil) the project’s unprincipled financier who has his own agenda. In the devasted world outside, Leela meets up with the pilot of a moving village – the itinerants who are destined to become the surviving Kaerulians of the first tale.

Playing with themes of ecological devastation and population displacement, the story of Kaerula provides plenty of food for thought.

Cry of the Banshee

Despite being the third two-parter of the set, this is the main attraction for us. Using the space-time telegraph, the Brigadier (Jon Culshaw) summons UNIT’s errant Scientific Advisor as he did in in ‘Terror of the Zygons’. Of course, the Doctor now travels with two new companions, so the story provides an encounter between two warriors with quite different outlooks.

Tim Foley’s story takes us from a World Peace Conference in Geneva to a far-flung space station. There’s talk of the lunar wars and chrono-visitors, with Rakie Ayola and Reece Pantry playing a pair of adjudicators, but it’s the backdrop to the meeting of two of the Doctor’s best friends.

Along the way, there are some great jokes in the script, ranging from the pun to the bizarre. We loved the Geneva convention gag early on, and the Doctor’s admission that he used to travel with a Trappist monk who made Battenburg cake?!

In Summary

Tom Baker and Louise Jameson are on fine form here as the Doctor and Leela, augmented by the addition of John Leeson’s K9, who gets plenty to do. However, it’s the interaction between Leela and Jon Culshaw’s Brigadier which really provides the most fun as they both gain an appreciation of the other.

Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures: The Ruins of Kaerula is out now. It’s available on Collector’s Edition CD (+ download), or download to own, from Big Finish.

The Fourth Doctor Adventures continue…

Series 14 concludes with a boxset titled The Last Queen of the Nile.

As well more from the Brigadier, who encounters modern series villains The Silence, the team tackle a historical tale as they’re swept up into the story of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

The Last Queen of the Nile is out in September 2025 and available to pre-order now from Big Finish.