The Planet of Witches [AUDIO/2020.2.12]

★★★☆☆

  Does The Planet of Witches live up to its great premise of witches using mathematics as magic and a mysterious sentience from the Doctor's universe? Not entirely, no, but then again so few adventures do to the fullest; I'd consider this a mid-tier Alan Barnes effort, and considering his excellent work in both Big Finish and the Doctor Who Magazine comic strips, that still means it's enjoyable. 

  The feeling of Season 18 is strong with this one; heavy atmospheres, swamps, machines and more, this honestly wouldn't look out of place among the TV serials which make up the E-Space trilogy -- and that's pretty high praise. Even if you're not a Season 18 fan, there's plenty of fun to be had with a good performance by Tom Baker, an increasingly impressive Matthew Waterhouse as Adric, and Lalla Ward's opportunity to rag on Adric for no reason at all except for the sake of it. I'm sure I would've liked this better had the 'witches' aspect of The Planet of Witches not been swept aside as advanced scientific technology quite so hastily -- I mean, we all knew it was goinna end up as sci-fi mumbo jumbo at some point -- but whatever, the production itself is so polished that it's hardly a huge disappointment at the end of the day. If you can forgive its dragging a little in the middle portion, The Planet of Witches will turn out to be a very enjoyable Season 18 adventure for you.