Synopsis: Facing a divided Council and fighting a nine-hundred-and-twenty-front war across time and space, the War King sends Ambassador Mortega from the Homeworld to the Osirian Court, to combat the new power that has risen in their midst that challenges the might of the Great Houses. Meanwhile, by gathering the complete biodata of Osiris, Justine plans to resurrect the only Osirian capable of standing against Sutekh the Destroyer. But the forces at work on the Homeworld may soon intervene fatally in Justine's plans...

• A Review by Thomas Tiley

A Review by Thomas Tiley 12/5/25

Opening with a council of the Great Houses discussing whether to involve the Osirans in the war, the leader of the Great houses --- The War King --- dispatches Ambassador Mortega to shore up their support. Meanwhile, the surviving members of Faction Paradox --- Cousins Justine and Eliza --- attempt to resurrect Osiris with the help of Anubis in order to foil Sutekh's attempt to maneuver himself into position as head of the court, but they do not count on interference from the Homeworld in the shape of Lolita.

After a recent reshowing on BBC4 of Pyramids of Mars, I dug this CD out of the backpile of my collection to give it a listen, and it is not half bad. It's the third in a six-part series, and while I don't know what precedence it has, there are enough details and backstories so that the story is self contained. It probably would have been better if I had listened to the earlier ones, but it didn't do any harm either.

Peter Halliday as Anubis was wonderful, slightly cynical, very understated and almost grandfatherly, not at all what I would have imagined a chap called Anubis to be like. He's surprisingly helpful as he assists the Justine in resurrecting Osiris with Faction Paradox technology. It's a wonderful, simply wonderful, performance.

Philip Madoc is the War King, and Gabriel Woolf is Sutekh. Both give good performances, Madoc especially in his stand-off scene where he casually mentions how good his people are at stellar manipulation whereas Sutekh's ship has a star at its heart. Chris Tranchell plays Mortega and sounds exactly as crusty and boring as a real ambassador would be. Jet Tattersall plays Lolita as an imperious, icy manipulator. She sounds remarkably similar to Mary Tamm, which is interesting as accord to Downtime: The Lost years of Doctor Who, Tamm was originally offered the role before dropping out. She also has some great lines, such as remarking when Ambassador Mortega enters a room that she thought the atmosphere had grown duller or when she reveals a darker side to herself as she double deals and backstabs her way through the story.

As expected of a story written by Lawrence Miles, there are some great ideas and sarcastic/funny moments for the story. The Osiran court is located outside time and space, outside history because as Anubis puts it, it is 'so tedious'. Other highlights include Cousin Eliza and Justine joking with each other, bioengineered gladiators, slave trade unions, Lolita's dismissive reaction to discovering Sutekh girlfriend --- as she puts it, she is also his sister --- the wonderful line read of 'Aristocrats' and Anubis zombie servants offering his guests refreshments. When Sutekhs minions go wild and start attacking everyone, Sutekh stops the rampage by ordering them to kill each other instead. There are lots of wonderful ideas and concepts, a great showcase of brilliant ideas: Sutekh seizing control of the court using the excuse of Faction Paradox's act of the blasphemy (the resurrection of Osiris), Anbuis saying that when Sutekh is playing politics that 'he'll try anything once', the gold platted ship of a billon years armed with cannons powered by a mini onboard star. It is a shame that Miles doesn't write the book series or the audios, as I think he is one of the more gifted Doctor Who writers.

The use of music is very minimal: there is hardly any and while most of the sound effects are good, the crash landing in the time ship goes on too long (incredibly, Anubis then says he thought he heard a ship crash). Eliza goes from the person who has to ask what is going on to later being intuitive enough to tell someone is helping Sutekh play politics. The story does seem to skip at some parts as if there is a missing scene in between, such as when Justine finds herself on Mortega's ship, but otherwise the story is fine.

An interesting story with a fascinating setting, which ends on a cliffhanger. Recommended. 9/10