If I were to give a one sentence review for “Resistor” it would be that it’s a simple two-part story that’s just… fine. The main issue is coming right after “Pursuit of the Nightjar” which is an extremely tough job for any story, let alone one with such a comparatively short run time. Still, putting that aside and looking at it by itself, what’s it like? Let’s take a deeper look…

What’s this? Reviewing a story in the month it was released?! I know, it’s been a while playing catch up… Anyway, “Pursuit of the Nightjar” is frankly a sleeper hit as I had no real excitement about this release but it blew me away with its writing, setting and over-arching plot, so let’s take a look!

The second story in Conflicts of Interest isn’t as frequently downbeat as its predecessor but given its set just before World War II it isn’t the light relief you might be looking for either. It’s also oddly structured in that each part has a very different feel to it, which given Part 1 goes for the “main cast are acting like normal humans living normal lives” plot point, one I never really care for, that at least came as a relief… Let’s take a look!

Conflicts of Interest was a strange boxset, a very serious tone was present throughout but none more serious than this first story: Friendly Fire. Tackling the subject of racism and prejudice with zero hand-holding should be applauded and in that sense it is a really well written story but I have to admit I don’t normally watch/listen/read Doctor Who stories to feel downbeat afterwards, so I can’t say I liked the story, even if it was undeniably a good story. Confused? Well, let’s take a deeper look…

Following on from the original “Forty” boxset is the rather stupidly titled “Forty 2” which makes it sound like it’s called 42 whenever you read it out but I can assure you that it carries on the original box’s plot thread and finishes up the celebration of 40 years of the Fifth Doctor well. That being said it’s all one long story so it really could’ve just been called “The Auton Infinity” but I guess they wanted to make sure people knew it continued from the first one. ANYWAY, enough title talk, is the story good? Thankfully given its runtime, yes. Yes it is. Let’s take a good look, shall we?

The second half of the first Forty box set at least focuses more on the Fifth Doctor that it’s supposed to be celebrating. This story sees the later version of this Doctor arriving in his own past, faced with Adric alive and well. It at least makes better use of the concept than the Second Doctor-heavy first half, anyway! Let’s take a look!

The era of three-disc boxsets for Doctors 5-7 begins with “Forty”, the first of two Fifth Doctor boxsets celebrating forty years since Peter Davison’s debut in the role. Oddly the first of the two stories, “Secrets of Telos”, is far more a celebration of Second Doctor classic Tomb of the Cybermen than it is anything to do with the Fifth Doctor. Whether you feel this is a bad thing or not aside, is the story any good on its own merits? Let’s take a look!