I discovered that I had been missing out on the Doctor Who Monthly CDs issued as companion pieces for the Big Finish sequence of audio plays – I had heard one of them, The Maltese Penguin, but in the wrong place – so have caught up with the first three to take me to roughly the right place in internal continuity.

The Ratings War sees the sinister Beep the Meep attempting to take over the world by brainwashing its population through television, but being thwarted by the Sixth Doctor (companionless, this time). Beep the Meep (from the comic strips) is a one-joke character, and the satire of reality TV has been done to more effect elsewhere, but Colin Baker was really on form.

No Place Like Home has the Fifth Doctor showing new companion Erimem around the Tardis, only to discover that it has been infiltrated by a rodent with super-powers. Didn’t quite work for me – I felt this piece was trying to do too many things at once.

Living Legend has the Eighth Doctor and Charley turning up in Italy on the evening of the 1982 World Cup final (I remember it well; I was on holiday in Connemara). They discover a planned alien invasion and kill the aliens with their brains, or to be more specific they wind up the aliens so much by claiming (as Time Lords) to be able to see into the future that the invasion fails. It’s very funny, and the chemistry between Paul McGann and India Fisher is great – Eight and Charley are obviously at it like knives in the Tardis bedrooms.

Am revisiting some Old Who soundtracks for the rest of this week’s listening.