When a group of Irving Braxiatel’s defensive mechanoids embark on a kidnapping spree, Brax denies all knowledge - but his former associates Bev Tarrant and Adrian Wall suspect something else is going on. They’ve been waiting for Brax to show his hand for months and this looks like it. The only problem is, Bernice Summerfield isn’t around to help. She’s vanished. Adrian and their son Peter search for her on a craggy forgotten planet. Meanwhile Robyn, an android from the future, is on a mission to find out why Braxiatel wants her creators wiped from the timelines. She and Bev team up to investigate the kidnappings. What is Braxiatel doing with all these people - and why has Bernice been so important to his plans for all these years...?

Writer Eddie Robson and director John Ainsworth pick up more or less where they left off with last season’s finale, Secret Origins, which introduced us to the android Robyn (Donna Berlyn). I say “more or less” because the animated short Dead and Buried takes place in between. However, Resurrecting the Past is deftly structured so that you don’t need to have seen the animation in order to follow this story, which begins with Benny (Lisa Bowerman) having already disappeared and her friends playing back her final transmission. Then again, why wouldn’t you want to see Dead and Buried - it’s free (on Big Finish’s website and on YouTube) and it’s jolly exciting!

I found Resurrecting the Past even more thrilling. Possibly this is because my interest had already been engaged by the events of the animated short. More likely, though, it’s because, following a couple of years of biding their time, our heroes finally make a move against Braxiatel (Miles Richardson), who at last reveals the full nature of his plans. The latter ties in neatly with Brax’s proposed scheme in the most recent Gallifrey audio drama, Panacea. Story elements from the last couple of seasons that had seemed transitory, such as Maximediras, the water planet in Beyond the Sea, suddenly gain new significance.

Exhilarating sound design and music by Matthew Cochrane add to the overall effect.

All of our favourite characters are back, including Adrian (Harry Myers), Bev (Louise Faulkner) and Peter (Thomas Grant), as well as some that we haven’t heard from for a while, such as Joseph (Steven Wickham), Hass (Paul Wolfe) and Doggles (Sam Stevens).

Resurrecting the Past well and truly brings this series back to life.

9

Richard McGinlay