“Hello! Doctor, it’s me. Lucie. Lucie Miller...” Lucie Miller needs the Doctor’s help. In fact, the whole planet Earth needs his help. But he is nowhere to be seen. While Lucie struggles to survive a terrible sickness, an even greater threat to the human race is about to be unleashed. This will be the second Dalek invasion of Earth that the Doctor’s granddaughter has had to endure. “You must accept the reality of your situation. You have been defeated...”

Once again, Big Finish’s Eighth Doctor adventures mirror the style of the new television series - and not just with the return of the 50-minute episode format.

In common with two-part finales on the box, Lucie Miller, the penultimate instalment of this season (and indeed of the Eighth Doctor series as a separate strand) sees the return of recurring characters from throughout the preceding year, both foes and friends. Not only is Lucie Miller (Sheridan Smith) back (obviously), but also the Doctor’s great-grandson Alex (Jake McGann), his granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford), his former companion Tamsin Drew (Niky Wardley) and the Meddling Monk (Graeme Garden). The Daleks (played, as ever, by Nicholas Briggs, who also writes and directs) return as well, which is appropriate enough, given that the Eighth Doctor and Lucie single-disc releases made their debut with Blood of the Daleks - Part 1 back in 2006.

The Doctor himself (Paul McGann) doesn’t appear until more than halfway through the episode, and overall he gets relatively little to do in the grand scheme of things. However, there are so many familiar voices at work here that I hardly missed him, and his influence is felt throughout as other characters discuss him.

Meanwhile, Tamsin’s character arc finally comes into its own, and Alex comes across better than ever before, thanks to Jake McGann’s increased maturity as an actor (which his father discusses during the 22 minutes of interviews at the end of the CD).

However, the star of the show is, of course, Lucie Miller, who bravely deals with some heart-breaking hardships. You might not quite believe just how bad things get for her in this story, and Smith’s very real performance makes it all the more affecting.

After all that, I’m genuinely worried about what will happen in next month’s finale, the ominously titled To the Death...

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Richard McGinlay