Baker Buzzes As Doctor Battles Bugs Through Time...

The Dead Shoes, the second episode of the thrilling audio adventure, Hornets' Nest, featuring Tom Baker's return to his role as The 4th Doctor picks up from the end of The Stuff Of Nightmares.

The Doctor and retired UNIT Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin) are trapped in the basement of The Doctor's Sussex cottage, giving The Doctor time to recount his investigation into the nature of the threat and his previous encounters with the extraterrestrial hornets.

He tells the tale of a jaunt back to Cromer in 1932 where he crosses the path of an intriguing ballerina, Ernestina (Clare Corbett), and the mysterious curator of Cromer's Palace Of Curios' - a certain Mrs Wibbsey (Susan Jameson), who we already know is currently working as The Doctor's housekeeper.

Although there is a certain amount of contrivance in its very nature, Paul Magrs' story has great fun with the concept of time travel, with The Doctor battling the long-lived insects backwards through time.

Each episode appears to contain clear indications of where The Doctor last met the hornets - and thus where his next adventure will be, if you follow me.

The Dead Shoes, about a pair of "possessed" ballet shoes sounds more like a Sapphire & Steel story, but Tom Baker's wildly eccentric take on The Doctor firmly roots the bizarre happenings in the science of the Whoniverse.

Baker's rich voice makes even The Doctor and Ernestina's time as two inch high prisoners in a Victorian dolls house, populated by animated dolls, frighteningly convincing.

I've heard criticism that because these stories are primarily a first-person narrative by The 4th Doctor - and therefore a bit like Big Finish's Companion Chronicles - this somehow lessens the drama.

But this is The Doctor we're talking about, we know he's going to triumph in the end, the thrills and excitement come from the journey and his exploits along the way.

And, of course, the other side of that argument is, if the BBC had decided to use Baker in grand full-cast audio plays, critics would then have moaned that they were just aping Big Finish's main range.

It's strange to think that anyone could dislike this unconventional, larger-than-life return by Tom Baker to the character that made his name, but I guess us Doctor Who fans are a funny old lot.