I really did enjoy this, and hope that the climax will pay off - the season's regular and semi-regular characters, Sheridan Smith as Lucie, Graeme Garden as the Meddling Monk, Carole Ann Ford as Susan, and even the ones I felt were weaker, Jake McGann as Alex and Niky Wardley as Tamsin, seem to have picked up a gear. With so many lead characters, the story doesn't have a lot of Doctor in it but sometimes that is OK. ( )

And so the fourth and final season of the eighth Doctor's new adventures draws to a conclusion with Lucie Miller by Nicholas Briggs, the first half of the standard two-part finale. The title promises an above-average focus on everyone's favorite companion, bringing back fond memories of Briggs's similar use of this effective technique in the second season's Sisters of the Flame. It's been a long and occasionally bumpy road since Blood of the Daleks kicked off the NEDAs over four years ago. But Lucie Miller has always been one of the range's bright spots, and I can't think of a better way to help draw the series to an end than with a story featuring her at her best. Let's just hope that To the Death can maintain this level of quality. Also, something for the Doctor to do would be nice.

You can read a longer version of this review at Unreality SF.