Written by Jonathan Barnes Lauren Mooney Stewart Pringle Ken Bentley

Starring Eric Roberts, Charlie Russell and others

Originally released : April 2026

Listened to: May 2026

Context:

Episodes

1922: The Black Cadre by Jonathan Barnes

1968: An Incident in Death Valley by Lauren Mooney & Stewart Pringle

1974: The Caldwell Restitution by Ken Bentley

THE REVIEW

What I thought

1922: The Black Cadre by Jonathan Barnes – back to Cornwall, yay, with a return to the creepy island and Herbert Scott, imprisoned for years in an asylum (and protagonist of the first boxset). There is a brief moment in Germany at the start of the adventure which is great, and the character of Captain Poole, a wannbe poet come veteran of the 1st world war. We also have the german heiress Illse Lange and a creepy carnival visiting the cornish coast. Its all very atmospheric, a lovley period for creepy stories and when the Black Cadre turns up its very exciting. Zygon vs Zygon, men vs Zygon, really enjoyed this one!

1968: An Incident in Death Valley by Lauren Mooney & Stewart Pringle – sees the return of another character from set 1, Vorvoren, lovley to be back with the excellent Charlie Russel. We follow her to an Utah Diner, where we see the impact of the years of running, hooking up with the locals and working as a waitress! Things don’t stay rosy for long of course and its not long until trouble turns up, drunken husband (who turns out to be Junie’s Dad) and then finally we discover links to the cult we heard about at the prelude to the story…and then (SPOILERS) it turns out a certain timelord has a lot to do with this ..in steps the Master! love the Roberts master, and he doesnt disspoint here. A tale of revenge, bitterness and maybe a little redemeption, but not too much of that as the Master pretty much leaves unscathed and with some part of some plan complete…I think. Anyway, another great episode!

1974: The Caldwell Restitution by Ken Bentley is the one that seems more like a standard Who episode, to me it does anyway, and of course this has the Third doc in it (Tim Treloar, brilliant as ever) and is a knockabout adventure set in Cold War Russia (Moscow in fact). Makes for a perfect setting for shape changing, nefarious aliens. There is a great character here in Agent Caldwell, a bloody great antagonist in this study. I cant say I completely followed what was going on at times (in the spirit of review honesty I was too distracted by the gardening I was doing whilst listening to this one) but it was still great fun, and there does seem for the story going forward that a certain renegade timelord is goimg to be further involved…love it.

Rating: 4.2 out of 5 suckers: even better than the first Zygon Century boxset, with a trio of different but connected stories. Very nice to return to some of the characters from the first set, and new ones, all brilliant, and also a nice return of Master! and the Third Doctor. Very much recommend this one.

What am I left thinking?

• If it is the Master who is involved in the background here, what version?
• Please please BF keep these boxsets going

Memorable bits

• Second Doctor cameo great fun
• Master! BF have made this incarnation one of my favourites
• Third doctor gadding around 1970’s Russia is perfect
• 1920’s germany then dtraight to 1920’s Cornwall, just perfect