Right, makes sense.

Those are all valid descriptions.

I can see all of that. It really is a love-it-or-hate-it episode, I think. That's why I said up front that I'm in the "Pro" camp, because the "Anti" camp is just as big.

And then, a couple more decades later, a comics publisher had the licenses for both Star Trek and Doctor Who and decided to do a crossover, but they couldn't think of anything more inspired than "BORG/CYBERMEN TEAMUP!"

Okay.

I actually think the Kandyman is genuinely terrifying. His ridiculous appearance is intentional, I think. Imagine seeing a guy who looks like that, laughing at it, and then getting syrup'd to death by it.

Not even Young Mr. Grace?!

Yeah, it definitely sets up an arc for the second half of the season that just didn't play out at all. But as an episode unto itself, I really loved it. Even the "It laid another egg exactly the same size" ending, which is so ridiculous that I couldn't help but love it.

That's the one where it's not actually Matthew Waterhouse, right?

Right, of course. I know that. But the subject of 8 meeting the Daleks came up, so my mind went straight to "Blood of the Daleks," one of my favorite Dalek stories in any medium.

I've only heard a handful of 5th Doctor audios, but it really is remarkable how much more natural Nyssa seems on audio. Sarah Sutton does some great work when given the chance, which you wouldn't know from the TV show.

(Kill the Moon was his only script in the last series).

That's fair. Looking at it now, it's not as detailed as I remembered. Probably I was mostly just excited to see it in the store.

I would argue Master is too, especially since his name is (maybe?) (at least partially??) a reference to the academic degree one step below Doctor.

Yeah, that would be great. He's teamed up with the 6th Doctor in a few audios, but a TV story would be much more exciting, obviously (old companions meet newer Doctors in audio all the time).

And he's met them at least four times in audio - which, to me, feels like the core of his era. The other Doctors' Big Finish audios are a supplement to their TV eras*, but 8's ARE his era.

Right. I hope so.

Even if we are judging them against the Target novelizations, the previous book is by Terrance Dicks himself and it's still a hundred times more ambitious.

She is!

*pushes up glasses*