It's all neat and tidy, and I can't help feeling a little let down. The reason Marc Platt is one of my favorite writers in Classic Who was the quirkiness he usually introduced into the story. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that this is a pure historical; after all, the greatest charm of his 'Ghost Light' (without a doubt my all-time favorite Who serial ever) is that it takes scientific belief of its Victorian setting and spins them off into an extreme direction while still using that Victorian language to tell its story. And, to be fair, I think the idea of taking the idea of the Doctor and Crew as witnesses to history to the extreme--literally making us walk into the fires of the Inquisition so we can't just shake our head at its evil--could work. I suspect that the drama would have been much stronger if this serial stuck to the standard two-episode Companion Chronicles format. Because Platt's got four episodes to fill, the whole second half seems a little too stretched out, and certain elements seem to be filler. And in the case of one twist involving the character of Don Miguel, it comes off like Platt thought we needed that sting rather than it being organic to the story.
It seems like Platt had two stories he wanted to tell that he smashed together...and while one story (the Inquisition idea) is well handled, the other (a variation on 'never meet your heroes') seems a little sketchy. As such, this story ends up a disappointment.
Luckily, when next we dip into Big Finish territory, we've got some full cast audios featuring our original foursome...kinda.
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