Brimstone and Terror

"An army of schoolboys with Missy as their leader!"

Writer: Roy Gill

Format: Audio

Released: July 2020

Series: Missy 2.02

Featuring: Missy

Synopsis

Missy wants an army, a brigade of willing youngsters, trained to serve. So she takes a teaching post at a remote Scottish boarding school.

But one of these boys knows Missy of old. And when Oliver Davis summons his sister for help, Lucy brings an ally from London. One Mr Strax...

Verdict

Brimstone and Terror was another very good and fun audio adventure to continue the second series of Missy's own spinoff! I think fun is going to be the adjective I most use when writing about this boxset because that's exactly what Missy is! Michelle Gomez is just delightful in the role and a common theme that centres on her adventures so far is that she's bored and that just adds to the devious and barmy nature of her plans. I loved the continuity that stemmed once again from the first series with the returns of Oliver and Lucy from A Spoonful of Mayhem but we got a much different story from that outing. I was a fan of Missy heading up an all-boy's school and her efforts to educate and build herself a private army was terrific, although surely there were better options than some young Victorian boys! I guess that wouldn't have been as audacious though. Missy's facade here being that of Miss Birdy was perfectly suited to her and she seemed to enjoy her role very much. She was head mistress which was obvious yet still just fantastic and I love it when she takes on a role that isn't really a disguise. She seems to have so much fun and that just makes for such easy listening. As well as Lucy and Oliver returning, I was delighted that we had Strax appearing! I'm a huge fan of his from television and I am really looking forward to finally getting the Paternoster Gang spinoff series at some point, but for now it was just brilliant to have him featured here and being enlisted by Lucy following her receiving the letters of warning from Oliver. The way she was standing up to Missy and actually going toe to toe with her despite literally being a child was great, and you could tell that Missy was toying with her somewhat. Her being prepared to kill her along with the general was Missy at her best. That was honouring her routes as the Master in fine fashion. Her discussions with the general when it came to her being removed as running the establishment was hilarious because the comment that followed about her literally having the board in her pocket was just brilliant. I absolutely love literal humour and a TCE joke is just magnificent. Missy's inability to understand why they couldn't comprehend what she was saying was meant literally was great stuff. I'm not convinced that Missy's intentions behind having a schoolboy army served any purpose other than curing some boredom, but her intentions to become the Queen of Winter was definitely something I could get behind! I thought that revelation probably came slightly too late, but her attempts to harness the power of Beira and become the winter goddess was delightful. That's a role I'm sure she would thrive in and she was pretty darn annoyed to have her plans thwarted by Lucy who had managed to ensure that Mr Cosmo made a return! That was an intriguing development that I didn't see coming and I liked how Strax managed to get Jenny and Vastra to free it from the bottle universe stuck within the British Museum. Strax and Lucy were fun together and the Bluetooth comment from Lucy after she thought her DNA splice from the Sontaran was a bite was wonderful. I was a huge fan of that. Missy managing to escape a lifetime in captivity was expected and the links with the vortex manipulator linked to the Master TARDIS was good, and I get the feeling that something more is coming. Overall, a really good and fun adventure!

Rating: 8/10