I found this a crashing disappointment after the glories of the opening Key 2 Time installment, The Judgment of Isskar. Five was whiny as he often is, temporary companion Amy's childlike wonder has gotten wearying, and the guest characters are awful in every way. Even the language, which is full of in-your-ribs riffs on the Arabic language and its poetic turns of phrase, is annoying. The only thing tolerable in it is the Guardians. Which I never thought I would say. ( )

I really enjoyed the latest BF, The Destroyer of Delights. Most of it is set in ninth-century Sudan, at the height of the Islamic caliphate. This is a potentially uneasy setting - Big Finish screwed up with a sensitive historical setting in The Marian Conspiracy, though did rather better with The Settling. This is more on the laughs side (Arabian Nights) than the didactic side, but both elements are there, and in my opinion it works.

It works also because of the cast. Ciara Janson again is good as Amy, backed by comedienne Jess Robinson as slave girl Nesrin; and Will Barton, who played Midge in Survival, gets to show off his fluent Farsi (not very accurate for the Sudan, but few will worry about that). But most of all, we have Peter Davison and David Troughton as the Doctor and the Black Guardian - not exactly a reprise of Daker v Buzzard in A Very Peculiar Practice (though I harboured a secret hope for an appearance by the High Priest Soldeed from The Horns of Nimon) but in one scene in particular gloriously picking up on each other. Each of them also gets some separately very funny moments: Davison with an exchange about the way in which 'blue man' actually means 'black man', except, er, when it doesn't; and Troughton in a brilliant gag from Oscar Wilde. Troughton also gets Jason Watkins, playing the White Guardian, to argue with.

Indeed, one of the other successes of the play is that it takes the concept of the Guardians and goes somewhere completely new with them, really cutting them down to size. And I must say I cheered. There are a few too many beings or entities with ultimate power over all life and matter in the Whoniverse, and it's good to see that writers can demote them as well as create them. So, Destroyer of Delights is my favourite BF release this year. Admittedly, that's from a field of, er, two. ( )