Things were looking up. The third story of Gallifrey series three had been a definite improvement on the first two. With Justin Richards and Alan Barnes on hand to round things off, Gallifrey series three seemed set to end on a high...
'Mindbomb' feels like it's meant to be 'The Deadly Assassin' revisited, beginning with a wry conversation between Surgeonmaster Elbon and Lord Delox as they watch the nominations for the election, the Time Lords cheering and jeering like drunkards. (So, more political satire on the way then. Later on, there's even a parody of the BBC's political forum 'Question Time' and the line "Gallifrey is the mother of all democracies.") Justin Richards does a good job of pressing the right fan buttons (Article 17, Morbius, etc.) but within five minutes we're into yet another lengthy discussion of political procedure. There's more K9 in this one which is very welcome and helps lighten the tone and the script is a lot more polished but the fundamental problem remains: the rules of Gallifreyan political disputes are far too thick on the ground, made up as we go along and just plain dull. A rather obvious structural defect is the repeated mentioning of Braxiatel not being around anymore, thus guaranteeing that he will turn up later. With an extremely similar ending to 'Appropriation', one is left feeling that one has gone round in a loop, with precious little progression and nothing resolved.