Roots: Hamlet Act II, ii "How like a god!" Aladdin (Cuthbert invokes Open Sesame)

Intertextality: Cuthbert and Conglomerate originated in Audio Visuals' 'Conglomerate' Doctor Who audio stories.

Dialogue Triumphs: "A Dalek threatening to kill everybody- now there's a novelty! Go on- have an original thought..."

Dialogue Disasters: "Begin our entry into the quantum gateway tunnel immediately"- is a Dalek line.

"Where are you going?" "To find my 500 year Diary. I'm pretty sure I left it in the cloisters" "Swimming Pool!"- fan... 'self-servicing' of the highest calibre.

Double Entendres: "Destiny, Doctor. Destiny awaits."

"Is that it? Nothing's happened"

Continuity: Cuthbert knows something of his destiny, hence his work is a dimensional portal into his own past to secure his future finances. He is a temporal paradox (which is why the Doctor knows nothing of him or his history?)

A Dalek taskforce comprises over five thousand individual units on Proxima Major.

The Dalek dimension ship is festooned with aerials and antennae and is shielded with an unknown alloy; it measures far greater than any other Dalek ship. Daleks use vocal synthesisers to convert mental impulses into speech.

The Doctor uses the Dimensional Stabiliser to collapse the gateway (it, or the TARDIS, makes a slow dematerialisation noise doing so).

K9 has a stealth mode (though he never used it before as no one ever asked). His scans reveal chronon particles about Cuthbert.

Romana scored ninety-eight per cent on her short hops at the Academy.

Links: This story immediately follows The Dalek Contract. Cuthbert mentions Sheridan Moorkurk (who is, presumably, still in office if not also in power).

Location: Proxima Major, including the Maglea Gorge launch site.

The Bottom Line: "I'm what you might call a self-made man, Romana"

Irksome in its economy. Transmitted conversations are cut off routinely by one of the parties simply hanging up (no conversation ends naturally), Chedak's death scene is mechanical and perfunctory- it's by no means a bad story, but it's not an exciting one, either. Once again, Romana is witless and (sadly) breathless in the action scenes. A disappointing finale for Tamm; it's only Romana's realisation that she and the Doctor are possibly becoming rather fond of one another that redeems this.