Roots: Pulp Fiction (out-of-sequence storytelling), Star Trek: Voyager episode 'Juggernaught' (That race with huge leaking garbage ships), Twilight Zone's 'Eye of the Beholder', Buck Rogers in the 25th Century's 'The Dorian Secret'.

Goofs: The 'cut-and-paste' narrative. Biiiiig mistake...

Fluffs: Simulacram is mispronounced "si-mule-a-crim".

Double Entendres: 'Come!'

'Lovely nose. Lovely... everything.'

Dialogue Disasters: 'Do you know what they do to beautiful boo boos like you in the penitentiary?'

Continuity: Veln is a planet surrounded by diestrial pollution. Most Velns can't breathe the atmosphere for a prolonged time without a pollution mask. The pollution has caused a genetic disfigurement, making Veln hideous. The richer Veln use surgery to render themselves beautiful. They are familiar with the idea of alien life, but seem to know only of the Koteem.

The Koteem are an arthropod race from just past Andromeda, with 5 or 6 eyes (it varies from continent to continent). They can create simulacrums that look Veln and can contain Koteem essence. The Doctor met a seven-eyed one, and met them in general at a conference. They don't know of Traken or Gallifrey.

The Koteem used Diestrium as a source of energy, discovering too late its effects and subsequently having to dispose of it. In an attempt to save money, the Koteem waste disposal ships detoured near Veln, then a forbidden planet. There they crashed into the TARDIS (which the Doctor had parked whilst making repairs) and the waste spilled out onto the planet. To redeem themselves, a small Koteem faction sacrificed themselves to combine their essences with that of the Velns, to enable them to be combined into a new, beautiful race.

There is a Galactic Central Council (It's not stated if Veln and the Koteem homeworld are in the Milky Way).

The TARDIS can be affected by diestrial pollution, and can self-regenerate but isn't always successful. It emits a warp distortion field.

Nyssa doesn't smoke.

Untelevised Stories: The Doctor and Sarah encountered Koteem at a conference.

Location: Veln and Veln a century later.

Links: 'Land of the Dead' ('like being back in Alaska.'), 'The Ark in Space' (Helmic Regulator)

Bottom Line: 'What exactly is going on here?'

Presumably Big Finish are getting bored with normal storytelling techniques and so are allowing experiments like this. The problem with this disjointed story construction is that by the time episode four rolls around, the audience is just waiting for the story to fill in the gaps and know exactly what is going to happen, which does rather kill any sense of expectation of development.

On the story side, we are once again presented with, basically, ugly=evil and beautiful=good, recalling 'Galaxy Four', but not as a favourable comparison. The one interesting aspect is the role the Doctor has in unknowingly starting events, but otherwise there isn't much here to take note of.