Former Dr. Who companion and current Dr. Who in a lame, scattered 'mystery'. This one plays like a mystery novel in which pages have been cut out and the story jumps backward and forward all over the place with huge gaping holes in the plot. Poorly written with even worse 'direction'. In fact about the only thing to redeem this is the performance of Julie Walters, who makes a fabulous villain. But then this is a part she has done before in other films, so there is nothing new here. As for Piper and Smith, to say they give totally uninteresting performance would be being too kind. One can easily see why this disappeared after 2 episodes. There is very little to recommend it other than some nice costumes.
Review of The Ruby in the Smoke
