Omega rolls out his c-team for his plan B.

It had been five years since Gallifrey last graced our screens, and while its return in Arc of Infinity doesn’t exactly herald a golden age of Time Lord storytelling, it does serve as a fittingly self-conscious curtain-raiser for Doctor Who’s 20th season – a celebratory lap promising old monsters, older lore, and the occasional passport stamp. The previous season had closed with Tegan unceremoniously left at Heathrow and the Doctor and Nyssa carrying on without her. That absence isn’t as keenly felt as you may expect. With only one companion in tow, Nyssa finally gets room to make her presence felt, stepping up in ways the series too rarely allowed her when she was often drowned out by louder or more devious companions. Of course, the production team were already plotting how to fold Tegan back in. Her return is held back until the second episode and she doesn’t properly reunite with the Doctor until the third – a nicely judged bit of narrative restraint for a show not always known for it.

Someone – or something – is trying to force its way into the universe using the Doctor’s Time Lord bio-data, and the High Council of Gallifrey is considering the nuclear option: pre-emptively terminating the Doctor to stop the incursion. Back in Amsterdam, strange things are stirring in crypts beneath the city and Tegan’s cousin has disappeared just as Tegan arrives to join him. Unbeknownst to her, she’s walking straight into the crosshairs of a threat that’s less invasion and more spiritual annexation. Between the High Council’s dithering and the unfolding drama on Earth, the Doctor finds himself caught in the gears of cosmic bureaucracy and barely-articulated techno-peril.

The choice of Amsterdam as a location shoots for another City of Death moment, hoping that picturesque European backdrops can lift an otherwise studio-bound story. The logic was practical – contacts, affordability – but the intent was mythic. This was the anniversary year, after all, and things had to feel bigger. Gallifrey was back. Omega was back. Doctor Who, in theory, was thinking cosmically again but with a pragmatic travel budget. Amsterdam, though, is no Paris and although perfectly charming and picturesque undeniably lacks the cinematic cache and landmarks of the City of Light.

Gallifrey, on the other hand, for all its faux marble grandeur and eighties shopping centre aesthetic, lacks something of the dramatic charge its appearances have previously carried. The last couple of times we visited, Gallifrey felt like an empire in decline, sliding into decay but in Arc Of Infinity it feels more like a smug HR Department enforcing its latest return to the office policies. Despite the best efforts of a heavyweight cast – Michael Gough, Leonard Sachs, Elspet Gray, Paul Jerricho – the council scenes never quite catch fire. It gestures at political thriller but settles for procedural bureaucracy. The stakes should feel urgent, vital – the Doctor on trial for his life and Gallifrey is under threat, but the tension could be cut with a spoon. Neither the stakes nor the tension are helped by the fact Arc Of Infinity – so named for the region of space Omega is using for his attempted incursion – uses the apparent death of the Doctor as the cliffhanger for episodes one and two, a structural tic that quickly goes from dramatic to droning. To execute the Doctor once may be regarded as bold; to do it twice looks like carelessness.

On the other side of both of those executions, of course, was Colin Baker, striding around as Commander Maxil like he owns the place, while being completely oblivious to the fact he would own the place within the next thirteen months. He certainly gives the role a bit of oomph, energy the rest of the Capitol residents of Gallifrey had presumably seen drained away down the quantum plughole of Omega’s latest wheeze; the energy of a man determined to make Gallifreyan security cosplay look threatening. It’s a bold turn, and in retrospect, a rather prophetic one. Baker was, of course, following in the footsteps of Ian Marter and Lalla Ward who filled guest roles before being recast as companions but this was the first time a future Doctor had appeared in the show before his casting. It would not, of course, be the last.

Omega’s return ought to be a mic drop. After all, this is the co-founder of Time Lord civilisation, last seen being consumed by a matter/ anti-matter implosion tragic irony, once again creating a limitless source of power for his race while being unable to benefit from it. In Arc Of Infinity, though, he’s more of a name drop – introduced slowly, revealed too late and too low key to impress anyone but the nerdiest fanboy stereotypes, and saddled with a scheme that feels suspiciously like recycled sci-fi filler. Ian Collier gives a solid vocal performance, but the character’s existential anguish – identity slipping through the cracks of reality – is more implied than explored. Still, at least he hasn’t been idle in his anti-matter dimension. He’s had a glow up and returned with a fit check sufficient to make Derek Zoolander do a Magnum double-take. A pity then, that he’s been so slapdash with his henchmen creations. Gone are the bubble guards, replaced by the Ergon, a hench-creature that looks like the sculptor of the Melkur now works in a rubber chicken factory.

Still, there are things to appreciate. Peter Davison continues to deliver quiet conviction in the lead, and he handles the dual-role material with deftness, even when the script doesn’t quite know what to do with the concept. Nyssa benefits enormously from Tegan’s prolonged absence, stepping into the space usually occupied by someone else’s exasperation. She’s clever, competent, and decisive – everything the script needs but rarely rewards and while I adore the character of Tegan, there’s something to be said for the idea we lost something when Nyssa and The Doctor’s “solo” adventures were cut short. Fielding, though, makes the most of her re-entry too, reminding us how much life Tegan brings to proceedings when she’s not being written as a walking complaint and from this point on, she’s a lot more fun now that she doesn’t bleat about wanting to go home at every available moment.

What ultimately holds Arc Of Infinity back from greatness is its abstraction. The threat is theoretical. The stakes are metaphysical. The plot leans on technobabble and committee discussions instead of tangible jeopardy and Eric Saward isn’t as deft at weaving hard science and soft sci-fi together the way Christopher H Bidmead was. For a season opener meant to celebrate the show’s legacy, it’s oddly inward-facing – all setup and symbolism, little payoff. Still, it’s value now is probably in paying close attention to what happens to Omega at the end of the story, so that we can try and second-guess how Russell T Davies is going to rewrite, reimagine or just flat out ignore any inconvenient truths to facilitate his – hopefully more epic – return in The Reality War.