Counter-Measures: The Fifth Citadel

Writer: James Goss
Director: Ken Bentley
Script Editor: John Dorney
Cover Illustration: Alex Mallinson
Music: Nicholas Briggs
Sound Design: Martin Montague
Producer: David Richardson

Starring Pamela Salem, Simon Williams, Karen Gledhill & Hugh Ross
Released June 2013

The Fifth Citadel is an immediate step up for Counter-Measures. James Goss easily demonstrates how to really make this series work, mixing mystery and horror with real history and hard science and coming up with something much better than that sounds.

As with Ian Potter's script for the first series, The Pelage Project, The Fifth Citadel wastes no time in scoring points through its atmospheric setting and intriguing premise. Counter-Measures can't seem to escape one of the regulars bumping into an old acquaintance each episode but at least here Goss gives Sir Toby some agency in his pursuit of Dr Elizabeth Bradley (Celia Imrie). The story never shies away from the truth of what's in the Underground tunnels, nor what's beneath them. This gives it an edge that lifts it beyond pulpy spy-fi and at times makes for challenging listening.

But the production team and cast never forget themselves and while the awful story of the bunker might take its time unravelling, the episode plays more on the feeling of dread than trawling through the gruesome details. The Fifth Citadel inventively divides the four lead characters in a way that not only gives us unusual combinations but also makes narrative and character sense once the cards are on the table.

This is a story best enjoyed untainted, but safe to say the level of the production values is reliably commendable, particularly in the use of mechanical and metallic noises. In the tunnel scenes, the listener is never in any doubt that life carries on for the rest of London, trains screeching past in the distance (and not-so-distant). Imrie and Hugh Ross as Sir Toby are an electric pairing, and the latter once again turns in the episode's standout performance. But it's also a more dignified entry than the season opener for Pamela Salem (Professor Rachel Jensen), Karen Gledhill (Dr Alison Williams) and Simon Williams (Group Captain Gilmore). Not bad for three characters from a Doctor Who story broadcast in 1988.

Intelligent storytelling at every turn and captivating right to the end, The Fifth Citadel raises the bar for Counter-Measures. It is a great character piece but tackles a situation with potentially disastrous consequences head-on and doesn't pull any punches and somehow also finds time to build on the listener's uneasy impression of Toby's new aide Templeton. A superb, albeit chilling, episode.