I found this comparatively compelling this time round, though I admit that if the Master had turned up 5 minutes later I'd probably have felt it starting to sag. Some people say FIS is a poor Master performance but I think it's wonderful: he judges the funny bits perfectly, not too broad, not too stiff. The throwaway War of the Worlds gag, and his contemptuous Dalek impersonation 'Do-not-fail-the-Daleks' are just great.
There's also some good Master/Doctor/Jo interaction. Episode 4 consists almost entirely of this stuff (which is fine by me, but Kroll knows what the casual viewer made of it). Delgado seems to stir our bored season 10 Pert to fresh efforts: just watch the latter's 'ffs' expression when the Master is reading out his list of supposed crimes on Sirius IV.
Jo gets to resist hypnosis and to outwit the Master with her chat about the Brigadier and having to do the filing at UNIT HQ. She also does a very uncharacteristic cocky walk towards the Master when he visits her in her cell on Earth.
Kind of lucky that Gen Williams and the Prince are able to resolve the misunderstanding over 'nearly starting a war' so quickly, once they get talking about it. Pity no-one mentioned it before really.
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