In television Who we've had a re-writing of both the Dracula and Frankenstein stories, plus one featuring mummies. I suppose it was only a matter of time before somebody got around to the Wolf Man.

The Doctor and Turlough arrive in Rio de Janeiro in the year 2080 in time for the carnival. But other forces are abroad in the Brazilian capital and they are planning a very different kind of party.

It isn't long before the time travellers become involved in a conflict that has been ongoing for centuries. As the mysterious Ileana de Santos seeks a cure for her son, a young woman alone in the Amazon Desert is looking for something far more sinister.

As a dark and powerful figure stalks its prey, will the Doctor finally make the ultimate sacrifice? Marriage!

Loups-Garoux is very big on ideas. A 'family' of werewolves, seeking nothing really but peace and quiet, being pursued by a very powerful wolf that they had expelled centuries before. But it all gets a bit lost in legend and superstition towards the end.

Peter Davison gives us his excellently breathless performance as The Doctor, willing to sacrifice himself to save the many as usual. Mark Strickson, however, seems at times to be doing Turlough by numbers, alternately terrified and brave.

And then there is the oft mentioned guest cast, which despite boasting international stars such as Eleanor Bron, Burt Kwouk and Nicky Henson, can't raise this production much above the ordinary.

Marc Platt, the writer of Loups-Garoux, is a man of big ideas. You only have to watch his televised Who, Ghost Light, or read his early Virgin novel Time's Crucible to realise that. But sometimes he has difficulty scaling down his stories for those who don't see the bigger ideas to follow.

This tale tries to do too much, to pack too much into its four episodes. Maybe this is an occasion where an extra episode might have benefited the production. We'll never know.

As for the final resolution, it all seems a little too easy. For a being labelled by the Doctor as the most dangerous ever to walk the Earth, to be trapped so simply seems almost unbelievable. It certainly lets down any tension that has been built up along the way.

There are good things in the production. An interesting glimpse (and it is only a glimpse) of the future. The scenes between Rosa and Turlough are nicely handled. And Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor can always help any production.

But all in all Loups-Garoux could have been so much better.