Doctor Who: The Shadow Heart

The third in a trilogy of stories in which consecutive Doctors visit an interstellar empire at different points in its history. In this final installation, the Doctor arrives to discover that the Empire has fallen to the Wrath, largely as a result of his actions in the previous story.

Unlike in the previous part, what's happened here clearly is Six's fault, which may not sit well with some listeners. (Five, in contrast, had no reasonable way of predicting the outcomes of his actions in the first part, and did, in fact, prevent the rise of a ruthless dictator - albeit by accidentally replacing her with something just as bad). On the other hand, the story is quite up front about that, rather than assuming the listener won't have figured it out for themselves despite some heavy signposting, as happened in The Acheron Pulse.

The story is a space opera, with multiple, often exotic, worlds and battling space fleets as the Earth Empire encroaches on former Drashani territory. It largely focuses around attempts by the Wrath to get hold of the Doctor, but it's also notable for quite a convoluted plot as the Doctor jumps back and forth in his own timestream. It's told from the perspective of the characters he interacts with, and therefore we often see the outcome of events before their cause. Although it does all fit together, this can get a little confusing at times, but does a good job of highlighting Seven's propensity for planning, enhanced here by the fact that he often genuinely does know what's going to happen next, since he (but not the listener) has already experienced it.

That timey-wimeyness will put some people off, and the final conclusion does come across as a bit pat. (There's also a mystery figure wandering about the story; it's not terribly hard to work out who they are, although the ‘how' is at least intriguing). There is some great imagery, most notably the giant warp-capable space snail, and treacherous bounty hunter Vienna Salvatori is entertaining, if not particularly likeable. On the downside, there are rather a lot of aliens with muffled/distorted voices, presumably because so many of them are wearing masks.

I found that the positives outweighed the negatives, but it's largely a matter of taste, particularly where the time travel is concerned. It arguably tries to pull off rather too much, but mostly succeeds, so I'll give it 3.5 rounded up to 4, but not the straight four stars. Better than part two, but not quite up to the standard of part one.