The Shadow Heart (#167)

   Big Finish Main Range


For the first time we get to see the setup of the 7th Doctor’s machinations and it is a beautiful thing to see!  It doesn’t take away from the story at all so I can only hope that we get to see this type of thing again someday.  I’m sure it was a bit tricky for the writer but it was just fabulous to see in progress.  The new character, Vienna Salavatori, has plenty of possibilities for future run-ins with the Doctor as a mercenary or anything else.  She is not one to be down long, that’s for sure.  And the new hero of the spacing lanes is Hercules, the space slug!  That was a cool concept that just worked out really, really well for this story.

Prince Kylo is actually the weak link in this story as he’s become a bit predictable in his old age.  He is still obsessed with Aliona and has built himself a life with her clone.  Very one-dimensional in his obsessions, he is.  How much more can he develop as a character when the central piece of his life is Aliona anyway?  The cast of characters is far ranging and the Wrath now have a major enemy in the Earth Alliance.  And I won’t spoil the ending except to say that the reasons the Wrath chose to interfere are not the ones necessarily presented in The Acheron Pulse.  It’s more far-reaching than that!  Well done overall.  Great conclusion to the trilogy!


Sylvester McCoy

Writer: Jonathan Morris

Director: Ken Bentley

Release: November 2012

© Laura Vilensky 2019