The Shadow Heart
Fifty years after his reprogramming of the Wrath, the Doctor is on the run from them, and has fallen into the clutches of the Wrath’s hired mercenary, Vienna Salvatori. A number of close calls forces the Doctor to rely on the crew of a modified, space-faring snail to help him escape. The Wrath are never far behind, and the Earth warship Trafalgar, taking part in Earth’s war against the onslaught of the Wrath across the galaxy, is only a step behind them. The Wrath want the two men responsible for their existence: their creator, Tenebris, and the man who turned them into an unstoppable force of flawed justice, the Doctor. Tenebris has been preparing for this reunion with his deadly creation for decades. But it turns out that the Doctor has been working toward the end game even longer.
written by Jonathan Morris
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Wilfredo AcostaCast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), James Wilby (Tenebris), Chase Masterson (Vienna Salavatori), Eve Karpf (Talbar), Alex Mallinson (Horval), John Banks (Captain Webster / Starbaff / Wrath Emperor), Jaimi Barbakoff (Lt. Dervish)
Notes: When Vienna remarks that the Doctor isn’t dead, he tells her he’s “merely pining for the fjords”, providing that moment for which we’ve all been waiting for decades, the meeting of Monty Python and Doctor Who. Chase Masterson also appeared in the subscriber bonus release Night Of The Stormcrow, starring Tom Baker, released the following month in 2012, though she has reprised the role of Vienna in an audio spinoff series revolving around that character for Big Finish.
LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green
Promising to take Jago and Litefoot from the wild environs of Venus to a decent pub, the Doctor brings the TARDIS in for a landing… near Roanoke, Virgina in 1590, a missing British colony in the Americas, and decidedly bereft of pubs… or, for that matter, people. The expedition sent to check up on Roanoke has found nothing except for three suspiciously out-of-place Englishmen and a group of Native Americans believed to have massacred the missing colonists. Jago falls ill and begins to fade away – quite literally, gradually turning transparent. It’s a fate that he shares with many others, both British and Native American alike, as a mysterious translucent being and a swarm of spectral children routinely appear to claim new victims. None of this is in the history books, because something has caused a major diversion in history… namely, the arrival of the TARDIS. The Doctor must set history right with little more than the power of persuasion on his side.
In the time vortex, the TARDIS registers the presence of a swarm of life forms numbering into the billions; one of them telepathically contacts Romana as it passes, with its only message being “the sands of life.” The TARDIS materializes on Earth, which is the swarm’s eventual destination. Both newly-elected Earth President Sheridan Moorkurk and a ruthless industrialist named Cuthbert are already aware of the swarm’s approach, and are preparing in their own ways. The approaching swarm has already fouled one of Cuthbert’s R&D projects, so he’s keen to eliminate the creatures, whatever their intention might be, while President Moorkurk quickly learns, in her first day in office, that Cuthbert’s influence runs deep within the government she’s inherited. The Doctor and Romana are captured, and the arrival of two aliens ahead of the swarm arouses more than just a little bit of suspicion. Romana is taken into custody by the military, and General Vincent plans to make use of her ability to commune with the approaching creatures. The Doctor is handed over to Cuthbert, who wants to put the Doctor’s knowledge and intuition to use for his personal gain. And finally, the first of the Laan reaches Earth. A large, whale-like species whose domain is the time vortex, they have some to the Sahara Desert to spawn in the “sands of life.” The birth of each group of Laan pups releases an enormous amount of both kinetic and temporal energy – enough, the Doctor surmises, to do serious damage to Earth. Is Cuthbert right to want to declare war on the Laan?
