Doctor Who: Shadow of the Past

A Third Doctor story told from the perspective of Liz Shaw.

The story here does a good job of re-capturing the feel of the 3rd Doc's era, and unlike the previous Liz Shaw story, is set in the middle of her only TV season, rather than in its immediate aftermath. There's a suitably powerful alien menace, and a fair role for UNIT, while still allowing Liz to be the centre of her own tale.

A definite weakness is the rather hand-wavy disposal of the main invasion fleet, the existence of which doesn't really add much to the story. You'll probably also spot the “twist ending” coming a mile off! Other than that, though, it works quite well, with an interesting monster (based on sponges, no less) and a good framing device that, as in some other Guerrier Companion Chronicles, feeds back into the main story.

If you're a particular fan of Pertwee, and especially his first season, you'll probably really enjoy this, as the characterisations are well done, and the atmosphere is spot on. For myself, while it's better than it's predecessor Blue Tooth, I think I'll give it 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3.