Doctor Who: The Architects of History

The concluding part of the “Klein Trilogy” sees the Doctor facing the results of Klein's meddling with history and the creation of her perfect society. The society in question is a right-wing utopia, with war and famine having been eliminated, and everything peaceful and well-ordered. Quite at what cost this has been achieved is only hinted at, although there is, for example, an indication of only certain people being allowed to have children. (On the plus side, given that Klein is a former Nazi, the people of her world don't seem to be racist - one of the main characters is black, and nobody bats an eyelid).

The story itself is a base-under-siege, with the fascists on the defending side. Having said which, apart from Klein's deputy, they're mostly quite sympathetic, and it's the shark-like aliens who are the main villains here. In a rather obvious role-reversal, the aliens even threaten reprisal shootings against the captured Nazis when one of their own is injured. Of course, the big question is to what extent the Doctor is behind the invasion, and how it figures into his plans to return history to its rightful course. It may be Klein's vision of utopia, rather than Hitler's, but it's still pretty clearly undesirable.

The subplot with the Doctor's alternate history companion is nicely done, emphasising her absolute faith in him while never realising that he, being the original, has no idea who she is and is never coming to rescue her. Klein herself is also given a good send-off, providing a satisfying ending to what's been an unusually good run of 7th Doc stories.