Doctor Who: The Entropy Plague

This is the final part of the “Second E-Space” trilogy. As before, there are some thematic links with the equivalent story in the original televised trilogy, which in this case is Warrior's Gate, although this is otherwise entirely new.

What's perhaps more significant is that we are told, in the opening moments, that this is a companion departure story. The bulk of it, in fact, consists of the TARDIS travellers recounting what has just happened to them, with each taking up one of the 30-minute episodes. The downside here is that the conclusion loses something of its sting; we know it's going to happen, we have a reasonable idea as to why, and the only real question is exactly how we're going to get there. Perhaps the only real advantage is that the second and third episodes take place simultaneously, being told from different perspectives, with the actions in each episode influencing the other - something that works well.

Leaving aside this choice of framing device, the story itself concerns the Doctor and companions landing on a world boasting an exit to our own reality from E-Space. But the use of that portal comes at a terrible price (in more ways than one), and it's here that the story is on its strongest footing, posing questions about the true value of human life in the face of universal entropy. This central dilemma is forced into focus by the fact that we learn early on that E-Space itself is dying, with escape offering the only possibility of long-term survival.

There are some other weaknesses here and there, with the steam-powered robots not being terribly plausible, and the space pirates being cliched and annoying. The monsters, once they turn up, are at least effective, but in the grand scheme of things, they don't do much other than be threatening. The actual companion departure scene at the end is emotional and well-performed but would probably have worked better had we come into it blind, rather than being told the outcome at the start of the play.

Nonetheless, this story wraps up not only the trilogy, but also a longer story arc starting with Cobwebs five years previously. There are links to earlier stories in the arc (most notably Prisoners of Fate, by the same author, and rather better) but in the end, while it's clearly a conclusion of sorts, it's not a very spectacular one. Three stars feels a little harsh, but this feels like something that could have been better had it been done differently.