A Heart on Both Sides

Short Trips #7.9

Released: 27 September 2017

Listened: 1/13/22

The Time War seems to be in full swing now, with various other races getting involved. Former companion Nyssa is running a hospital ship, providing aid to victims of the war, no matter who they may be. It’s not clear where in Nyssa’s timeline this is, whether before her time with her family or after, or maybe the war messed everything up. The story is narrated by Sarah Sutton, and carries the Fifth Doctor’s theme music. In fact, it’s not clear to Nyssa whether the Doctor was ever there at all. Writer Rob Nisbet tosses in an awful lot of continuity references here, especially about the Fifth Doctor’s celery, but also various other new-series nods, to the point where I think it was overdone. The Time Lords here are shown in their vicious, “win at all costs” mode that the Doctor particularly objects to. It seems a bit early in the war for that kind of behavior, but it’s hard to tell just when this is.