The Iron Shore

Third Doctor Adventures #11.3

Released: 23 February 2023

Listened: 3/5/23

The next trip for the Doctor and Jo is…kinda strange. They end up on an ocean planet, in a shipyard that’s fallen on hard times because of a “curse.” There are also indigenous people who object to the folks who built the dock. Jo’s on their side, naturally, but not nearly as much as I would have expected her to be. She’s also sympathetic to the suffering dockworkers, who believe themselves victims of a curse. Basically, everybody’s miserable, and nobody wants to talk about their problems straight away, which leaves the Doctor and Jo operating in ignorance for a while. When the monster finally does appear, it seems to be a “misplaced alien causes trouble accidentally” situation…except that’s not what’s going on, not remotely. Very oddly for this series, the story is narrated by Jo, and opens with a scene where the Doctor is badly hurt, with the rest told in flashback. That puts the emphasis on Jo and Katy Manning’s narration skills, but I’m not really sure it was necessary. The story is very atmospheric, but also kind of confusing. It feels like there should be more to solve the natives’ plight. It’s never really clear whether this is a space-faring civilization or not, probably because it was originally set in Liverpool, but got moved to an alien planet.