The Rutans vs. Sontarans plot thread comes to a close and thankfully it’s a good one. Not a great one like the opener, but a good one, with some really satisfying twists and scenes at the very end. It also once again reunites Paul McGann’s Doctor with Charley and C’rizz, which still makes me smile that we’re getting new C’rizz stories in the 2020s… Anyway, let’s take a look!
After the destruction of a major Sontaran stronghold they have agreed to peace talks with the Rutans, but hearing the news and refusing to buy it The Doctor (Paul McGann) arrives as a reporter while C’rizz (Conrad Westmass) poses as an aide to the Rutan Ambassador (Cecelia Appiah) and Charley to the Sontaran General Scur (Jonathon Carley). For the first half of the story there are some amusing back and forth between the two sides and the companions while The Doctor bonds with a reporter called Selina Carr (Ajjaz Awad) but soon the Rutan Ambassador and other higher ups are poisoned, but the culprit takes everyone by surprise…
I’ll leave it there because there are actually spoilers to talk about this time, and they’re very fun spoilers too. As I said, it’s a good story, especially the first time round when you can follow along with knowing 100% what’s happening.
The Continuity:
I feel C’rizz has had more cover appearances this past few years than most of his previous run, due to the awkwardness of having to create his likeness and all.
Apart from directly connecting to the other three Rutans vs. Sontarans stories, this is pretty standalone… which is a stupid thing to say because due to that it’s not at all standalone, but you know what I mean!
Overall Thoughts:
“Peace at Last” has some more fun with the Rutans and Sontarans for half its run time before tying the past four releases all together in a really satisfying way. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good, making this series a hit overall.
While General Scur admits he destroyed the Sontaran stronghold just to force the Rutan high command to one spot to kill them he didn’t plan to poison them, as that would be cowardly, and instead it’s revealed that Selina Carr is actually Melmoth, the Rutan separated from its host we’ve seen the past two stories (or heard, I guess) and it was them behind it. The space station the peace talks were taking place in soon drifts towards an explosive end and as if to prove it would have been possible the Rutan Ambassador and Scur work together to stop it from destroying a good chunk of space, at the cost of their own lives (and therefore neither of their species will ever know it happened…)
Meanwhile Melmoth boards the TARDIS and threatens to transform into The Doctor and head down its own timeline to make sure they accomplish what they did as that’s what they remember happened, but eventually they’re mentally overwhelmed and collapse. The Doctor begrudgingly uses the TARDIS and makes sure history stays on track by visiting Melmoth as we’ve heard in the past two stories, and then takes them to the Rutan homeworld, where they’re finally reconnected with the Host, so even though they’re about to die they’re happy… until this allows Melmoth to unlock all of its memories. It remembers that it was there on the first day of the war, that it was a member of The Division and how The Doctor and his cohorts had cut them off from the Host and abandoned them in the first place AND started the war. As it tries to tell The Doctor this it only manages to say a few phrases, with The Doctor hearing “Division” and simply saying “yes, but you’re not divided anymore!” leaving Melmoth’s last words to be “No, that’s not what I meant, I- argghhh!”. Great stuff, that the Eighth Doctor was on the verge of hearing something he wouldn’t actually find out for many, many lives. That also means Melmoth appeared in all four of these stories, making it a fun connected series in the end.