And then Ian decides to go with Esteban on a mission to deliver a message to his hero Francis Drake. Before you know it, this story has become a road trip complicated by the Doctor behaving in a fit of pique at Ian’s impulsive behavior...and comic relief provided by Sancho The Donkey.
I don’t know what to make of this half hour. It’s like Platt abandons his original idea of demonstrating how horrific history can be and goes off on that thing expressed in the earliest part of the first segment, namely heroes and how they have been softened by time. It’s not a whiplash change in direction, but it’s really odd. And now that it’s established that we’re going to have Ian meet his hero, we don’t even get much of a cliffhanger.
As I think I mentioned when discussing the first part of this story that Companion Chronicle stories tend to be two parts, whereas this one is four. Well, even though there’s no corridor this is a Companion Chronicle version of a corridor chase. I don’t really think anything advances here--even the Doctor behaving very first season-ish by writing a letter alerting Spain to Ian’s actions is proven to be a non-starter due to Barbara’s pointing out dates. This is all treading water, and I feel real let down by this half hour.
When all is said and done, the third segment of this story doesn’t justify its existence.
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