Although not written by Mike Tucker and Robert Perry, Heritage was written to fit into their story arc involving The Doctor discovering that Ace's impending death, as shown in a scene in Prime Time, is true. Author Dale Smith has come up with a real slow-burner which is more about drought than running through corridors.
The book's title is also the name of a planet with an eponymous derelict mining town that never recovered from the discovery of how to make the mineral thydonium synthetically. On 6 August 6048 The Doctor and Ace take a shuttle to Heritage as The Doctor is keen on visiting some old friends, the Heyworths. They discover that the Heyworths are gone and that they're left in a dry, dusty town that is distinctly unwelcoming. Red sand blows everywhere and gets on and into everything. It seems that the only remnants of Heritage's previous life are the Fussies, the Roombas of the DW world, always running about sucking up the dust.
It isn't long after disembarking the shuttle that Sheriff – yes, no real name, just "Sheriff" – tells our heroes to leave. Of course they refuse and so Sheriff is forced to report the arrival of the strangers to the Noah Cross of Heritage, a man named Wakeling, who has a rather loud black bird at home as well as the equivalent of a young Evelyn Mulwray who, in this case, is named Sweetness.
While the planet is suffering a near permanent drought, so are the inhabitants. Most hide behind closed doors while the proprietor of the sole tavern, Cole, serves few customers. The townsfolk live in fear of the splenetic Bernard, a dolphin aided by a mechanical apparatus like we saw in Storm Harvest that allows him to walk, translates speech, and also has a couple six-shooters built-in. Bernard is Wakeling's heavy and he has his own underlings, Ed and Christa, a couple of young reprobates.
For his part, The Doctor is depressed. He carries the burden of knowing Ace's fate and has a distinct case of the mulligrubs. He sits listlessly at Cole's bar while Ace is eager to find out what happened to the Heyworths. Cole tells her that they might be able to get some horses from a man named Lee to go off in search of The Doctor's friends and so she leaves the gloomy Time Lord at the tavern. Ace finds Lee in a state of perdition having lost his love, Ryan. His horses have also disappeared. And so she sets off on foot to the mine where answers await her.
One neat thing about this story is that, excepting the epilogue, it all takes place in the span of one day. Kind of like a tense countdown to high noon in a Western. Chapters usually span about 20 minutes but some take up more time, some less. There is a modicum of action but it is much about the interior states of the characters. The Doctor languishes in his torpor, not wanting to get involved in Heritage's admittedly shady business; Cole laments the decay of the town; Lee dwells in heartbreak, agonizing over Ryan's disappearance and how the dream they once had was shattered; and so on. This is certainly one of the bleakest DW stories I've ever encountered.
The Doctor is finally shaken from his doldrums after learning that the Heyworths are dead. We discover that Mrs. Heyworth's maiden name was Bush, as in Melanie Bush. The former denizen of the TARDIS at some point got tired of running around with Sabalom Glitz and settled down on Heritage with her mister. The trouble started when Mel approached Wakeling, who reckoned himself a genius of genetics, about helping her and her husband conceive a child as she was afflicted with a malady that caused menopause to kick in early. Wakeling agreed but his hubris got the better of him and he simply cloned Mel instead of mixing gametes from her and Mr. Heyworth. An enraged Mel confronted the faux fertility doctor. Passions grew high and Wakeling accidentally killed her.
Wakeling promised the townsfolk that his research would yield fantastic results that would elevate Heritage and humanity and so they made a Faustian bargain. They let Wakeling escape justice in hope that their lives on a dusty backwater planet would be renewed by his discoveries. This reminded me of High Plains Drifter a bit insofar as having a whole complicit in the death of one of their own.
Heritage is the odd man out of the PDAs I've read. It sustains a gloomy mood, a feeling of emptiness, throughout. Most of the townspeople are wracked by guilt. They're like T.S. Eliot's hollow men. They eke out an existence in a dead land, their dried voices unable to conjure a word of courage nor a peep of regret. The Doctor is a confused mess, unsure what to do about Ace's fate. Ace, on the other hand, can only wonder what is wrong with her mentor. The spark has gone out of him as well as the desire to do good and champion the downtrodden. When she discovers that Mrs. Heyworth was Mel, she contemplates her relationship with The Doctor. He cannot always protect her and good does not always triumph. Ace matures here a bit. While her youth is keen on blowing stuff up with Nitro-9, she is beginning to see a bigger picture.
Select chapters are prefaced with quotes from various documents and books. There's a quote from Sweetness' autobiography and a blurb about Heritage from a text on colonization. The book's final chapter included a "fragment of a letter found buried in a desecrated grave" by a corporal from UNIT which expressed profound regret. Was it written by The Doctor after Ace's death?
Loving the Alien is next and it's written by Tucker and Perry. Presumably this story arc will come to a close.
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