Heritage: Truth and Bone

"We are Sontarans. We are exiled against our will."

Writer: Roy Gill

Format: Audio

Released: May 2020

Series: Patermoster Gang 3.03

Featuring: Vastra, Jenny, Strax

Synopsis

Bloomsbury troublemakers Stonn and Tom Faster are back, and in much more trouble than ever before.

Sontar has turned its attention to Earth as Requisitioner Skark looks to retrieve missing soldiers. And Jenny finds Vastra preoccupied with the past, which may lead to a very dark future...

Verdict

Truth and Bone was an excellent story to conclude the third volume of Heritage! This has been a really strong third series and this finale was probably the best of the bunch. I thought it was brilliant continuity with the spinoff as a whole to bring back Stonn and Tom Foster as part of the Bloomsbury Bunch from A Photograph to Remember and they really felt at home being back. They're so fun and contrasting them with a likewise set of characters in the Paternoster Gang works so well. I will admit that Vella was missed but I do hope there is something more to that as Vastra seemed to be longing for interaction with her own species. This was a brilliant story for Strax and I'm a big fan of him dealing with some Sontaran past and his purpose of being cloned. His relationship with Stonn was glorious and just hearing them interact was an absolute delight. They had so much chemistry and they just gelled. Tom Foster being the one to bring the Paternoster Gang around was fun and hiding that from Stonn as he embarked on a crazy mission to replace the postal service was good stuff. I thought his attempts to reconfigure the aviation species was just ludicrous and Vastra's drawing of her own conclusion at what she thought Stonn had planned was a terrific moment. Her reaction to finding that it was all a money device was very fun. I enjoyed the continuity from Whatever Remains with Vastra dealing with the spirit of Anura inside her mind and that came into full impact here. She needed help and almost persuasion to get at Skark and the ancient Silurian spirit had no trouble in providing it. The concept of conflict and history between the Sontarans and Silurians was excellent and that is something I would love to explore further as Vastra now embarks on a mission to discover prehistoric artefacts. That's a good direction to head in for the final boxset and I can't wait to get there. Skark was a fun Sontaran character and it was great to have a traditional Sontaran commander around, not that Stonn chose to recognise his authority though. Strax admitting to Stonn that he was actually happy as a butler was fascinating and it's lovely to know that he feels that way and content with his life. His asking of whether there could be other glories that weren't war was brilliant as well. I loved the challenging to the Sontarans of their ancestors and the reference to The First Sontarans with their origins was brilliant. I loved the reaction of Skark to that forbidden knowledge. Skark wasn't shying from knowledge though as he sparked a similar reaction in Vastra when mentioning a number of other Silurian hibernations. Vastra was seemingly longing for attention of her own race. The relationship between Stonn and Tom Foster was really nice and I liked how the Sontaran seemed happy to now take and protect his man. I do hope we haven't heard the end of them though! The conversation at the end between Jenny and Vastra was emotional and there was real concern in the human for what the spirit of Anura had done, but it seemed she was rid of that now. Overall, a strong finale! 

Rating: 9/10