Really the story is a thinly veiled political statement with a very weak bit of sci-fi thrown in. The Fearmonger is a boring menace. The real tragedy is that the Fearmonger had the wonderfully corporeal form of Jacqueline Pearce to manifest in and yet this was wasted. A brilliant actress with the capacity to be truly menacing is squandered here as a peripheral character, a basic host for the parasitic Fearmonger. Foremost among them, for me anyway, is the characterization of the Doctor and Ace.
History can sort itself out.
This is a marked contrast to the Seventh Doctor of the TV series or the New Adventures. Ace's character has also matured, no longer a bomb-toting perpetual adolescent with a huge chip on her shoulder and a lot to learn, she is now compassionate and contemplative. The two characters fit together very well and the actors obviously enjoy working together. One of the strongest aspects of this story, which in my opinion was horribly underused, was the casting of Jacqueline Pearce as New Britannia leader Sherilyn Harper. Pearce is an actress who is skilled at playing the evil leader, having done so as Servalan in Blake's 7.