During the Taggart era, 'Taggart' was up there with the best gritty kind of detective/mystery series. Also found a lot to love about the early half of the Jardine period, though his later episodes were more variable, none being misfires though. Post-"Death Trap" and when Burke was in charge, 'Taggart' didn't feel the same while not completely hating it (there were moments).
The previous Burke-era episodes were indicative of the show's decline. "Fade to Black" does nothing to make me change my mind about 'Taggart' not being as good as it used to be, while not being an unwatchable episode (generally found it very average and at this point of the show's run by 'Taggart' standards that is underwhelming). And for the same reasons pretty much as well, so the Burke-era episodes were not getting better at this point.
"Fade to Black" looks good, even the lesser episodes had the production values as one of their better components. Although ideas and momentum were running out, the stylishness and grit is not lost here and never did. The music is also suitably moody and have never had any trouble remembering the main theme.
Intriguing moments are there and the denouement is a little more surprising than the ones for the previous two episodes (particularly "Hard Man"). The acting is generally more than serviceable, with Blythe Duff continuing to be one of the main reasons as to why 'Taggart' was still stuck with.
Burke though has yet to be an interesting character, no subtlety to him at all and very obnoxious, in serious need of some anger management. Had still not warmed to Alex Norton either in the role. The chemistry between the team doesn't really have enough spark, the odd smile-worthy line aside.
Compared to before, the intrigue and bite present before in the writing aren't there enough. The story felt tired and indicative again of the show running out of ideas, complicated by the Burke subplot which was not very interesting and didn't add much to the mystery or to Burke himself.
On the whole, disappointing but not without its good points. 5/10