In memory of the great Sir John Hurt, I've decided to give the War Doctor another chance by delving into his first Big Finish box set, Only The Monstrous.
The Innocent is a solid introduction that actually makes me feel better about the show's decision to retcon the Doctor as a kind figure during the Time War.
WRITTEN BY
Nicholas Briggs. Why hasn't he written a televised story yet?
PLOT
After destroying the Dalek fleet with a Time Destructor, the War Doctor crashes onto the peaceful planet of Keska and is faced with the memory of his former, heroic life when he finds them under siege with nobody to help...
ANALYSIS
Basically, what this story does is establish the character of the War Doctor, and re-affirm that he's not some kind of anomaly. We see this depressing, grim incarnation in a situation that any one of his other selves could've found themselves in and all I can say is, he hasn't lost his touch. It really helps to connect his incarnation to those others.
I was quite surprised at how easy it was to follow what was going on, as I remembered having some real trouble with the medium(the lack of description for the surroundings bothered me, as I couldn't tell what exactly was going on). For the first time, I wasn't constantly checking the time and hoping to just get the story over with(even when it was good).
I'm now very excited to get into more Big Finish, specifically the rest of the War Doctor stories although I will of course finish the televised stories before seriously tackling it. Still, it means that I will definitely not be done with this franchise for years and years to come.
CHARACTERS
In case you've missed or forgotten my thoughts on The Day Of The Doctor, I was really not impressed with the War Doctor. I missed Christopher Eccleston's sober Doctor badly(he's my favourite of all of them) and I thought that the only man who could've replaced him was Paul McGann, which Dark Eyes only seemed to prove.
I don't want to say John Hurt's Doctor was dumbed down for the kids, but that's the feeling I got. Moffat writes every Doctor the same(making it even sillier that he wouldn't bring back McGann), so Hurt got the same carefree silly lines that the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors did and it just diluted the point of his Doctor completely for me.
Here, however, Hurt gets to be the leading man of his own story and as a result, both his performance and position in the franchise improve. I feel like I finally know what kind of a man he is and that's someone in deep denial of himself and the universe around him. He's a joyful, caring, free-spirited person buried under a veil of pessimism and ruthlessness.
In a bizarre paradox, he's a good man who strives to be a bad man because he thinks that's the right thing to do.
Rejoice, played by Lucy Briggs-Owen, is a great "what if" companion. We don't learn that much about her backstory, except that she's the daughter of an important official, but her stoic "kindness for the sake of it", patience and curiosity balanced out with the War Doctor's grumpy doomsday-promoting perfectly. She was like an older, wiser Lynda with a Y.
Cardinal Ollistra, played by Jacqueline Pearce(of The Two Doctors and Blake's 7 fame) is a really interesting character, in that she still holds the Doctor as something of an embarrassment, like the Time Lords did in the classic series.
NOTES
*Okay, so Big Finish now has the new series licence, but they still have to fake the TARDIS sound effects and the intro music? Are those rights held by someone else?
*I could swear there's sound effects from Terminator Genisys in this(the Time Destructor).
*They never really explained what kind of an effect the Time Destructor had on the Doctor apart from injuring him enough to make him sleep for a year. I kept wondering if the reason he looks so old is because of the Destructor, but that's never confirmed.
*So, what exactly happened when the Doctor declared that he's a monster? I know it sounds absurd, but did he punch Rejoice in the face in a fit of rage? Because that's what it sounded like. Somehow she ended up falling off of the boat.
*I hope the Doctor's dreams come back to play in future episodes, because they kept repeating those every time he lost consciousness and it didn't seem to lead anywhere.
CONTINUITY ADVISOR
1) The Doctor uses a Time Destructor to stop the Dalek fleet. This horrific Dalek weapon was introduced in The Daleks' Master Plan, where the First Doctor activated it, resulting in Katarina's death by rapid aging and the Daleks being reversed into fetuses. I think it's a really interesting concept and I'm glad to see it make a return here.
2) When talking about the Time War, the Doctor mentions how the Time Lords sent him back in time to stop the development of the Daleks in Genesis Of The Daleks(a concept that, as far as I know, can be attributed to Russell T. Davies). This is another neat reference.
3) The effect of the Time Lords capturing the Doctor's TARDIS at the end seems to be identical to their first appereance in The War Games(a strange windy sound followed by time slowing down). Another neat, subtle moment that adds to the War Doctor's legitimacy.
BEST QUOTE
"What is war, if not the embodiment of hypocrisy?" - Cardinal Ollistra.
CONCLUSION
We're only getting into the thick of it next time, but this was a really nice way of getting to know the War Doctor. It elevated him in my eyes exactly as I hoped it would and I'm properly hyped for some Time War madness next episode.
Goodbye Sir John, and thank you for these performances.
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