I've now concluded the War Doctor's first box set and I must say, if this is the general quality I can expect from Big Finish, we might as well end the TV series now and hand over the TARDIS keys to Nicholas Briggs.
The Heart Of The Battle somehow managed to nail everything a good ending should have: a tragic conclusion, action sequences, great hero-villain back and forth and best of all given the setting: incredible insights into what it means to fight a war.
WRITTEN BY
Nicholas Briggs, who I may soon start calling my favourite writer in the franchise. He's exactly the kind of sci-fi writer this show needs - big on concepts, with an emphasis on character building.
PLOT
At the heart of the Dalek invasion of Keska, the Doctor and his associates find a Time Lord who claims to be able to make peace between Gallifrey and Skaro. Driven to prove this is impossible, the Doctor challenges him to help uncover the Daleks' plot whilst also coming to the awful realisation that they were all set up...
ANALYSIS
It's stellar all the way through. The tone is perfectly pitched, so the story is mature, but not depressing. In a way, it still feels like a Doctor Who adventure, just one that's of a higher caliber(thanks to the much longer running time) and in a far darker setting.
The plot is airtight. I love how the motivations and schemes of both the Time Lords and the Daleks are a complete mystery to the Doctor until the very end, just like it is to the audience.
But what made this a truly legendary story was the conversation between the Doctor and Cardinal Ollistra at the very end, possibly the first time that the Doctor didn't get the last word on a story. Absolutely brilliant.
CHARACTERS
I've really fallen in love with John Hurt's growling monster of a Doctor over the course of this box set. There's just so many layers to him - his insistence on being irredeemable, yet his constant attempts to bring levity and peace to every situation speak of a very conflicted and sad man. I can't wait for more stories with him, and if they're as good as this one, he may yet become one of my favourite Doctors.
Jacqueline Pearce's Cardinal Ollistra is one of the most interesting Time Ladies, as she's been gifted with the ability to excuse away every dark, vile act she does. This leads to the absolutely fantastic conclusion to the story that I simply must spoil: she takes the Doctor to the far future of Keska, where the horrible events of this story have formed the planet into a paradise and the Doctor's lost friend Rejoice is rightfully heralded as a hero.
Meaning that her orchestration of the deaths of millions led to something good. That is literally Genesis Of The Daleks levels of intelligent writing.
Lucy Briggs-Owen was a really good companion. She managed to portray a much older and wizened version of her character very well. I genuinely believed she had been through decades of war since her original encounter with the Doctor(where she was quite naive and happy).
As I had anticipated, Kieran Hodgson's Bennus is revealed to have a secret, although not quite as important as I thought. Nice foreshadowing, though. I hope he and Alex Wyndham's Seratrix return in future War Doctor stories, as they're a really entertaining pair, in an "opposites attract" kind of way. But then again, the ending seemed to suggest that nothing can grow until long after the Time War, so... who knows?
Traanus, played by Mark McDonnell is the final major player, and a leader of a race of violent aggressors who are quite similar to the Klingons, except they lack in honor. So, original series Klingons then. Another wonderful performance, as he seems like a mindless brute at first, only for the writing to reveal over time that his intelligence lies in his ability to be cruel in so many ways...
NOTES
*Just as Veklin starts to get the truth about the peacemaking Time Lords out of Seratrix, the Doctor interrupts them with "None of this matters...". Um, yeah, it kind of does! I know defeating the Daleks is paramount, but surely you could spare a moment to find out what the heck's even going on!
*I know I'm speaking as a human with no war experience, but what kind of logic does negotiating with the Daleks make, even if they are unstoppable? What makes Seratrix think they'll be satisfied with the Null Zone?
*I was actually rather shocked that the Doctor went and pushed the big red button in this story, killing a number of scientists in order to defeat the Daleks.
*The "Thousand Worlds" used by the Daleks to attack Gallifrey do remind me of the 24 planets they had to collect in The Stolen Earth to destroy reality. Daleks really do love collecting planets for their evil plans, don't they?
CONTINUITY ADVISOR
1) The Daleks' plan to drive planets around in space is the same one they had in The Dalek Invasion Of Earth. It's a cool concept, so I'm glad to see it revisited.
2) The Null Zone device was taken from the Omega Arsenal, which also holds the Moment from The Day Of The Doctor. Makes sense. They mentioned in that episode that most of the weapons from the Arsenal had been used against the Daleks.
3) The Daleks having a wireless connection with one another was established in Asylum Of The Daleks. It's used to much better effect here.
BEST QUOTE
DOCTOR: (about Rejoice, after seeing her statue in the future) "Did she survive?"
OLLISTRA: "I don't know."
CONCLUSION
An action-packed, but intelligent finale that sets the stage for a new, brutal era of Doctor Who.
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