Big Finish Productions Doctor of War: Destiny

Written by	Nigel Fairs, Lizzie Hopley, Tim Foley
Format	Compact Disc
Released	2022
What if...	The Doctor really had changed history?

Starring Colin Baker, Geoffrey Beevers, Louise Jameson, Terry Molloy

Synopsis: Times have changed. A choice was made and the universe diverged. And now all of history is at war. One man stands at the centre of it all. But whose side is he on? Is he with the angels? Or the demons? And does anyone even know which is which? He was a Doctor once, but now he is Doctor no more. He is the Warrior. The Doctor of War.

• A Review by Thomas Tiley

A Review by Thomas Tiley 21/12/24

This boxset is the second in a set of stories involving an alternative Time War waged by an alternative version of the sixth Doctor called the Warrior. This is an unusual boxset forcing the sixth Doctor into an alternative Time War, an increasingly odd decision by Big Finish although understandable, as they no longer have John Hurt's War Doctor to make stories with any longer. Still, it is a weird spin off of a spin off, but I think it's an experiment that sort of pays off, even if the boxset is a little uneven. The remix of the usual theme tune is surprisingly good, a sort of darker, more bombastic take that grew on me with each listen.

First off, the artwork on the cover that first drew me in, with Leela, Davros, the Geoffrey Beevers version of the Master and Colin Baker, in a rather arty style, was nice. That plus it was the only Doctor Who CD in the store I went to other than CD novelizations is what first drew me to try this series. That and the fact it contained some of my favorites.

The first story, Who am I? by Nigel Fairs, is a retelling of The Face of Evil, one of my favorite television stories. The original involved a weird eugenic experiment implemented by the mad computer Xoanon involving breeding for strength and psychic powers, so the version of it presented in this story of a plan to breed warriors for the Time War makes a logical choice. Only this time, the Master is involved, manipulating Leela to fall in love with a Tesh called Gentek so he can steal their child.

I wanted to like this story. Louise Jameson as Leela was brilliant, sounding just like she was all those years ago. Geoffrey Beevers' Master again sounds great; he has some wonderful lines, but I found the story rehashes the original too much, following its outline far more than you'd expect for a Unbound-type story (they tend to be more "what if" rather than "here's this old episode with a different character and a twist or two"). The opening moments were confusing (apt, as it took place during a crash I suppose, but it could have been done better). The Warrior only appears at the end when this is supposed to be his series (apart from his voice being one of Xoanon's personalities) with the reasoning being he didn't want to be involved personally with the matter (it might have been stronger dramatically to have the Doctor/Warrior directly involved). Gentek and Leela fall in love in the space of five minutes in a montage and so the listener doesn't care when one is threated and killed off as we don't properly see them fall in love or develop a relationship. At the climax, when the Master reveals his plans, he tells Leela the time wall and psychic projections were side effects of his Master Machine, when in the original story the wall was meant to keep the two tribes separated and the projections were to keep the Sevateem in check not malfunctions, which suggests this story authors didn't understand the original.

Gentek's other love interest is introduced and then killed off in the space of five or ten minutes and again we can't care about poor Parama being executed by her own father because again we don't know her long enough to develop any affection towards her. We only know she and Gentek are engaged, her father is the Captain, and that's it really. In fact, her introduction and then trial/execution (during the trial the actress playing Parama also plays Xoanon, so we add the confusion of that to the mixture) take place right after each other. We never even see her interact with Gentek nor see any emotion from her father, so again it isn't really sad. The scene's sole function is to have the Master indulge in a bit of evil as he steers the trial and of course to take up time. In this version, Xoanon isn't the result of a botched repair; instead, the Master created the multiple personalities for fun. The Master suggests that Xoanon is developing thoughts and plans that suggests it is going to turn against him, but the story ends before anything comes of that (in theatre, Chekov suggest if you have a gun in act one it should be used in act three; this play obviously decided not to follow that advice). The whole play ends cruelly, with Leela having her children stolen away by the Master to turn them into agents for the Time Lords, leaving her and her people behind with Xoanon undergoing a breakdown. The whole thing is bleak and nasty.

The second story is Time Killers by Lizzie Hopley, set on Marinus. The Warrior and the Master hope to obtain a strange new weapon in a city where nobody stops still for a minute, as they are run by a mysterious bank controlled by Horol that takes the phrase "time is money" to a whole new meaning. It's an interesting story, better than the first one I think, even if we've seen/heard/read it all before: resistance movements led by the Master outside the city, a dictatorships inside, aging to death, strange time paradoxes, etc, etc. There are some funny lines and good moments for the cast.

The author states in the behind-the-scenes section of the disc that this was her first time-paradox story, and it does baer all the hallmarks of one. You've seen one, you can guess how it ends fairly easily, half-heard messages at the beginning that come back later, little things that later turn out to be more important that they first seemed, the paradox resolved in a either brilliant or stupid sort of way. Horol time power lets them drain time way from people, so the people have to keep constantly moving to feed her. The Warrior causes the planet to stop moving and in that instant when everyone realizes they aren't moving it breaks the connection, breaking Horol's power over the city (maybe if you include Quantum Mechanics/observer effect-type concepts to her time power it makes a little sense; only a little, mind).

The Master acts rather Doctor-like in this one, acting as head of the resistance outside the city dome while the Warrior acts rather spiky and unpleasant like his Season 22 self, only without a companion to mellow him out. The ending is a bit like a shaggy-dog tale; the weapon they want is useless to them in the end, a bit with a twist as the Warrior leaves the injured Master behind, telling him he has no good use for him. It's amazing in his callous treatment, as is his abandoning the planet to its fate. Colin Baker and Geoffrey Beevers (especially as he takes on an increasing Doctor-like role) are amazing throughout, as is Nicola McAuliffe as a city native that the duo befriend. Like the first story, various actors play different roles, which can be confusing as sometimes they sound alike.

The final story, The Key to Key to Time by Tim Foley, concludes the box set with a retelling of the Key to Time arc. Starting similarly to the last story, with the Warrior overhearing a faint distorted message, the Warrior gets sent on a mission to gather the Key segments by the Guardian along with an old enemy (one that the Warrior doesn't recall) Davros, in order to stop the Time war but the Time Lord President is watching their path closely

This is a great little story, with various characters double crossing and plotting against each other. The Guardians realm, in which the lakes are black holes and the fruit on the trees are stars, was a great setting. The beginning copying so much of the opening The Ribos Operation was a little grating, not to mention the actress playing her, but she soon grew on me, and the story soon develops into its own take on the Key to Time story with a few interesting takes/concepts of its own. Colin Baker and Terry Molloy make a great double team, like an odd couple/buddy cop type tale, distrusting each other at first but warming towards each other at the end. When Davros is injured and dying near the end, the Warrior refuses to leave his side, becoming at the end of the story the compassionate Doctor once more.

The villain falls a bit flat, although if I had heard the previous boxset maybe it would have made more sense turning up to make a shocking reveal. (I expected the Master but he turned out to be another character linked to the Doctor instead.) He makes an offer to join him that the Doctor refuses then buggers off to have his plan outmaneuvered by another character. Another thing: the characters get chased by something called Hordefrost/Hoarderost, a Time Lord weapon that freezes time; only spoken quickly on audio, it sounds more like another word beginning with W and rhythming with four.

The solution to ending the Time War, sealing away the source of its beginnings, was an inspired choice, not to mention the characters' reactions to it. Davros trapped in a nightmare of his own creations refusing him and killing him, while the Doctor dreaming of his old life of adventure makes a fitting end, summing up this incarnation in the last few minutes of the story perfectly. (The scene with Harry and Sarah links up to Genesis of the Daleks and the previous boxset apparently, I haven't heard it.)

I am still unsure of the boxset format. I imagine it makes it cheaper for Big Finish to make, but it does mean you can't pick and choose what stories you want. Then again, based on the strength of the first story, I wouldn't pick up any of the others, and they were much better than Who am I?.

As to the stories individual rating, Who am I? is carried by its cast only and a few nice references to its parent story so a 3/10. Time Killers is an above-average story with some fine performances and a few good ideas so a 7/10. The Key to the Key to Time starts off okay but becomes great, as it goes on, easily an 8 or 9/10. Overall I would rate this boxset a 7/10. It would be higher if the first story was better.