The War Doctor Box Set: Volume 3 Review
Gustaff Behr gives his verdict on the War Doctor’s third audio boxset.
Personally, Volume Two marked a series high for the War Doctor so I knew from the get go to not set my expectations too high for this release as it would be nigh-impossible to exceed it. But that’s a good thing as it helped me see this third box set for what it is: A new instalment that features a consistent run of quality stories for our non-Doctor.
The Shadow Vortex
While the central theme behind Infernal Devices was weapons of universal and temporal destruction, Agents of Chaos deals with the idea of defectors, traitors and so forth. Perhaps the biggest bonus in The Shadow Vortex is hearing Neve McIntosh not as Madame Vastra, but as Lara Zannis, an antagonistic agent of the Daleks in Berlin 1961. Not only is she fantastic in this role, proving herself a formidable foe for the Doctor, but alongside Dan Starkey, we are now 2/3s the way to getting that Paternoster Gang spin-off announcement.
Infernal Devices set the bar tremendously high so it’s a good thing Agents of Chaos doesn’t focus all its efforts on trying to jump over it. Instead, we are presented with three stories, forming a short, but satisfying arc contained within three episodes that are each strong in their own right. John Hurt and Timothy Speyer make a good team as the War Doctor and Kruger and I also enjoyed Helen Goldwyn’s character of Professor Crane.
The pacing for this first instalment is brisk and it puts you in the mind of one of those old wartime spy movies. The concept of The Shadow Vortex, while sounding cool, unfortunately is not as spectacular as the name implies, but it does a good job of bridging the “war weapons” theme of the previous box set with the “who do we trust” theme in this one. There is also a side-plot involving some KGB agents trying to capture the Doctor which I would say feels unnecessary and out of place in this story. It never really goes anywhere and I feel all that time could’ve been spent fleshing out Zannis as a character.
Rating this Story: 8/10
The Eternity Cage
It really is getting ridiculous. Two excellent Sontaran stories in one year while the last (and only) villainous Sontaran episode was in 2008. Kudos to Big Finish for giving the Sontarans a story in which they kick not only Dalek, but Time Lord butt!
The Sontarans are still trying to gain entry into the Time War and listening to Big Finish find new and creative ways of not running this storyline into the ground is marvellous. My question since 2008 has always been “Why not allow the most war-loving aliens in the universe to fight on your side in the biggest war in time?” The Eternity Cage sets out to craft an entire story justifying why they are not allowed to and showing us the lengths the Sontarans will go to fight in it. As always, Dan Starkey is the go-to guy for Sonatarans and Commander Fesk is such a deliciously cunning and evil Sontaran that any scene with Fesk is a highlight for me.
The story does however feature a couple of cool-sounding, but redundant objects such as a TARDIS Carrier. Seriously? What’s the point of designing a special TARDIS capable of holding other TARDISes? As the story approaches its climax, it becomes evident that this idea is more of a convenient plot device introduced so the writers can cut off the War Doctor’s access to his TARDIS than to provide the audience with another cool temporal weapon in the Time War.
Rating this Story: 9/10
Eye of Harmony
The box set draws to a close with Eye of Harmony, which sees the War Doctor and Ollistra in a critically damaged battle TARDIS. They come face to face with the traitor discussed in the series who identity I cannot reveal due to spoilers, but I can talk about things like their motivations and plans which frankly…suck.
Eye of Harmony does a lot of things correctly as a season finale. Unlike the TARDIS Carrier, some of the weapons used in this story on both sides puts you in the mind of the previous box set and feels very timey-wimey…in a good way.
Unfortunately, the motivations of our traitor, as well as their back-story are not one of them and indeed they put you in mind of another similarly wasted character from a previous story. It’s not a rehash, but if anything in this story needed work, it’s this.
It’s great to hear an adventure with the War Doctor and Ollistra in a sort of Doctor/Companion dynamic. I still don’t know enough about Ollistra to care what happens to her, but it’s great to see the two who have an unusual ‘can’t stand them, can’t live without them’ relationship. John Hurt and Jacqueline Pierce have remarkable chemistry together so this really helped cover for the villain’s weak characterization.
Rating this Story: 8/10
While I still hold Infernal Devices as the gold standard for War Doctor box sets, I would put Agents of Chaos at a close second. As mentioned, its consistency is one of its strongest aspects.
Next year sees the release of “Casualties of War”, the last box set as there has been no word from Big Finish to renew the War Doctor Adventures for another series…yet. Here’s hoping they do, as it would be a shame to not do so.
