1. Beneath the Viscoid by Nicholas Briggs
On the ocean planet Gardezza, deep beneath the Viscoid, a mysterious capsule is recovered from the Time War, and an equally mysterious stranger found within. The Doctor’s reputation precedes him, even here… but can he be trusted?
2. The Good Master by Janine H Jones
The Time War rages around Arcking – a planet serving as a sanctuary for the sick and injured. But Arcking is protected by a mysterious, powerful force: a force the Master will stop at nothing to harness… even if time itself is against him.
3. The Sky Man by James Goss
When his new companion decides to save a planet, the Master indulges this most futile of requests. Materialising on a primitive, agrarian world, both the strangers quickly find their place in it… until fallout from the War invades their happy paradise.
4. The Heavenly Paradigm by Guy Adams
With his plans approaching fruition, the Master travels to Stamford Bridge in the 1970s: a location he believes might hold the key to his success. But what terrible secret lurks under the stairs of No. 24 Marigold Lane? And what sacrifices will the Master make in the name of ultimate victory?
THE WAR MASTER: BENEATH THE VISCOID
We learned on television that the Master fought in the Time War, so it’s no surprise that Big Finish wanted to explore this time period under their new series license – but it was quite a coup for them to secure the participation of Derek Jacobi, who returns to the role he made so memorable in mere minutes of screen time. Naturally, when it was time to select the author to lead off the range and set the tone, they chose… oh lord, really? Yes, it’s Nicholas Briggs, and he provides exactly the same Dalek war story he’s been telling for over a decade now. This time, the Daleks have invaded the ocean planet Gardezza, and they have chased the inhabitants under the water (the Viscoid), where they now lead a resistance against the Daleks. You know how this story goes by now, so I won’t elaborate. The unique factor is the Master, recovered from the ocean in an escape capsule – and he immediately claims to be the Doctor. Due to the raging Time War, Nius (Jacqueline King) and her people know the Doctor by reputation, and immediately grant the Master access to their technology. Through flashback, Briggs recounts how the Master was captured by the Daleks and offered to give them his TARDIS in exchange for his life. So he’s on Gardezza searching for it – but of course he’s working to his own agenda, trying to betray the Daleks and regain his freedom. It’s an odd decision to introduce this character by having him pretend to be someone else, but it does allow the story to underscore the differences between the Doctor and the Master: namely, that the Master’s first priority is always and forever himself. There’s nothing surprising or particularly exciting about “Beneath the Viscoid” – the “twist” at the end is a welcome dose of brutality but it’s hardly something you won’t see coming. And the end of the story leads into a Gallifrey box set that isn’t out yet. Still, Jacobi is great, and Briggs at the very least lays the groundwork for a new take on the Master.
5/10
THE WAR MASTER: THE GOOD MASTER
The second story, “The Good Master” by Janine H. Jones, is an improvement on the first simply because it’s not quite so predictable and clichéd. It also asks interesting questions about the Master: is he capable of good deeds? Is he capable of altruism? In this story, he’s working on the planet Arcking as a doctor, healing Time War refugees while waiting out a plan to take command of the mysterious force that keeps the planet from harm. Here, he meets med-tech Cole Jarnish (Jonny Green), who becomes his de facto companion for the remainder of the box set. Since the Master is a genius, it’s no surprise that he’s a capable physician – but he actually appears to exhibit compassion toward his patients, even if inside he’s always planning his next move. Unfortunately, the story’s approach to this material isn’t very clear: I have no problem with ambiguity, but I’m genuinely unsure if the Master is supposed to be showing a softer side. I also don’t like the storytelling devices we’re seeing in each story: first, the Master pretends to be the Doctor; second, he pretends to be a doctor; third, he removes himself entirely from the action. I’ll get to that more in my next review, but this is the only time we’ve seen the Jacobi Master outside of five minutes at the end of “Utopia” – shouldn’t we have more of him at center stage, not in disguise or on the sidelines? Still, this is a solid story that makes me want to learn more about this Master, even if those answers never come.
6/10
THE WAR MASTER: THE SKY MAN
The third story, “The Sky Man” by James Goss, is the best of the four. It’s also the one that least involves the Master, which doesn’t speak well of the box set. Cole Jarnish, appalled by the effects of the Time War, demands from the Master the opportunity to save an otherwise-doomed world. After some negotiation, they land on a planet that has abandoned advanced technology in an attempt to avoid the attention of the Time War. The Master retreats to start a vineyard and Cole is left to help the people. What follows is a fairly basic story of this type: initially mistrustful, the people learn to accept Cole as he repairs things and improves their way of life. But when the Time War comes, in the form of temporal fallout that acts much like nuclear fallout, they turn on him even as their society crumbles. Jonny Green is fantastic in this: he always seems to be a step behind, and the increasing desperation in his actions comes across convincingly in his performance. The end of the story is shocking: in a final gamble to save the people, he locks them in support suits that they can never remove and even includes emotional suppressors to stop them panicking. As a result, the people decide coldly to seek out those who damaged their planet and destroy them. It’s the Cybermen, in other words. It has apparently been said they’re not supposed to be Cybermen, but Doctor Who has lately embraced the idea that “Cybermen” tend to evolve wherever technology outpaces morality, and “The Sky Man” is a perfect example of this. I mentioned in my previous review that I don’t like how this set sidelines the Master, and that definitely happens here, as he spends the entire story tending to a vineyard. His insistence upon drinking the wine at the conclusion is sinister, and it illustrates his manipulative, goal-oriented mind, but this feels like a story that should be told later, after the character has been established. Nonetheless, “The Sky Man” is a very strong, emotional story and easily the best in the box.
8/10
THE WAR MASTER: THE HEAVENLY PARADIGM
And so the War Master box set comes to a close with “The Heavenly Paradigm” by Guy Adams, a story that both ties together the set and links it directly with the TV show – and struggles to maintain coherency as a result. The Master’s plan is as convoluted as you’d expect: there’s a hidden Time Lord weapon on Earth that, when activated, will end the Time War by rewriting the Daleks’ history to make them nice. But the weapon requires an unrealistically high amount of paradox energy to power up, so the Time Lords never used it. The Master saves Cole Jarnish from certain death, creating a paradox, and then lets him save an entire planet that should have been destroyed, creating an exponentially larger one. He then plugs Cole into the machine, and uses his paradox energy to start up the machine and attempt to end the Time War. On television, the hints at the Master’s past in the Time War were quite interesting. He fought on the front lines, he saw something indescribably horrible when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform, and he fled and went into hiding rather than continuing to fight. “The Heavenly Paradigm” essentially rewrites these ideas and does so for the worse. As we’ve seen in this set, the Master isn’t really fighting in the War, he’s working at the periphery. This story shows us the Cruciform incident – which the Master watches via remote as the Heavenly Paradigm backfires. And we see his decision to flee and use a Chameleon Arch, which is not a panicked, cowardly decision but rather a calculated one driven by fatigue. All of this is in character for the Master, of course, but the TV show strongly implied the Time War changed him, whereas even at the end of this set he’s basically the same he’s always been. It’s also awkwardly written, as the ending feels more like clearing the decks to get us into “Utopia” than it does a fitting conclusion to the box set. In many ways, this set is as much of a letdown as the War Doctor sets, and yet again proves Russell T. Davies right – we shouldn’t have told Time War stories in the first place.
5/10