1. The Starship of Theseus by John Dorney
The Doctor and his companion, Sheena, land the TARDIS on the glamorous luxury space-liner Theseus just as it’s about to leave the Jupiter space-port. But when a disturbance catches their attention, they realise sinister events are taking place on board. Can the Doctor and Emma solve the mystery? Or is there something else they should be worrying about?
2. Echoes of War by Matt Fitton
Colliding with the full force of the Time War, the Doctor crash-lands on a jungle world with a ragtag band of refugees.
Luckily, the Doctor has friends: not only plucky scientist Bliss, but another, much more unlikely ally. Its name is ‘Dal’…
3. The Conscript by Matt Fitton
Cardinal Ollistra has a new tactic to persuade the Doctor to join his people’s fight. With his friends locked away, he has been conscripted alongside fellow Gallifreyans to train for the front lines of battle.
Can there be any place for dissent when the Time War looms so close?
4. One Life by John Dorney
As the full force of the Time War crashes down around the Doctor and his friends, a desperate battle for survival ensues.
But not everyone is playing the same game. Ollistra is after a weapon that could end the war in a stroke and she’ll sacrifice anyone or anything to take it back to Gallifrey. Even the Doctor.
Surrounded by Daleks, and on a tortured planet, only one man can save the day. But he doesn’t want to fight.
THE EIGHTH DOCTOR: THE TIME WAR: VOLUME ONE
“The Eighth Doctor: The Time War” has been on the schedule for quite some time, but only recently was it announced as the first in an ongoing series. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is intended to replace the War Doctor series following the unfortunate passing of John Hurt. It shares many of the characteristics of that series, for better and for worse – there’s some fantastic material for Paul McGann, but its lack of imagination once again proves Russell T. Davies right about the Time War.
Over the course of four stories, the box set follows the adventures of the Doctor and a group of ordinary travelers whose lives are turned upside down and inside out by the Time War. The stories, written by John Dorney and Matt Fitton, follow a consistent through-line, but occasional moments of greatness are balanced by questionable decisions. The first story, Dorney’s “The Starship of Theseus,” is also the best. The title refers to the philosophical question of the Ship of Theseus: if every component part of a greater whole is replaced over time, is the result still the same object or a new creation? Dorney’s script applies this concept to a person’s life: what happens when a person’s history is rewritten? The script doesn’t really ask the “are they the same person?” question – though the starship is in fact called “Theseus” – but it puts the listener right in the heart of the matter in its treatment of the Doctor and his companion. When the story begins, the Doctor is traveling with a young woman named Sheena (Olivia Vinall). As the story continues, the Doctor addresses her by different names while his tales of how they met continue to shift. Finally, she vanishes from the play entirely and nobody remembers that she even existed. It’s a shockingly effective device, expertly seeded through the script and hitting like a ton of bricks. History is changing because the Theseus is caught in the fallout of the Time War, and even the ship itself changes from a luxury space-liner to a ship full of desperate refugees. Things get less interesting when the Daleks show up, but the story is rescued because it wholly embraces the utterly ludicrous conceit of space trolls living in hyperspace tunnels demanding tolls for passage.
If the rest of the stories followed suit, this would be an amazing set. Unfortunately, the set slowly shifts to telling more ordinary war stories. “Echoes of War” by Fitton is the second story, featuring the Doctor and the refugees from the first story traveling across a jungle planet in search of shelter. But a Dalek is trapped with them, and its damaged casing coupled with Time War fallout means it no longer has its memories. So the travelers must work with the Dalek without accidentally jogging its memory, lest it wake up completely and kill them all. If you’re thinking this sounds a lot like the recent Companion Chronicle “Across the Darkened City,” you’re right – it’s basically the same story. It retreads the “can a Dalek be good” ground, and the tension it creates is undercut somewhat by the fact that the travelers just have to avoid saying the word “Dalek.” The story is thrilling enough to be entertaining, but it’s crying out for more depth.
The low point is the third story, Fitton’s “The Conscript.” For some reason, they decided that the Time War needed a “new recruit” story, so the Doctor is forcibly conscripted into the Time Lord army. There’s a drill instructor, a sadistic underling, and every clichéd sequence you’ve seen since Full Metal Jacket killed the genre. Yes, there’s a bit where Time Lord recruits march while chanting to the “I don’t know but I’ve been told” cadence. The Doctor doesn’t want to cooperate, of course, but complies when the platoon is punished in his place. The end of the story makes a play for relevance, when we learn the essential hopelessness of the war, but it doesn’t make the preceding hour any more interesting. If you really want to see the Doctor go through boot camp, I guess this is the story for you – but why do we need to reduce the Time War once again to 20th century war clichés?
Fortunately, things pick back up at the end, with Dorney’s “One Life,” which attempts to tie the overarching plot up in a neat bow and largely succeeds. We spend the first story in pursuit of a Time Lord renegade we simply assume is the Doctor; here, both we and the Doctor learn that he was never the renegade in question. In fact, the renegade is potentially the way for the Time Lords to win the war: he has the ability to alter the course of history using nothing but his mind. Rather than use this awesome power to end the war, he goes into hiding, using a Chameleon Arch – so naturally we discover that he’s been in the story the whole time as one of the supporting characters. There’s some good characterization here – the renegade exhibits a ton of pathos as he tries to construct an ordinary life for himself, Ollistra cares only about ending the war as quickly as possible, and the Doctor positions himself furiously between them, understanding the desire to end the war but not wanting to force that viewpoint on another. The big flaw here is that the renegade is too powerful, and as such the story doesn’t provide a truly satisfying explanation of why he didn’t win the war. If he possessed a literal weapon, and didn’t want to carry it into battle, it would sit more easily – but as he can literally rewrite reality itself, that explanation doesn’t satisfy me. I understand the slippery slope argument and not wanting to act like a god, but ending the greatest and most destructive war in the history of existence is hardly something that necessarily leads to seeking universal domination on one’s own.
After Sheena is unceremoniously written out, we’re introduced to our actual new companion for this range: Bliss, played by Rakhee Thakrar. Unfortunately, she’s totally unmemorable. I kept waiting for her to set herself apart from her comrades and make it obvious why the Doctor wants her around, but no. Hopefully she’ll get some actual material to perform in future sets. Overall, The Eighth Doctor: The Time War, Series 1, is a mixed bag. When it’s blazing new trails into the Time War, it’s excellent; when it’s retreading old ground or regurgitating war clichés, it’s tedious. Thankfully, Paul McGann is excellent throughout. Furthermore, this is much better than any of the War Doctor sets. But yet again, I ask: was RTD right? Is it possible to dramatize the Time War? Or will every attempt fall frustratingly short? I suppose we’re going to find out.
7/10