2.1 The Lords of Terror by Jonathan Morris
When the Doctor takes Bliss to her home colony, they discover that the Time War has got there first. Bliss finds her world altered beyond recognition, and the population working to serve new masters.
No dissent is allowed. The Daleks are coming. The planet must be ready to fight them.
2.2 Planet of the Ogrons by Guy Adams
Avoiding the Time War, the Doctor and Bliss are found by an old acquaintance: the latest incarnation of a criminal mastermind the Doctor knows of old. But unlike her predecessors, the Twelve has a handle on her previous selves’ unruly minds.
There is a mystery to solve involving the Doctor’s TARDIS and its unusual occupant – and answers will be found on the Planet of the Ogrons.
2.3 In the Garden of Death by Guy Adams
In a prison camp like no other, the Most Dangerous Man in the Universe is held in isolation. The rest of the inmates have no memory of who they were or what they might have done.
No memory even of their captors. Until the interrogations begin.
2.4 Jonah by Timothy X Atack
In the depths of an ocean world ravaged by the Time War, the weary survivors are pressed into service by Cardinal Ollistra.
Something is hidden beneath the sea: the Twelve knows the truth, if only she could drag it from her jumbled mind. And when the Doctor becomes the captain of a submarine boat, all omens spell disaster…
THE EIGHTH DOCTOR: THE TIME WAR: VOLUME 2
The first “The Eighth Doctor: The Time War” set summed up Big Finish’s approach to Time War material: some interesting concepts surrounded by uninspiring war clichés. Fortunately, the second set dispenses with many of the clichés – but it still fails to cover new ground, especially when it comes to character development.
Much like the first set, the first story in the box, “The Lords of Terror” by Jonathan Morris, is the best of the lot. After the events of the first set, the Doctor decides to take Bliss back to her home planet, but upon arrival they discover that the planet has been irreparably changed by the Time War. Bliss is excited to reconnect with her family, but they find her family home razed to the ground, and the Doctor even theorizes that her family may not have existed in the first place. This is a fantastic opportunity to develop Bliss as a character, and indeed her shocked reactions to the changes to her world give us insight into her character. But there’s not enough here, largely because the first set didn’t bother to give her any development at all. We’ve never seen Bliss’s family, she’s never talked about them, and we know nothing about their relationships or how they would interact. Yes, Bliss is upset to find out they are dead, but I think most people would be upset in that situation – and because we never knew what she had, we don’t know what she’s lost.
Fortunately, the story itself is quite interesting. It seems obvious what’s going on: a ravaged planet, a totalitarian government brainwashing the people into devoting their lives to fighting an unseen enemy, a leader working as a proxy for an alien power: it must be the Daleks running things from behind the scenes, especially since we know the planet was initially attacked by the Daleks. But it’s not the Daleks: it’s the Time Lords, in a clear demonstration of why they’ve become as reviled as their enemies. As I said above, this isn’t exactly original ground, but Morris focuses on the characters rather than the plot and the story excels as a result. The Time Lords have a point, after all – if their strategy could truly end the war, it might be worth the sacrifice of one planet’s history – and it’s also fascinating to see the Doctor briefly debate the wisdom of calling the Daleks for help. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s a strong story that reinforces how valuable Morris’s voice still is to Big Finish.
The second story, “Planet of the Ogrons” by Guy Adams, brings back a new villain and gives a new perspective on earlier stories. It’s also incredibly, almost staggeringly fannish. As the title implies, it is indeed set on the Planet of the Ogrons, and that’s what they call it: The Planet. Adams sets out to explore the history of the relationship between the Daleks and Ogrons, fleshing out Ogron society as much as possible while still retaining their essential simplicity. We also learn that the Daleks have interfered with the Ogrons’ history during the Time War, to the extent that the Ogrons we saw in “Day of the Daleks” were apparently retroactively inserted there. So “Day of the Daleks” as we know it is actually a doctored post-Time War version of the original incident. I like the willingness to play with continuity, though it’s nowhere close to the standard set by Lawrence Miles in “Interference.”
We’re also presented with a Dalek scientist called the Hybrid, created from the genetic material of other species and blended together in a Dalek shell. The Hybrid is capable of penetrating insight, and so even though the Daleks view it as an abomination, they keep it around as a strategist. Unfortunately, the Hybrid just sounds like Nicholas Briggs whispering into the mic, but the performance is nonetheless good. We also learn that an Ogron has been created with the Doctor’s memories, which is the hook for the story, and leads to some genuinely funny scenes with “Doctor Ogron,” played expertly by Jon Culshaw. Adams goes overboard with the continuity, however, and it’s impossible to take Doctor Ogron’s death scene seriously when it’s full of winking references to regeneration scenes.
“Planet of the Ogrons” also introduces Julia McKenzie as the latest incarnation of the Eleven, fittingly now called the Twelve. (I assume the Eleven’s voice is now rattling around inside her head along with the others. What would happen if we had a story in which the Twelve actually met the Eleven? Would she hear his voice in her head while simultaneously talking to him? I want to hear this story.) Unlike the Eleven, who was constantly plagued by the voices of his prior selves, the Twelve is in much more control of herself, with only occasional hints of those voices coming to the surface. McKenzie is fantastic in the part, and the new characterization means a lot less “Silence, all of you!” dialogue. She’s also a much more ambiguous character, who at this point doesn’t seem to share her predecessor’s evil desires. There’s a lot going on in “Planet of the Ogrons,” most of it good, and it’s another strong story.
The third story, “In the Garden of Death” also by Adams, is a step down from the first two. The Doctor, Bliss, and the Twelve have been taken prisoner by the Daleks, and have had their memories temporarily suppressed. When they are on the prison grounds, they do not have their memories; when they are taken for interrogation, their memories return upon sight of the Daleks. What follows is an hour of three amnesiac characters wandering around a prison, and it’s exactly as interesting as that sounds. There should be a blanket ban on ever doing another McGann amnesia story, because we have literally dozens of those and this one adds nothing to the pile. Ironically enough, removing Bliss’s memories actually enriches her because it allows us to see the fundamentals of her character. She’s caring and sympathetic like any good companion, but she also has a scientist’s mind, eager to physically or metaphorically take things apart to see how they work. The Twelve, meanwhile, is much less interesting, because the story takes this new version of the character and strips away her memories, leaving her essentially the same as the Eleven. It’s interesting to hear her confusion over the voices she’s hearing, since we know they’re real and she doesn’t, but beyond that it's a narrative dead end. The story wraps up in a very perfunctory manner as well – in sum, it’s the worst in the set.
Finally, the box concludes with “Jonah” by Timothy X. Atack, which isn’t much of an improvement. There’s a great hook – the Doctor is the captain of a submarine! – but from there the story goes in exactly the directions you’d expect. The Daleks are trying to find a secret “weapon” buried under the surface of an ocean world, and since they have to go to the bottom of the sea to dig, I guess that means everyone has to pile into submarines. Atack also heads off the obvious criticism by establishing that the water renders advanced technology ineffectual, which is fine, but it’s all in service of the same clichéd war-movie material that we’ve heard for what is now six Time War box sets. The Time Lords, particularly Ollistra, also make a big deal out of the Doctor’s presence: they need him here, and they’ve tricked him into coming by exploiting his sympathetic nature. But that never actually comes out in the story – there’s no sense that the Doctor is here out of altruism given his largely enthusiastic participation. There’s nothing here that we haven’t heard already, except for the submarine trappings.
Big Finish has backed itself into a corner with the Time War. With the unfortunate passing of John Hurt, they can no longer do War Doctor stories, meaning their only gateway to the Time War is through the eighth Doctor. But we already know the eighth Doctor’s story, and we know it ends with him renouncing the name Doctor and taking up the mantle of a warrior. This means that he can’t push past his boundaries, or take any significant risks, because we’ve already seen the singular moment he decides to do so. We also know how the Time War ends, and that nothing stops it until the Doctor uses a doomsday weapon to wipe out both sides. With all that established, the Time War becomes merely a setting, a backdrop to tell stories, and Big Finish hasn’t shown either the willingness or the imagination to change the types of stories told in that setting. Frankly, I hope it just stops, but with the recent announcement of more War Master sets, I fear this is just going to keep bleeding out ad infinitum.
6/10