Legion of the Lost review [John Dorney]

The Annihilator is a weapon capable of erasing entire species from the universe, created by the Daleks. Collis is a Time Lady and part of a team sent to claim it for Gallifrey, but there is another Time Lord about, known as the Renegade. He believes that neither race should have it.

Infernal Devices: The Annihilator, capable of wiping races from existence, and the Technomancers' machine for resurrection.

When and Where: Vildar (where Collis dies) and Aldriss, the planet of the Technomancers. This is set between The Heart of the Battle and A Thing of Guile.

The Renegade's Case:

• A Good Quotation:
• "Death's the only certainty we have. Why take it away? For some of us death is the only peace we can hope for."
• "No one knows what we're fighting for more than the dead."
• "Omega's ghost!"
• The Time Lords making a deal with the Technomancers to resurrect their soldiers is an inspired idea, even more so once it's revealed that each resurrected Gallifreyan holds a piece of the Horned Ones in their being.
• By the time of Collis's first death she's already made more of an impression than Rejoice did in the whole of Only the Monstrous. In the course of her death and brief second life, Collis enjoys more development than the underwritten Rejoice did in one box set. Zoë Tapper is a very good actress and it's a shame that she wasn't given the role of the War Doctor's companion.

The Cardinal's Case:

• A Bad Quotation:
• I don't need authority. I have a screwdriver!"
• The Time War is a concept that demands a sense of scale that's missing from this story. We only see Collis come back to life, rather than legions of Gallifreyans torn from the tranquility of death and forced back into the war against the Daleks.
• Whilst it doesn't lack in a decent idea, there isn't any plot. We learn what's going on on Aldriss piece of exposition by piece of exposition, until the Doctor and Collis put an end to it.
• The infernal device (the Annihilator) is something we've seen before in the form of the Gallifreyan de-mat guns as seen in The Invasion of Time. Originality has so far been something that the War Doctor series has been lacking in.

I'll Explain Later:

• The Doctor says that he is on the side of the innocents and the collateral. How can he possibly call himself a monster? And what separates him from the Eighth Doctor, who helped out where he could but didn't fight?

This Reminds Me...:

• Varga plants were first mentioned in Mission to the Unknown.
• We've seen magic from another universe before, in Battlefield.
• The Doctor uses psychic paper, first used by the Ninth Doctor in The End of the World. He possessed it as early as his eighth incarnation (The Turn of the Screw).
• Ollistra mentions that the Doctor stole his TARDIS, which we saw in The Beginning and The Name of the Doctor.

Next Time on Doctor Who: The Doctor is now officially a war criminal in the custody of Cardinal Ollistra.

The Inquisitor's Judgement: Whilst this story is an improvement on Only the Monstrous, there isn't enough plot to go around and a lot of exposition and technobabble, particularly from Shadovar. Tapper and Warner are great guest stars as a pair of relatively memorable characters and both Hurt and Pearce are amazing as usual. This story is okay, and that earns it a C.

The War Doctor - Infernal Devices

The Heart of the Battle (Only the Monstrous)  |  Legion of the Lost  |  A Thing of Guile