A Thing of Guile review [Phil Mulryne]

The Daleks are developing a secret weapon on Asteroid Theta 12. It is imperative that their plans are uncovered. Cardinal Ollistra has her hands full studying the range of ancient and mysterious armaments the universe has to offer, but she makes it a personal mission to investigate the Dalek project. On this dangerous assignment, there is one particular Time Lord she wants at her side — and he will be accompanying her whether he wants to or not.

Infernal Devices: The Anima Device turns people against their allies, sowing discord and bringing disagreement.

When and Where: The Gallifreyan Station Kronos and the Daleks' Asteroid Theta 12, shortly after Legion of the Lost and before The Neverwhen.

The Renegade's Case:

• None of the previous War Doctor stories have opened with so exciting a cold open. This one gets you raring for adventure. It's a shame, then, that no good adventure follows.

The Cardinal's Case:

• Despite the cold open being good, we go back in time to learn how it came to be, which is entirely unnecessary.
• The experiment is a combination of Kaled and Dalek. With Kaleds being humanoid, this is virtually no different from Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks. It was created for the same reason Dalek Sec became half-human - to imagine and think differently.
• Jared and Solex die, but who cares? Very few characters have been awarded any sort of development. The War Doctor and Ollistra are decent enough because of John Hurt's and Jacqueline Pearce's performances, but they've not really been explored.

This Reminds Me...:

• As already mentioned, the Dalek plan was the same as in Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks.
• The Doctor mentions the Ood (The Satan Pit), the Sensorites (The Sensorites) and the Arcateenians (Greeks Bearing Gifts).

Next Time on Doctor Who: The Doctor is free once more and has left Ollistra behind. However, she's sent his TARDIS somewhere.

The Inquisitor's Case: A Thing of Guile suffers from Rejoice Syndrome - having a great name but no real notability. It's a boring story with little going on until the very end, where the reveal is the same one we already saw in series 3. Perhaps it's impossible to tell a good War Doctor story. This story is very bad, and that earns it an E.

The War Doctor - Infernal Devices

Legion of the Lost  |  A Thing of Guile  |  The Neverwhen

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

The Heart of the Battle review [Nicholas Briggs]

The Daleks want peace with Gallifrey. Ollistra sent Seratrix to them to broker a peace, but why send the Doctor and a team of Time Lords after him?

When and Where: Keska, between The Thousand Worlds and Legion of the Lost.

The Warrior's Case:

• A Good Quotation:
• "Where can I find you, Doctor, when I need you again?" / "At the heart of the battle, where the blood of the innocents flows and only the monstrous survive."
• Trying to make peace with the Daleks sounds ridiculous, but Seratrix's belief that this could be a reality makes more sense when we learn that they've been given an empire of more than a thousand planets.
• We've been told that Ollistra is a master manipulatrix but it's not until this story that we see any evidence of this. She sent the peace-desiring Seratrix to the Daleks to die and tried to dispose of his fellow believers Bennus and Arverton by "randomly" selecting them to detonate the Time Destructor. When the Doctor saved them, she planned to get rid of all three by sending them after Seratrix, willing to sacrifice Veklin in the process.

The Cardinal's Case:

• We learn that the purpose of the Daleks' plan (the same as in The Dalek Invasion of Earth) is to fire planets at Gallifrey (the same as in The Apocalypse Element), resulting in a story that lacks in originality. Also, a thousand planets being fired at Gallifrey at 50x the speed of light is ludicrously over the top.

This Reminds Me...:

• The Daleks' plan is a combination of their plots in The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Apocalypse Element.

The Inquisitor's Judgement: After a disappointing start, The Heart of the Battle ends the box set on a better note than it started. All plot threads introduced through this lacklustre box set are wrapped up and the Doctor and Ollistra are reset and ready for the next volume, with Rejoice gone. She was much better as an older woman than a young girl, but was still one of the most forgettable and bland Big Finish companions. Concluding a poor first series of The War Doctor, this is an okay story, and that earns it a C.

The War Doctor - Only the Monstrous

The Thousand Worlds  |  The Heart of the Battle  |  Legion of the Lost (Infernal Devices)

The Thousand Worlds review [Nicholas Briggs]

The Doctor is sent behind enemy lines to find a Time Lord strategist who holds vital Gallifreyan secrets. The Daleks are playing with drills again. When will they learn that this never ends well for them?

When and Where: This is set on Keska, between The Innocent and The Heart of the Battle. For Rejoice, it's been decades.

The Warrior's Case:

• Rejoice was a pleasant character in the previous story, even if her feelings for the Doctor were a little strange. Her reunion with the Doctor here is a highlight, with Hurt's delivery of the line "Hello... Rejoice" being heartwarming. 
• Beth Chalmers has a wonderful voice and does a good job as Veklin. It's a shame that it's difficult to separate her from Raine Creevy given how she uses the same voice and accent.

The Cardinal's Case:

• In the beginning of The Innocent, we had a Time Destructor used. Here, we don't have a weapon return but an entire evil plan - the drill one from The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Nods or returning weapons are welcome but the Daleks having the exact same plot means that this story isn't that original. It's The Dalek Invasion of Earth with more Time Lords and fewer twisted ankles. The titular Thousand Planets are reminiscent of The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, as well.
• What was the point in The Innocent? This story could just have easily have been the first of the box set, functioning perfectly as an introductory story and would arguably have been a better one. To be reintroduced to the War Doctor on a Gallifreyan machine behind enemy lines is far more unique a beginning than him having a traditional adventure.

I'll Explain Later:

• "Keep to the cloisters," Veklin says. Hopefully these aren't the same super deadly, seriously dangerous cloisters we see in Hell Bent.

This Reminds Me...:

• The Doctor has met his companions when they're older before, with Molly O'Sullivan for example.
• The Daleks' drilling plan was previously enacted in The Dalek Invasion of Earth and Lucie Miller/To the Death.

The Inquisitor's Judgement: Slightly better than the previous story, The Thousand Worlds is nothing too special. It's The Dalek Invasion of Earth with sprinklings of The Stolen Earth and The Traitor. The Daleks supposedly wanting peace is an interesting enough twist, but I'll eat my hat if they aren't lying. This story is bad, earning it a D.

The War Doctor - Only the Monstrous

The Innocent  |  The Thousand Worlds  |  The Heart of the Battle

The Innocent review [Nicholas Briggs]

The Doctor is dead, killed by the Time Destructor that wiped out the largest Dalek time fleet ever assembled. Except, of course he's not. He's alive and well (enough) and living on Keska.

When and where: The planet Keska. The War Doctor is old and tired, so this is later in his life. The whole War Doctor series is set some time between The Night of the Doctor and The Day of the Doctor. For Ollistra, this is after The Eighth Doctor: The Time War.

The Warrior's Case:

• A Good Quotation:
• "I KNOW THE DALEKS! I know them!"
• We're introduced to Cardinal Ollistra of the High Council, who's not given much to do but makes an impression regardless. She's a Time Lady who hates the Daleks, but there's more to it than that. She seems to think that she has a special relationship with the Daleks, believing that she knows and understands them better than most and utterly despises them. It's the same feeling that the Daleks feel for all other life-forms. To have a Time Lady hate the Daleks so personally makes Cass's question of who can tell the difference between the two races anymore that much more poignant. Ollistra would be a good Dalek.
• The Time Destructor, which so tragically killed Sara Kingdom in The Daleks' Master Plan, is a terrifying weapon and it was a great idea to bring it back for the Daleks to use in the Time War. I always like it when Big Finish use little bits of continuity in this way.
• Rejoice isn't a particularly memorable character but that name... It's a beautiful one.

The Cardinal's Case:

• The cold open introduces Ollistra and tells us about the destruction of the Dalek time fleet, but it seems strange for the teaser for the first audio of the first War Doctor box set to be that the Doctor is dead. Firstly, he obviously isn't. Secondly, we haven't had the opportunity to get to properly relate to or learn about the War Doctor aside from his last day before regeneration in The Day of the Doctor. It's a shocking moment for Ollistra, but not for the listener who hasn't yet heard a word from the character. If Ravenous 1 were to begin with this, it would work. We know the Eighth Doctor and we'd wonder what happened to him, what happened to Liv and if she's alive, and how did the Doctor get out of it. Here, it isn't a successful opener.
• This story is pretty much traditional Who with a little more character work with the Doctor. To use a story so rote and quiet to kick off the War Doctor series wasn't the best move. This is the Doctor who wasn't the Doctor, but he acts just as the First, Sixth or Twelfth Doctors do. He's not a blood-soaked warrior like we were promised. Surely we should have seen some of that first so that his opportunity to rest on Keska would be more interesting and more tempting to him.
• Rejoice having something of an attachment to the Doctor after nursing him for months makes sense, but it's taken a little too far. Perhaps it's her Keskan optimism but she's far too kind to and forgiving of the Doctor, most notably after the boat debacle.
• I never like it when they use the same photo of a character twice on one cover.

This Reminds Me...:

• Rejoice looks after the Doctor just like Rose did in The Christmas Invasion.
• I misheard "Arverton" as "Arbitan" (of The Keys of Marinus) and was wondering if Big Finish were really going to bring such an obscure character back for the Time War.
• Veklin is voiced by Beth Chalmers, AKA Raine Creevy, who first appeared in Crime of the Century.

The Inquisitor's Judgement: The Doctor lands on a planet, saves the day and leaves with a companion. Granted, the companion is sent home by Ollistra but otherwise this is a very traditional story that fails to be the explosive start to the War Doctor series that it needed to distinguish itself. John Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce are, as expected, amazing but the plot is thin and the characters not given the most interesting of material whilst wannabe-companion Rejoice - such a lovely name - fails to make an impression, just being kind of nice. This is a bad story, and that earns it a D.

The War Doctor - Only the Monstrous

The Innocent  |  The Thousand Worlds