STORY PLACEMENT

 This story takes

 place AFTER THE BIG

 FINISH AUDIO DRAMA

 "SYMPATHY FOR THE

 DEVIL."

 

 WRITTEN BY

 EDDIE ROBSON

 

 DIRECTED BY

 JASON HAIGH-ELLERY

 

 RECOMMENDED 

 PURCHASE

 BIG FINISH 'UNBOUND'

 CD #8 (ISBN 1-84435-

 331-1) RELEASED IN

 DECEMBER 2008.

 

 BLURB  

 The Doctor and his

 companion, retired

 army officer Alistair

 Lethbridge-Stewart,

 take a random trip in

 the TARDIS - and land

 on the planet Skaro.

 

 The Doctor helped the

 Thals to defeat the

 Daleks years ago, so

 he's surprised to find

 the Thal city under

 Dalek occupation.

 

 He determines to help

 them again, but what

 is the Daleks' purpose

 in keeping the Thals

 alive? Does it have

 anything to do with

 the Daleks' mythical

 creator, named in

 their teachings as

 Davros?

 

 PREVIOUS                                 

 

Masters of War

DECEMBER 2008

 
 

                                                       

 

 

Now, this is a release I’ve really been looking forward to. Five years ago, Big Finish released Doctor Who Unbound as part of its fortieth anniversary celebrations. Five years later, we finally get the long mooted sequel to my favourite instalment, Sympathy for the Devil.

 

Masters of War rejoins the alternative third Doctor as played with dignity and aplomb by David Warner, still accompanied by Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, played, as always, by the incomparable Nicholas Courtney. He may be referred to as plain old Alistair throughout, but he’ll always be the Brigadier to us. It’s something of a renaissance for the character, as this

week also sees his return in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Until the BBC finally see sense and puts him back on telly with the Doctor, where he rightfully belongs, this release will have

to keep us Brig-fans satisfied. In Masters of War, the Doctor and the Brig – I mean, Alistair – arrive on the planet Skaro. The Doctor hasn’t been back there for many years. We quickly discover that this is a universe in which the events of Genesis of the Daleks never occurred – the consequences of which are not as we may suspect. In the interconnected universe of space and time travel, the removal of even one of the Doctor’s adventures can have huge consequences.

 

The Doctor finds Skaro rather different to how he remembers it. The Daleks have returned from their wanderings in space, and have subjugated the Thal population. However, these Daleks are still followers – worshippers, even – of Davros. Those who the Doctor fought before, those who invaded the Earth and sought the human factor, were “renegades” who believed themselves superior. Those now on Skaro have searched the cosmos for their creator and, having not found him, returned to protect the Thals from alien aggressors. It’s fascinating to learn that these Daleks were instilled with the ability to feel pity - the only way Davros could secure their loyalty. Of course, they’re still Daleks, still believing themselves superior to all other species, and so the only way they can think to protect the Thals is to conquer them and put them to work building up Dalek defences.

 

Upon arriving, the Doctor soon meets a Thal resistance group, led by Gillen and Nadel - two excellent performances by Sarah Douglas and Amy Pemberton respectively, providing the group with a rational, female leadership instead of the more usual gung-ho male one. In a wonderfully satisfying moment, the Doctor decrees that the Dalek occupation shall be over before the day is out. Alistair agrees – he’s had his own harrowing experiences of Dalek attacks (so Day of the Daleks occurred in some form in this timeline).

 

Both Warner and Courtney

give sterling performances

here. Warner continues to

create a strong Doctor who

is forthright, confident and

effortlessly classy. On the

cover he strikes a powerful

figure, dressed in Pertwee-style clothes; although, with his long white hair (and side-burns!) and his world-weary expression, he strikes me as more Hartnellish. Courtney, meanwhile, brings all the charm that we expect to his role. He’s been playing this part for over forty years now, and he’s perfect. Alistair is also the perfect foil for this Doctor. As a military man, he’s far more qualified to make the tough decisions in battle than the Doctor. He is capable of coordinating the fight with the Daleks in ways that the old Time Lord would never consider. He knows that losing a soldier is sometimes necessary if

it saves fifty more – but he regrets every life lost. He’s just what Skaro needs right now.

 

But what, I hear you cry, of Davros? At first, it almost seems as though we’re in for a swiz. Davros has long-since departed the planet, and exists there now only as a sophisticated  image, broadcasting semi-religious teachings to the Daleks. Even here, Terry Molloy is as good as ever. Later, the Doctor takes advantage of the Daleks’ semi-robotic nature and reprogrammes one, making it believe that it is Davros, spreading dissention amongst the faithful Daleks for the first time, allowing the Thals the chance to take action. Nick Briggs gives one his best ever performances here, creating a gaggle of Dalek voices that remain, for the most part, characteristic and distinguishable. These Daleks develop as characters, particularly the poor delusional not-Davros and the anguished Black Dalek, who is terrified

of losing his position in the new order.

 

It’s no real surprise when, at the end of the first half, the real Davros turns up, leading an

alien assault on Skaro. The alien aggressors the Daleks feared have come, and who else but Davros could be their Chief Technician? The Quatch are an interesting species (with a rather good, alienesque name). They originate in another dimension, and can only exist in ours through technological augmentation. Davros, disappointed with his Daleks, joined with them and advanced their technology.

 

I’m less keen on the Quatch’s realisation, however. Their vague, wishy-washy voices sound less ethereal and more bloody irritating. Still, they’re an interesting threat, and the revelation that they started the Kaled / Thal war goes right back to a mooted ending to the first Dalek story, in which the two races would have made peace to defeat an aggressive third party. This is precisely what happens here – to a given degree of peace. Questions are raised:

is war always necessary in order to create peace? When is a sacrifice too great? And are Daleks truly irredeemable?

 

As the plot progresses to its conclusion, events unfold fairly predictably, yet it’s a joy to hear them played out. Listening to the Doctor and the Brigadier leading Dalek assault squads is

a strangely disquieting experience, and when the end does come, Alistair’s final decision is surprising but absolutely fitting.

 

Excellent stuff, and here’s hoping for a third volume for the 50th anniversary!

 

Copyright © Daniel Tessier 2008

 

Daniel Tessier has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. 

 

© Big Finish Productions 2008. No copyright infringement is intended.

                                                       

 

 

Of the original batch of Unbound stories, Sympathy of the Devil was the only one that I felt begged a sequel. The other five, with the possible exception of Auld Mortality, each offered us a snapshot of a radically different Doctor that might have been; a woman, a writer, a monster, a ruthless rogue. Jonathan Clements’ play, however, presented us with a Doctor quite similar to his counterpart in our universe; a Doctor with tangible potential. Sympathy of the Devil’s emphasis was less on the ‘new Doctor’ part of the series’ tagline, and more on the ‘new dimension’, as Clements introduced us to a universe where Earth history had gone radically awry in the absence of the Doctor during the turbulent 1970s and 1980s.

 

Having examined an alternative planet Earth and an alternative Master, the obvious choice for a sequel was to look at an alternative Skaro an alternative race of Daleks. The world of Sympathy of the Devil had arisen as a result of the Doctor never having worked for UNIT, and whilst Masters of War isn’t accompanied by its own enticing ‘what if…?’ soundbite, one can infer that the Skaro depicted in it is one where the Doctor would never be embroiled in the events of Genesis of the Daleks and so Davros would not necessarily be exterminated by his creations, but abandoned instead. It may not be quite that straightforward, of course, as Skarosian history appears to have diverged from that we know long before the Kaled / Thal war ever started, but as basic starting point they don’t come much more tantalising

than this one.

 

In his notes accompanying the CD release, writer Eddie Robson talks about how he wanted Masters of War to be an amalgamation of all the different types of off-canon adventure, and with almost two and half hours to play with (effectively double the running time of the first six Unbound releases) he has an almighty stab at it. As I listened to this play, I almost felt like I were getting two adventures to the price of one, albeit adventures that had been dextrously woven together. The first episode, whilst a sequel to the original Dalek story, is very much a riff on it: the Doctor and Alistair arrive on Skaro to find the Thal City under Dalek occupation, and resolve to help the Thals defeat their old enemies once again. 

 

© Big Finish Productions 2008. No copyright infringement is intended.Robson’s tale has more pace and intrigue than Terry Nation’s seven-part

original Dalek serial, its first episode offering listeners a fascinating look

at a Skaro that might have been. The Daleks that are now subjugating the

Thals are not the “renegades” that invaded the Earth, tried to conquer the

galaxy or decimated Vulcan, but a second generation who were bred to

be loyal to their creator; bred to have pity. As the narrative progresses, it

becomes clear that the Daleks aren’t subjugating the Thals for their own

ends, but for the Thals own good! Having been abandoned by the creator,

who had become disenchanted with two flawed creations – one group so

pitiless that they abandoned him, the others so thin-skinned that they were

of no real use to him – the “loyalist” Daleks developed their own, twisted

religion. Davros would be venerated, and his image used to spread the

Dalek word. Lesser species would not be conquered, but protected, and,

lamentably for the Thals, charity starts at home. Robson’s vision of Skaro

is therefore a world where the Daleks force the Thals to work, but only to

strengthen them. A world where the Black Dalek is not a creature of war,

but a proponent of propaganda. And the beauty of it is that the Daleks’

true colours aren’t immediately apparent – initially they seem to behave

exactly as their “renegade” counterparts might. It’s only as the Doctor and Alistair start to dig deeper that the Daleks’ unprecedented traces of grey

start to catch the light.

 

As the cliffhanger beckons, the Daleks have been overthrown, but Skaro faces a threat from the stars as the Quatch – extra-dimensional masters of war whom we learn orchestrated this universe’s Kaled / Thal war – return to claim the planet, bringing with them their revered chief technician, Davros, who is oblivious to the fact that his paymasters were responsible for the war that crippled him. As a result the Doctor, Alistair and the Thals form an uneasy alliance with Daleks to combat the extra-terrestrial threat. Their plan is simple: infiltrate the Quatch fleet, get to Davros, turn him against the aliens, and then pray that he has the means to stop them.

 

Whereas Part 1 of the story catered to the Doctor’s strengths, Part 2 sees Alistair come into his own. Whilst the Time Lord’s energies are spent fervently trying to prevent the Daleks and the Thals committing brutal war crimes, Alistair’s are focused on tactics and command. The old warhorse orders Daleks and Thals about as if they were lowly UNIT grunts, assuming the responsibilities for the life and death decisions which has companion has shunned. Nicholas Courtney gives the performance of his life as from the ashes of a discredited old scapegoat the Brigadier that we all know and love rises, finally exorcising the ghosts of the forty-seven men that he once lost to the Daleks back in his blood and thunder years.

 

The threat from the Quatch is

well fleshed-out; the listener

really gets a sense of their

awesome power. Indeed,

these eponymous Masters

of War are what really lend

the production its ‘ultimate’

feel, as one discarded idea

from Terry Nation suddenly

gives rise to so many new

and exciting possibilities.

They also have great voices

for audio drama – it’s at the

opposing end of the spectrum

to the Daleks’, but is every bit

as excruciating. The Quatch’s dependency on technology and trust in Davros might lead to a foreseeable deus ex machina resolution, but this is easily forgivable in the circumstances.

 

However, I was a little disappointed with Davros himself, whose peripheral presence – whilst defining – seems to lack the substance of his earlier Big Finish outings. Nevertheless, when he finally comes to the fore in the second episode, Terry Molloy is as devastating as ever he was in the role, and clearly relished sinking his teeth to a different rendering of the character. This is a Davros who cares that he’s been crippled; a Davros desperate for revenge. This is a Davros who seems to care more about his Daleks being loyal to him than he does about their becoming the dominant life form. It’s only a subtle difference, but just look what it did to the universe.

 

Inevitably though, the real star is David Warner, whose controlled charisma dominates every single scene that he’s in. An imperturbable force in a universe that’s gone to hell, Warner’s Doctor is a paragon of all that’s right and just. Again his unyielding standards are offset by some deliciously dry humour, his caustic delivery of the allegory about the Dalek whos able to change his bumps perfectly encapsulating both his charm and candour. As in Sympathy for the Devil, his performance is perfectly complemented by that of Nicholas Courtney, who by the end of the adventure has really made up for lost time, and steeled himself to his next challenge.

 

I sincerely hope that Masters of War isn’t the last that we hear from David Warner’s Doctor. Nicholas Briggs has said that he doesn’t see the point of just doing regular stories with other Doctors, and whilst I agree wholeheartedly, no-one could reasonably argue that Masters of War is a regular story. When it comes down to it, it doesn’t really matter how “unbound” the Doctor is, provided that the universe he finds himself in is nothing like our own. If there are such spellbinding stories to be told about the alternative Master and the alternative Daleks, then what of the alternative Cybermen? No-one stops at two...

 

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2010

 

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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