Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating ****
Cast: Jonathon Carley, Adèle Anderson, Ajjaz Awad, John Banks, Nicholas Briggs, Angela Bruce, Beth Chalmers, Nigel Fairs, Stephen Frost, Timothy Hofmeier, Janet Prince, Jessica Temple.
To be a survivor of war is a blessing and a curse, either way you are unscathed by its effect on your mind and soul, it is how you deal with the anger, loss, and the stripped of humanity feeling which shows how the desire for revenge, or the ability to forgive will shape the future you have been offered.
We have only scratched the surface on how the effect of war can stretch and constrict a mind, the scenes of death, the acts of defiance, the belief in forgetting a particular harrowing moment, they all leave their scars, leave a trench in the brain for horror and the revulsion to hide away in undiscovered until it’s too late; and even in the minds of the so-called strong the ripples of a trauma can have consequences that are so severe that it takes a special kind of doctor to get the patient through the experience.
The mad man in a blue box from Gallifrey has seen his fair share of war, but perhaps has never stayed around long enough to deal with an individual’s trauma, using, as his great enemy Davros openly stated, to mould the friends and damaged that gravitate towards him so that they can be utilised as weapons in times of the upmost importance.
It is when the Doctor feels the pain of his decision that resonates with the fans, the regret is palpable, the suffering almost too much to bear; however, audiences are rarely treated to the belief behind the decision, and it is to the emergence of The War Doctor, lovingly portrayed on the Big Finish audio range by Jonathon Carley, that the fan can now witness the damage done from the inception of the meeting between the one often proclaimed as saviour and the offering to the gods, the sacrifice to the greater cause.
In the second set of adventures for The War Doctor in his early initial days after his regeneration, Warbringer, the listener is given more than a glimpse of the reasons why some end up on the wrong end of the Doctor’s logic, and in a way it is down to compassion, twisted perhaps, but still a consideration for the individual in the plight; and there can be no greater threat to the individual than to be altered, to have their D.N.A., their very humanity stripped from them and be turned into a human skinned Dalek.
On screen the fan has been shown this effect, notably by the superb Anamaria Marinca as Darla von Karlsen in Asylum of the Daleks, and Orla Brady as Tasha Lem in The Time of the Doctor, but on audio the reveal across the three-part series, Timothy X Atack’s Consequences, Adrew Smith’s Destroyer, and Jonathan Morris’ Saviour, is more devious, has a greater urgency of demonstratable fear, for as the clues weave themselves into the narrative, as the progression of the Doctor’s plan is unveiled in a typically detoured route, so the three episode long series makes the listener understand that to save someone is quite often the precursor to them repaying the favour, either in blood, or in obliteration.
Warbringer is a three act play of consequences, almost Shakespearean in its outlook and delivery, fearsome in their devastation, understanding in its depth, and a lesson for us all when we consider who has the right to be saved, and how they will turn their newfound place in the universe against us.
A huge chunk of realisation is to be found in Warbringer, and arguably the place where The War Doctor really begins.
Ian D. Hall