Doctor Who: Big Finish and the Time War Part 3 (2011 – 2015)

The Daleks attack the Time Lords in the sixth season of spin-off series ‘Gallifrey.’ (Credit: Big Finish)

With the upcoming release of the first War Doctor box set, here’s the final look at Big Finish’s long build-up to the Time War.

In the same month that the Eighth Doctor Adventures came to an end, another popular series from Big Finish came back after a gap of five years: Gallifrey. Continuing directly where the previous series left off, Series 4 took the spin-off and its characters in a bold and unexpected direction. As the main characters of Romana, Leela, and Narvin travelled across parallel universes and multiple versions of Gallifrey in a small hope of saving their own world, the story took a deliberate step away from the dirty politics and serialised storytelling that made the first three seasons so distinctive.

Series 5 briefly saw a return to that style, albeit entirely set on one parallel Gallifrey, but it’s the cliffhanger into the sixth (and initially believed to be final) series that things really kicked off: the Daleks have arrived, with plans of invading not just one Gallifrey, but all the Gallifreys.

Series 6 concludes the storyline that began all the way back in Series 1 in rather spectacular fashion, as our heroes finally make their way back home and begin to restore it to its former glory, naturally fighting back one of the most ambitious schemes by the Daleks along the way. Before the end, it looks like the situation could be resolved without resulting in total war between the Time Lords and the Daleks. Unfortunately, one of the characters takes a rather desperate action. An action that involves sending the Fourth Doctor back to the very creation of the Daleks…

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Speaking of the Doctor, the last time we saw his Eighth incarnation, he was dealing with a lot of pain and loss. In 2012, over 18 months after the release of his last episode (bar a season set towards the beginning of his life while travelling with Mary Shelley – yes, that Mary Shelley), he returned with a brand new series (as well as a brand new look) in ‘Dark Eyes.’

Taking place directly where ‘To The Death’ left off, the Doctor is a man looking for hope in the universe, even while it seems that the universe has none left to offer him. Then along came Molly O’Sullivan, a nursing assistant serving in World War I. She’s exactly what the Doctor needs – dealing with loss and hardship of her own, she has no time for the Doctor’s even occasional moments of self-pity.

But their meeting was no accident. This time, the Doctor went looking for his new companion, as part of a mission given to him by the Time Lords. Not only has he been sent looking for her, but he also has to protect her at all costs.

From whom does he have to protect her? Why, the Daleks and their Time Controller, of course!

Across four episodes, the Doctor and Molly flee across time and space from the Daleks. In the meantime, not only are the two of them slowly learning to trust each other while dealing with their own problems, but they also slowly start to learn what’s going on.

The Daleks have a plan to wipe out the Time Lords once and for all, and Molly is at the centre of it. However, the Time Lords have plans of their own, as they eventually reveal their true colours and show just how desperate they are to entirely rid the universe of the Daleks forever.

The ending of ‘Dark Eyes’ implies that Molly and the Doctor may never see each other again, and in fact, it’s pretty clear that the series was initially meant to last for just one mini-series of four episodes. Unsurprisingly, however, the series was a massive success, and eventually lead to a full-on series with three sequel box sets released from 2014 to 2015. But before I get to those, let’s discuss a short little episode released on BBC iPlayer and Youtube on 14^th November 2013…

Next: Page 2: The Night of the Doctor

Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor in Doctor Who: Dark Eyes from Big Finish Productions. (Credit: Big FInish)

‘The Night of the Doctor’ made an incredible impact upon its release. Not just because of fan reaction – which understandably due to the completely unexpected return of Paul McGann, followed immediately by a long overdue regeneration scene, was huge – but also because of the Eighth Doctor’s last words. With his on-screen acknowledgement of Charley, C’Rizz, Lucie, Tamsin, and Molly, it was harder than ever to dispute the canonicity of Big Finish’s stories, particularly when it came to McGann’s Doctor.

The fact that this wasn’t just the first direct reference to Big Finish, but that it was such a major one, left a lot of fans happy. It was also a great acknowledgement of the hard work and incredibly high number of stories that Big Finish had made. With such a bold reference, it almost makes you wonder if it helped in any way towards Big Finish finally acquiring the New Series license this year.

Before we get to that though, let’s go back to Dark Eyes and Big Finish’s ultimate direction for the Eighth Doctor. ‘The Night of the Doctor’ revealed that the Eighth Doctor, while involved in the Time War, hadn’t been the incarnation who destroyed Gallifrey, and in fact for the longest time did everything he could to avoid the fighting.

In some ways, this actually felt like a natural extension of the story begun in ‘Dark Eyes.’ At the end of ‘To The Death’, he seemed more ready for a war with the Daleks than ever. The first series of Dark Eyes showed, however, that while he was angry and full of rage, he was more ready to simply allow himself to die than to see any more deaths. Eight wasn’t the romantic soul that he once was, but he was still a long way from becoming a man ready to commit genocide.

Dark Eyes 2, 3, and 4 continue this development, not to mention increasing tensions between the Time Lords and the Daleks even further. The former become increasingly aggressive in their plans to wipe out the other, not only attempting to use a dangerous force known as the Eminence against the Daleks, but even resurrecting the Master (played by the rather brilliant Alex MacQueen) to do so. Unsurprisingly, not only does this plan of theirs fail, as the Master rather predictably attempts to use the Eminence for his own ends, but towards the end of the series, even allies with the Daleks themselves and changes Earth’s history!

By the end of ‘Dark Eyes 4,’ the threat of the Dalek Time Controller and the Eminence is completely resolved, with the Master left stranded in the middle of a war. But with the Time Lords acting increasingly aggressive towards the Daleks, how long before things reach completely beyond the Doctor’s control and the Daleks strike back in the most devastating way possible?

Next: Page 3: The New Series

Sir John Hurt returns as the War Doctor in ‘Only the Monstrous,’ coming in December 2015 from Big Finish Productions. (Credit: Big Finish)

Over the past few years, Big Finish have done more than just subtly hint at the War – they’ve been building up to it as much as possible, fleshing out why the Time Lords and the Daleks went from being simply enemies that would occasionally strike at the other, towards both becoming desperate enough to wipe out the other in a war across the whole of time and space.

It’s a build-up that, for this Big Finish fan, at least, has been incredibly satisfying to follow, both from the Doctor’s and from the Time Lords on Gallifrey’s perspectives. It was therefore fantastic and really rewarding to hear when Big Finish slowly revealed that, after ten years since Doctor Who’s return, their license finally allowed them to make stories and series based on characters and events exclusive to the New Series.

First, there was the announcement of a brand new series of UNIT, this time featuring Kate Stewart, Osgood, and a whole new team of characters. Then, in June, they announced a whole bunch of New Series releases, including River Song and Churchill box sets, and even a box set of classic Doctors meeting monsters first introduced in the New Series. This was especially notable for Eight’s story, which will actually take place during the Time War. For fanatics like myself, eager for any stories set or even leading up to the War, this looked set to be the most exciting release.

Then came October, with possibly Big Finish’s biggest announcement yet: John Hurt returning to the role of the War Doctor in his very own audio series. Best of all, while usually we’d have to wait months or even years for stories following an announcement (which is actually true in the case of ‘The Eighth Doctor: The Time War,’ due for release in November 2017), the first War Doctor box set, ‘Only The Monstrous,’ was due in December, with the second soon to be released in February.

After more than a decade of stories that have built up to and hinted at the Time War at best, it is incredibly rewarding to see that Big Finish will finally be telling stories set during the conflict itself. I’ve said before that they’re probably the best people to handle the War in any major way, and with no need for a visual effects budget, a great team of writers and both crucial Doctors on board, I still believe that. Expectations are high for ‘Only The Monstrous,’ the first story explicitly set in the Time War, but I’m more than confident that Big Finish will match them.

However, even while we’ll soon hear of stories set during the Time War itself, there are of course still many questions to be answered. What was the last straw that lead the War to truly begin? What happened to Romana, Leela, and Narvin? How did Rassilon return? Will the Eighth Doctor series Doom Coalition lead up to the War in any way? What became of the Master after Dark Eyes and how involved was he in the War?

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How many of these questions Big Finish will answer remains to be seen, but it’s brilliant to know that, even after fifteen years, there are still many stories for Big Finish to tell regarding this important piece of mythology.