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Doctor Who Review: The War Doctor: ‘Infernal Devices’ (Audio)

By James Aggas

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John Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce star in the latest War Doctor box set, ‘Infernal Devices.’ (Credit: Big Finish)

The War Doctor returns in three more adventures. Does ‘Infernal Devices’ live up to the success of ‘Only the Monstrous’?

Back in December, Big Finish released the epic story ‘Only the Monstrous,’ a 3-part box set featuring John Hurt as the War Doctor. Not only was it a great opportunity to explore more of an incarnation barely seen in the television series, but it was also a great introduction to the Time War. Filled with good character development and epic, large scale storytelling — while still focusing on ordinary lives caught up in the war — it was one of Big Finish’s best releases of 2015.

Now only two months later, the second box set in Big Finish’s War Doctor series has been released. Instantly, one thing leaps out about ‘Infernal Devices’: it’s a very different box set to ‘Only the Monstrous.’

For one thing, it’s not one single epic, split into three episodes, written by one writer. Instead, it’s three very separate stories, with one writer for each episode. And while the stories do kind of flow into each other, there’s less of an “arc” as such, unlike the last series or this month’s release for the Eighth Doctor, ‘Doom Coalition 2’ (review coming soon). There is also more of a “theme.”

And it’s a theme well worth exploring: weapons. Or at least, weapons created by two equally powerful, equally desperate races to use in a war fought across space and time. We get three dangerous examples of these across three episodes, leading to three very different stories.

The first, ‘Legion of the Lost,’ deals with a pretty major issue straight away: death. A major part of life, but an even more major part of war, this story raises a very intriguing question: if you could bring the soldiers whom you lost back from the dead, would you? And what price would you pay to achieve that?

Stories about life and death have always interested me, particularly those within science fiction or horror, as they can explore the barrier between the two with key “what if?” scenarios. Unsurprisingly, I really enjoyed this episode, especially the rather unique way that it was handled. Stories have been told before of what happens when someone is unnaturally brought back from the dead, but it’s really interesting to hear it in an episode where it’s done on such a massive scale.

There’s some superb drama in this episode, and this is only enhanced with the appearance of another stellar actor: David Warner. A truly classic British actor who’s appeared in films such as The Omen, Star Trek VI, and Titanic, he’s also something of a Big Finish regular. It’s absolutely wonderful to hear him in a story with John Hurt’s War Doctor.

‘A Thing of Guile’ has the War Doctor on a mission that involves working with Cardinal Olistra, a character whom he hasn’t been given much reason to trust, especially after ‘Only the Monstrous.’ The mission also provides an interesting excuse for other Time Lords not to call him the Doctor! (I won’t say what his new alias is. I will, however, say that, since it’s from the Time Lords, it’s not one that implies any sort of respect.)

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Going into a secret Dalek base on a mission that very quickly goes disastrously wrong (naturally), the War Doctor and his friends associates quickly learn how desperate the Daleks can be to win, or at least survive the war. Or in this case, some Daleks: in an interesting parallel to ‘Only the Monstrous,’ we come across a group that has broken off from the rest of the fleet, and by the end of the episode, it isn’t hard to see why.

There’s also a compelling sub-plot involving Time Lords sent to distract the Daleks from the main mission, which in fact might be my favourite part of not just the episode, but also the whole box set. This is because there’s one particular Time Lord who’s actually a “fan” of the Doctor, and surprisingly, this is something we’ve never really seen before.

Oh, we’ve seen people like Clive in ‘Rose,’ LINDA in ‘Love & Monsters,’ and, of course, Osgood, but we’ve never seen one of the Doctor’s own people be in such clear awe of him. And this is a radically different viewpoint because, while on Earth, the Doctor is something of a mystery and even a legend, whereas on Gallifrey, he’s widely known, but it’s either as a criminal or an outcast.

It’s surprisingly touching to finally see another Time Lord who’s been genuinely inspired by the Doctor’s actions and sees him as someone who actually got away and lived his life rather than remain stuck on Gallifrey. This has been an aspect I’ve really enjoyed of the War Doctor series so far: exploring the Time Lords in a brand new way and really fleshing them and their society out more — something I haven’t seen as much outside of the spin-off series Gallifrey.

Next: Page 2: The Neverwhen

‘The Neverwhen’ was an episode for which I had high hopes. Not just because it promised to explore the idea of what happens when time itself is used as a weapon, or even the fact that it was written by Matt Fitton — currently one of my favourite writers for Big Finish — but also because ‘Neverland’ and ‘Nevermore’ are two stories which I absolutely adore. (There’s zero connection between those, but I’ve started to take it as a sign that Doctor Who stories with the word “never” in the title will be pretty darn good.) Did it live up to expectations?

Absolutely. In fact, ‘The Neverwhen’ is a great, great example of the Time War in action, and why the Doctor would be so incredibly scared for it to return. We might not see a “Could Have Been King and His Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres,” as the Tenth Doctor described in ‘The End of Time,’ but we definitely get an example of the pure insanity of the war.

The Doctor lands on a world where time itself is virtually always changing, for both sides; where death is constant, but never permanent; where evolution makes no sense; where the war is nothing but literal eternal hell for everyone stuck on this world. The War Doctor is understandably horrified by this, but can he save the day? Or, like everything else in the Time War, is the solution far less clear cut?

This is my favourite episode of ‘Infernal Devices,’ as it’s nice to see what happens when time itself is used as a weapon — something that was implied to have happened a lot in the TV series, but also something that we never really saw on-screen.

The ongoing conflict between the War Doctor and Olistra reaches a new height in this episode, as he has some strong disagreements with the horrific use of such a dangerous weapon, and wants to put a stop to the whole endless battle. What’s equally interesting is that Olistra actually makes some rather decent points herself, especially when we’re given the best example so far of why the War Doctor isn’t – and in fact, can’t be – the Doctor anymore. It’s not that he can’t at least try to be. It’s just that he will always fail to be the man he once was in a time when the Universe doesn’t need “the Doctor.”

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Overall, ‘Infernal Devices’ was a fantastic set. As I mentioned, it is in some ways very different to ‘Only the Monstrous,’ but it also continues a lot of that opening story’s themes. These include the horrors of war and serious moral questions, while also introducing some new ones. More importantly, it tells stories that could only be told with Hurt’s War Doctor… ones that are grittier and bleaker than most other Doctor Who stories; ones that explore what happens when the Doctor can’t be the Doctor anymore. Overall, this was another excellent set, and I can’t wait for September for the release of volume 3.

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