Paul McGann is the Eighth Doctor. (Credit: BBC)
With little currently known about the upcoming audio series The Eighth Doctor: The Time War, we speculate on what events could be explored and what characters will be seen.
When Big Finish announced last weekend that their Eighth Doctor: The Time War series will be getting four box sets instead of just one, I became super excited. For one thing, it means that the War can be fleshed out a great deal more. For another, it allows for much more arc development to spread out across such an important era. And of course, we get plenty more of this writer’s favourite Doctor, Eight.
There are still very few details that have been revealed about this series so far. We know it will act partly as a prequel to the War Doctor audio series, and it will feature some of its characters. We also know that there will be a new companion, but that’s about it.
As someone who’s been following Big Finish for a long time, and as someone who wants to hear more of the Time War, there are definitely a number of things that I want to see covered. Here are my personal top 5 things that I’m really hoping to see in this series.
Davros, as portrayed by Julian Bleach in the Series 4 episode, ‘The Stolen Earth’. (Credit: BBC)
Davros and the Nightmare Child
Back (or forward?) in the Tenth Doctor episode The Stolen Earth, the Doctor was reunited with Davros. This was their first on-screen meeting since Remembrance of the Daleks, but it was instantly clear that other encounters had taken place.
The most recent one for them had apparently occurred during the first year of the Time War. It was also supposed to have been their last, due to Davros’s apparent death. The Doctor mentions only the smallest details, but we know it had been at “the Gates of Elysium”, and that Davros’s ship flew into “the jaws of the Nightmare Child”.
There are two key reasons why I want to hear more of this story covered. Firstly, from a New Series only perspective, it would be interesting to learn more about these events. What happened at the Gates of Elysium? Why did Davros fly his ship into the Nightmare Child? And what the heck is the Nightmare Child, anyway?
Terror Firma
However, there’s another reason why I want to hear this story. On audio, we’ve had a number of Davros stories for the past Doctors. But only one of those has been with Eight. Think about that – in more than fifteen years of audio drama, we’ve only had one story between the Eighth Doctor and his arch-enemy. (Well, one of them.)
Terror Firma was an incredibly dark story and it left a huge impact on the Eighth Doctor. (You’ll get to learn more about this one very soon, as it’s the next story I plan to cover in my series of Eighth Doctor audio reviews.) It’ll be great to explore their reunion, and the Doctor’s “last” encounter with him before they finally meet again in The Stolen Earth.
Lalla Ward and Louise Jameson star in audio spin-off series ‘Gallifrey’. (Credit: Big Finish)
Gallifrey (The Series)
Now, we can be sure that we’ll be seeing the planet Gallifrey at some point in the Time War series. What I’d really like to see happen, though? Characters showing up from the excellent spin-off series Gallifrey.
Featuring former Fourth Doctor companions Romana and Leela, Gallifrey was an ambitious series that focused on the politics and drama that regularly occurred on the Doctor’s home planet. It started pretty strongly in its first series, establishing the characters, tone, and ongoing plotlines very well.
As the series went on, it also became more epic. It became a huge serial that featured big and dramatic storylines. There was deception, there was betrayal, there was heartbreak, and there was war. No, not that war, but a brilliantly dark and bleak portrayal of one. But as much as I loved listening to the series for those storylines, it was the characters that continually drew me back.
It was great to catch up with Romana, Leela, and even Seventh Doctor companion Ace, who had been living on Gallifrey for some time. Even the characters who had never appeared in the TV series were brilliant. There’s Braxiatel, a Time Lord politician who was initially introduced in the New Adventures range of novels back in the nineties. Ever since then, he’s gone on to regularly appear in the Bernice Summerfield audio series, and in a couple of Doctor Who audios, as well.
Finally there’s Narvin, a completely original character who runs the very shady Celestial Intervention Agency. He’s also one of my favourite completely original characters of Big Finish so far, although I won’t go into too much detail why. Listening to both Braxiatel and Narvin was always brilliant, as you were never completely sure whose side each of them were really on.
How the Time War affects Gallifrey
At the end of the last series of Gallifrey, the Time War was still some way off, although the potential origins of it had been set up. However, we do know that the Time War is going to affect all of our characters in a big way. So why not catch up with them in the Eighth Doctor’s series?
It wouldn’t be the first time that the worlds of the Eighth Doctor and Gallifrey have crossed paths. The Doctor met Narvin in the Eighth Doctor box set Dark Eyes 3. It was a pretty big moment, especially as Narvin was the only regular character from Gallifrey that the Doctor had never met before. (Of all the other regulars, Romana, Leela and Ace were former companions, and even Braxiatel has been very strongly implied to be the Doctor’s own…well, it’s never really said out loud, but you get the idea.)
But I want Eight to encounter all of these characters as a team. I want him to get a good idea of how well Gallifrey is coping in the War through their eyes. It’d be a great way for giving relatively new listeners a good idea of the planet and its society during the War, while also working as a kind of continuation of the series for the fans. It’s a bit of wishful thinking here, but it’s still something I’d like to see happen.
Rassilon as played by Timothy Dalton in ‘The End of Time’. (Credit: BBC)
Rassilon
Now this is definitely something that Big Finish needs to explore. A few weeks ago, I reviewed Eighth Doctor story The Next Life. It was a pretty major story, as it resolved a few major arcs and was the last release when McGann was still the “current” Doctor. One significant plot resolution involved a rather major character: Rassilon.
The founder of Time Lord society itself, Rassilon became a major recurring character in the Eighth Doctor’s first four seasons. Initially coming across as a wise and benevolent ruler, over time, he revealed himself to be a paranoid and power-hungry tyrant. In his last story with Eight, he was trapped, stuck in another universe, with virtually no means of escape.
Cut to five years later. New Year’s Day 2010. The End of Time, David Tennant’s last episode as the Doctor. We find out that the Time Lords have returned. More than that – that they’re planning to destroy the whole of Time itself. (Or at least, the High Council is planning to.) We see that they’re being lead by a President, but we don’t know his name. Not until the Doctor sends him back in to the Time War:
Rassilon.
The Return of Rassilon
This just raised so many questions for me. How did Rassilon escape from the Divergent Universe? How did he become President again? Was bringing him back a durect result of the Time War? Is it even the same Rassilon, or simply a recreation of him?
It has been over seven years since The End of Time, and Big Finish have not so much as hinted at the answers to these questions. Over twelve years since the release of The Next Life, and Rassilon has made absolutely zero appearances in the audios since then.
That’s why I hope he makes a return in the Time War audios. It’d be the perfect opportunity to bring him back, and it’ll be brilliant to bridge such a crucial gap. Plus, as I’ve covered in my reviews of his early stories, Eight more than any other incarnation has some major history with Rassilon. It would be all too fitting that, since he had such an impact on the early days of Eight’s life, he would return not long before his end.
Alex Macqueen as the Master, with Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. (Credit: Big Finish)
The Master
One character who has returned much more recently in the Eighth Doctor’s life is the Master. 18 years after the two enemies fought in the TV Movie, the Eighth Doctor finally encountered the Master again in Dark Eyes 2, this time played by Alex Macqueen. In fact, Macqueen’s Master would continue to have an incredibly strong presence for the rest of the Dark Eyes series. (I guess he was making up for a lot of lost time.)
I’ve mentioned before how much I love Macqueen’s interpretation of the character. (I’ve even gone so far as to say that he’s my favourite incarnation of the 21st century.) He works rather well against McGann’s Doctor, too. Both feel like a nice balance between the Classic and New eras for both of their characters, and it’s a combination that has always been a joy to listen to.
The Master and the Time War
What’s also been great about their stories so far is how heavily they’ve foreshadowed the Time War. Even before Big Finish got the license to the New Series in 2015, the series Dark Eyes was very keen to reference it in the most subtle ways. For instance, it’s very strongly hinted that Macqueen was the incarnation resurrected by the Time Lords to fight in the War, as Simm’s incarnation mentioned in The Sound of Drums. It may not have started when they brought him back to life, but the Time Lords do have an idea of what’s coming. And their bright idea is to…get the most dangerous psychopath in the universe to help them out.
Yeah, Time Lords have never been too bright when it comes their grand schemes, really.
Anyway, the Time War series would be great for exploring what the Master got up to in such a conflict. Maybe he’ll take advantage of the chaos and create even bigger schemes. Maybe he’ll try to go up against either the Time Lords or the Daleks directly. Perhaps we’ll even get to see him run away to the end of the universe. I don’t know. But I’d love to find out.
Credit: BBC
The Origins of the War
This is something that I’m actually unsure will happen, if I’m honest. The very start of the War might almost be considered too big to really cover. Or, just as likely, it could be considered more profitable in the long run for Big Finish to tease the beginning of the War, rather than actually reveal it. The War Doctor audio series began years into War’s lifetime, instead of taking place immediately after The Night of the Doctor. The Eighth Doctor: The Time War could very easily start right in the middle of things.
Still, the fact that the series has gone from one box set to four has given me some hope that some of the origins of the War will be covered. It’s another reason why I want Gallifrey to tie in. (Without giving too much away, there are very, very strong hints that the actions of one character helped to plant the seeds of the Time War.) And it would be truly brilliant and epic to hear how Eight deals with a war that rapidly escalates out of his control.
Whatever happens, whether the audio series will include all, some, or even none of these things, I’m sure Big Finish will handle the series well. I’m eager to find out what the series will bring. In the meantime, I’ll be happy re-listening to Eight’s earlier adventures until then.
Next: Preview: 5 questions for ‘The Lie of the Land’