Doctor Who spin-off review: The War Master: Rage of the Time Lords

Derek Jacobi’s War Master returns in Rage of the Time Lords. Is this release as strong as the first two series?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

The War Master faces his greatest enemy once more in Rage of the Time Lords. How strong is the latest series of the Doctor Who spin-off? Does the reunion between the Master and the Doctor work well?

This is a Doctor Who spin-off box set that I’ve been eagerly anticipating for a while. The War Master: Rage of the Time Lords promised a confrontation between the Doctor and the Master during the Time War.

Considering it featured Paul McGann – my favorite Doctor thanks to Big Finish – and Derek Jacobi – who’s essentially become my favorite New Series Master, also thanks to Big Finish – expectations were high. Did Rage of the Time Lords live up to them?

The Survivor

The series begins with The Survivor by Tim Foley. This episode is probably my favorite out of the whole set, as it’s extremely character-focused. Set during World War II, the story focuses on Alice, a volunteer in her village wanting to do her bit for the war effort. She regularly sees the local priest, who’s always ready to offer some advice and guidance…

The Survivor is very nicely paced. Initially, Alice is a very likable character, and you feel a lot of sympathy towards her. Especially when the more selfish and bratty Hannah arrives.

Over the course of the episode, however, Alice starts to do some terrible things. She gets progressively nastier as the story goes on. But even when she makes these actions, you still can’t help but feel some sympathy towards her. Particularly because of how she’s used by the Master. It all leads to a rather dark ending, which is to be expected from this series, really.

Overall, The Survivor is a deliciously dark opening episode, one that shows how a perfectly nice person can be pushed to do very bad things. A strong start to the third series.

Paul McGann guest stars in episodes three and four of this box set. Does his appearance work well in this series?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

The Coney Island Chameleon

In some ways, The Coney Island Chameleon by David Llewellyn is another character-focused episode. But it also takes a very different approach to The Survivor.

The episode focuses on Giusseppe Sabatini, who runs a freak show on Coney Island, and his close relationship with one of his acts, Esther aka “the Coney Island Chameleon”. When the mysterious TS Mereath arrives, he’s very interested in buying Esther – and he won’t take “no” for an answer.

What’s quite surprising is that both Giusseppe and Esther are equally likable characters. It would’ve been easy for Llewellyn to make Giusseppe the classic unlikable freak show owner who does nothing but exploit his acts. So it’s rather refreshing that he treats Esther as a close friend, practically a member of the family. He cares about her a lot, enough to protect her from Mereath, who very quickly makes it clear that he’s willing to do anything to get her.

What makes this episode stand out, especially compared to The Survivor, is that the Master is more openly villainous in this story. Rather than manipulating everyone from behind the scenes, he comes across more as an unstoppable force of evil for the whole episode.

This is actually rather refreshing. While he’s clearly been the villain since Only the Good, Jacobi’s Master has been more subtle than other incarnations, often acting like your best friend before he stabs you in the back. It’s an approach that’s worked really well for him, but it is nice that he takes a break from that and becomes a clear and open antagonist for the heroes to run away from. He still has some tricks up his sleeve, and you don’t really know his full plan until the very end of the episode. But it’s still nice to have an approach that’s just a little more different for his Master.

The Missing Link

It’s strange, but despite having a different writer from the final episode, The Missing Link feels distinctly like the first half of a two-parter. The previous two episodes do lead up to this one, especially as Alice once again plays a major role. But it’s with this episode that we gradually start to find out what’s really going on.

We get to hear what the Master’s like when he’s actually running a place. As the employer and manager of a huge team of scientists, he seems like a friendly enough boss. Of course, being the Master, he naturally has a high turnover of staff, and it’s certainly not because of people quitting or getting fired.

However, while we get a stronger sense of his grander plans with this episode, he also seems to have less of a major role with The Missing Link. But that’s OK, because of who shows up: the Eighth Doctor, ready to save the day!

Except he isn’t. When the Doctor arrives, he’s not himself, and starts acting very strangely. He’s trying to do his usual thing of rescuing someone, but something’s wrong. And it’s not revealed until the end what it is, which sets up the final episode nicely.

We know that when Ten met Professor Yana in Utopia, he didn’t recognize his old enemy in human form. Does Darkness and Light provide a satisfying explanation for that?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Darkness and Light

This is the episode we’ve really been waiting for. Why so many of us have been keen to listen to this set. Because while the Doctor has a key role in the previous episode, it’s in Darkness and Light that he finally faces the Master.

This is definitely Darkness and Light‘s greatest strength. Because there are a lot of scenes shared between the Doctor and the Master. A lot of wonderful dialogue shared between two old enemies, as well as old friends. And when the actors playing those iconic roles are as magnificent as Paul McGann and Derek Jacobi, you know you’ve got a great story.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: how does this reconcile with Ten not recognizing Yana in Utopia? Well, I’m going to be honest, and be warned that I’m heading into spoiler territory here, but I’m going to let you know right now: it’s amnesia. Is there a good story reason for it? Yes. Is it still too easy and predictable? Also yes.

This is the one thing that lets the episode down for me. Like I said, the scenes shared between Jacobi and McGann are fantastic, and Darkness and Light could be one of the best episodes that’s focused on their relationship since Masterplan in Dark Eyes 3. We get such a great exploration of both who they were, who they are now, as well as what their place is in the Time War.

Playing it safe?

But the ending undoes a great deal of that. It also limits this particular Doctor/Master meeting to just this story, which is going to make their earlier encounter in Ravenous 4 even more difficult to reconcile. (Although admittedly, that box set will also feature Missy, so we have to expect something to do with amnesia in that story anyway.)

I’m still looking forward to that, but it’s just a shame that, for this box set, at least, something so predictable is used to resolve a key problem with their meeting. Especially when you’ve got something like the Chameleon Arch already, which could have explained the Doctor not recognizing the Master in human form with the words “perception filter”.

More from Winter is Coming

Unfortunately, nothing as interesting as that gets used at all, making the ending sadly predictable and a bit of a let down. More than that, it highlights a problem with Rage of the Time Lords on the whole: it plays things just a little too safe. While Rage is still a great story, one reason I enjoyed The Master of Callous was because it was never afraid to take risks. It was big, bold and ambitious, even though it was so focused on one of the Master’s smaller schemes, relatively speaking.

You don’t quite get that sense with Rage of the Time Lords. In some ways, it deals with more major mythology, but it doesn’t feel like it. It’s a good story, but it lacks the impact of the first two volumes. A decent enough volume in its own right, but one that doesn’t quite match the highs of previous series.

You can purchase The War Master: Rage of the Time Lords on CD or download now from Big Finish.

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Are you keen to listen to the Eighth Doctor meeting the War Master? Have you listened to the series already? If so, what was your favorite episode, and how do you think the central reunion was handled? Let us know in the comments below.

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