Winter is Coming
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Doctor Who: Who is David Warner’s Unbound Doctor?

By James Aggas

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“Which one am I? The wrong one!” We look at David Warner’s Doctor from the Doctor Who Unbound audios, an incarnation that feels familiar but comes from a universe very different to the one we know…

In 2003, Big Finish introduced an alternative third Doctor in Doctor Who Unbound. Played by David Warner, this incarnation of the Doctor is very different to the Third Doctor we know. (Although admittedly, they certainly share a dry sense of humor.)

When he was introduced in Sympathy for the Devil, he arrived on Earth after being sentenced to exile by the Time Lords, just as the Third Doctor did in Spearhead from Space. The problem was, for Warner’s Doctor, he got there too late.

In this timeline, when all those attacks and invasions happened during the UNIT era, the Doctor wasn’t there to stop them. So we were introduced to a very different Earth as a result. And a very different Brigadier.

Thanks to the events of The Web of Fear and The Invasion – adventures that happened during the Second Doctor’s era – this Doctor and the Brigadier still have a shared history. Still, this isn’t quite the Brigadier that we know. He’s still a good person, but he’s left feeling bitter about the defeats he’s had and the choices he’s had to make when the Doctor wasn’t around.

For a while, the Doctor and the Brigadier traveled together. But not for too long. At the end of Masters of War – a very different kind of Dalek story – he decided to stay on Skaro.

Eventually, things changed for the Unbound Doctor. In a big way…

After several years, the Unbound Doctor returned to meet Bernice Summerfield. But what happened to him during that time…?

(Photo credit and obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Meeting Bernice

When Bernice met him back in The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield: The Unbound Universe, a long time had passed since the events of Masters of War. The universe had almost been completely destroyed during the events of a huge war. The Doctor had not only survived, but afterwards, he became something the Doctor should never really be: the ruler of the universe!

More from Winter is Coming

This was an idea that was partially explored in The Unbound Universe, which set the story and established the Doctor and Bernice trapped in his universe. This box set gave us four different but extremely strong stories, and presented a very different take on Doctor Who altogether.

But the following box set proved to be even more interesting. Unsurprisingly, Ruler of the Universe explored in much greater detail what that title actually means for someone like the Doctor. The responsibilities, the bureaucracy, the tough choices – all of them making it very clear that the Doctor is the worst person for the job.

It’s not something you could really explore with the Doctors we know, but it works brilliantly for Warner’s Doctor. In particular, the episode Asking for a Friend is absolutely brilliant, and possibly one of Big Finish’s best stories.

At the end of that box set, both he and Benny escaped that universe back to ours. It’s a new universe for him to explore, with lots of adventures for them both. We get to find out more in this month’s latest Bernice Summerfield box set, Buried Memories, and with the return of the excellent pairing of David Warner as the Doctor and Lisa Bowerman as Bernice, this is a set of stories that I’m extremely excited to listen to.

Next. Clara and regeneration – Why did she have a problem with it?. dark

Have you listened to any stories featuring David Warner as the Doctor? Do you think he stands out as an incarnation? Do you think he could’ve worked well on television? Let us know in the comments below.

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