Doctor Who review: The Second Doctor meets the Master in The Home Guard

The Home Guard, the first of this month’s Early Adventures, is a dark and atmospheric Doctor Who story that captures this era well – and brings back an early incarnation of an old enemy…

"It’s the middle of the Second World War and Ben Jackson has returned to visit his married friends Polly and Jamie in their quiet English village. But they can’t quite shake the feeling that something’s not right…"

To a lot of Doctor Who fans, that description immediately lets you know just how strange The Home Guard is going to be. It’s not surreal, but it does feature the Doctor and his companions acting very, very oddly in an English village. But why? What’s going on? What has happened to them? And how is the Master involved?

These are questions that writer Simon Guerrier leaves the audience asking for half the story. Unsurprisingly, we do get answers in the second half, piece by piece. But the first half is great at building up this sense of mystery and unease in a seemingly ordinary setting, even one that seems historical. I love a good mystery in Doctor Who, and Guerrier writes an excellent one here.

He also captures that dark and grounded Sixties feel perfectly. That’s not surprising, as he’s written many, many stories for the First and Second Doctors. He knows not just how to write for these heavily established characters, but also, how to get that sense of atmosphere distinctive to those early stories.

But The Home Guard isn’t just a great story. It also features the return of the Master – one we haven’t heard from in two years…

The Second Doctor, Jamie, Ben and Polly meet the Master in The Home Guard.

(Image Courtesy: Big Finish Productions)

The First Master returns

The last time we heard from James Dreyfus’s incarnation of the Master was two years ago in The Destination Wars, which was also his introduction story, too. In fact, it essentially worked as the Master’s “introduction story” in general: it was the first time the Doctor had met him since leaving Gallifrey, and Dreyfus’s incarnation is clearly meant to be chronologically earlier than Roger Delgado’s.

It’s great to finally hear more of this incarnation, and hear more of what the Master was like in his early days. Particularly since he’s not quite as insane or psychopathic as he’ll later become.

Oh, he’s definitely nasty, and he’s not afraid of killing others if he has to. But at the same time, he doesn’t kill purely for the sake of it, and will even use others to kill rather than do it himself. It’s fascinating to discover more of what the Master is like at this point, especially when we know just how terrible he’ll truly become.

More from Winter is Coming

• For All Mankind finally gives us information in Episode 405, “Goldilocks”
• Watch a stunning VFX breakdown of The Wheel of Time season 2
• Of course Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) thinks Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen) should rule Westeros
• Confirmed: The Last of Us season 2 will air in 2025
• Final season of Star Trek: Discovery will have “a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of fun”

More to come?

Equally interesting is that, while this is his second appearance after The Destination Wars, it’s clear from the dialogue that there have been many more encounters between him and the Doctor in-between that we don’t know about yet. In fact, the story was recorded over two years ago, around the same time as his first released story.

So it’s clear that Big Finish want to tell many more stories with this incarnation, in either The Early Adventures or The First Doctor Adventures, at least. (On top of that, he’ll also be meeting the Seventh Doctor next year in The Psychic Circus, a sequel/prequel to the television classic, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.)

The Home Guard is both a great look at a Sixties-style Master and an effective story in its own right. Dark, atmospheric and unsettling, it’s a highly recommended listen. You can purchase it on CD or download now from Big Finish’s website.

Do you think more stories should be explored with this incarnation of the Master? Have you listened to his earlier story The Destination Wars, and if so, did you enjoy it? Let us know in the comments below.