Doctor Who retrospective review: The War Doctor: Only the Monstrous establishes the Time War

We look back on Only the Monstrous, the first volume of Doctor Who: The War Doctor. How well did it work at establishing the audio series?

Doctor Who box set Only the Monstrous was a major release for Big Finish Productions back in 2015. It wasn’t just that it was the first volume of The War Doctor, and therefore, the first time that John Hurt had played the titular role since The Day of the Doctor back in 2013. But it was also Big Finish’s first major dip into the Time War. As such, it was a hugely monumental release. Did it live up to expectations?

For the first box set, veteran writer and executive producer Nicholas Briggs wrote all three episodes. Briggs (who also directs as well as voices the Daleks in this release) was in some ways a very natural choice for this. Not only had he written a huge number of Dalek stories, but he’d also written many character-focused ones, too. In particular, Dalek Empire and Eighth Doctor box set Dark Eyes were strong examples of both. So Briggs was a strong choice to kick the War Doctor’s own series off.

Opening episode The Innocent is a perfect example of Nicholas Briggs at his very best. It’s also in some ways rather subversive of expectations. Despite being the first audio story released set firmly in the Time War, Briggs moves the action away from all of it for most of the episode.

Instead, he gives us a story of the Doctor trying to recover from the war, both physically and mentally. Through his relationship with Rejoice – someone who nurses the Doctor back to health and comes close to being a companion – we learn how much the War Doctor has been through, and we get a strong idea of what he truly thinks of himself. It’s an extremely strong start that helps to establish both the box set and the whole series.

The Thousand Worlds and The Heart of the Battle are closer to what you’d expect from a Time War story.

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

Closely linked episodes

While The Innocent is in some ways a low-key and quiet opening story, the following two episodes – The Thousand Worlds and The Heart of the Battle – are much closer to what you’d expect from a Time War story. The Doctor is sent behind enemy lines, where Daleks are everywhere, and the stakes are extremely high.

In some ways, these latter two episodes feel almost like a two-parter, especially when compared to The Innocent. And yet at the same time, The Thousand Worlds and The Heart of the Battle result as a consequence of The Innocent‘s events. It’s like how closely linked Utopia is with The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords. In some ways, all three episodes form a three-parter, but the opening episode is more distinct compared to the others.

Regardless, Only the Monstrous features an excellent depiction of the Time War. It’s not the war at its strangest or timey-wimeyest. (That would be handled in later box sets.) But it does give us a strong sense of the sheer scale of the war. More than that – it shows how ordinary people are affected by it, across their entire lives.

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Establishing the Time War

In its own right, Only the Monstrous is a strong box set. But it also did a lot more than that. It established Big Finish’s depiction of the Time War in several key ways.

The character of Ollistra is the most significant. Devious, clever and desperate to win the war at any cost, Ollistra represents the very worst of the Time Lords during the Time War. More than that: she would become a huge character in her own right, not just appearing in the rest of The War Doctor, but even in prequel series The Eighth Doctor: Time War.

It’s funny to think just how many more stories have been told featuring the Time War since then. Not only do we have two Doctor Who series featuring two very different Doctors. But we’ve also had the Time War explored from the perspectives of the War Master, the regular characters of Gallifrey, and most recently the Doctor’s granddaughter.

But – along with an adventure for the Eighth Doctor in Classic Doctors, New Monsters – The War Doctor: Only the Monstrous was where it all began. It’s a key box set that helped to shape Big Finish’s mythology for the next five years, and better still, it’s an enjoyable first look at John Hurt’s Doctor in his own series.

Have you listened to Only the Monstrous? Do you think it works well at both establishing the Time War and as its own story? Let us know in the comments below.