The War Doctor Begins: Battlegrounds is a decent but unspectacular addition to range of War Doctor audio adventures from Big Finish Productions. Doctor Who has a myriad of ranges, and this one does remain fascinating overall, but this particular set struck me as being pretty average. Jonathon Carley continues his portrayal as the War Doctor, which was originated by the late John Hurt. Louise Jameson is the director of this set, and she does a good job.
The War Doctor was an incarnation who was denied by his other selves because of some of his actions taken during the Time War. He has denied himself his usual name, which makes introductions a little awkward to new characters. The War Doctor is not really evil, but he is a bit more ruthless than his other iterations.
As expected in this range, there are three episodes.
The Keeper of Light by Phil Mulryne begins where the War Doctor has a new companion and appears to be investigating strange signals that come from a lighthouse. It seems like a familiar type of adventure for this Time Lord, and he is only too happy to look into it. The problem is that he finds that his sense of reality may not be as reliable as he hopes.
The performances are great as usual. Carley continues to improve on the development of this character, and his impression of Hurt’s unique voice is impressive.
Rossa McPhillips continues the battle with the Daleks with his story entitled Temmosus in which the War Doctor has to convince a group of Thals that they are actually on the same side. A battleship the War Doctor has constructed has been stolen, and a Thal commander is trying to negotiate with the Daleks, which is not going to work out the way he hopes.
This is an interesting story as well. It seems overdue to bring in the Thals in this Time War saga since they shared the planet Skaro with the Daleks.
Finally, Timothy X Atack closes out this set with Rewind, which is actually the best out of this three.
The planet Lacuna is reliving the same day under an attack from the Daleks. Ignis Abel finds a lone man in a castle who may be the architect of their situation, but he was trying to save their lives. The War Doctor wants to break the population from the time loop he constructed, but doing so may leave them at the mercy of the Daleks.
Sarah Moss plays the optimistic and curious Ignis and is kind of the lead in this story. Her scenes with the War Doctor are well written.
The unique take on the repeating day is that the population is aware of the predicament and remember each time when the cycle ended with the Daleks slaughtering everyone.
The set is pretty good for the most part. I love that Louise Jameson has been expanding her role at Big Finish Productions beyond just playing Leela.
Carley is quite the find with his ability to emulate John Hurt’s distinctive voice.
Even if I didn’t find much that stood out, it’s still not a bad collection. Carley’s performance is quite astonishing. I wasn’t initially enthusiastic about the introduction of the War Doctor, but I am enjoying the heck out of this range of Big Finish audios even if that enjoyment comes at different levels.
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