The War Master Vol. 1 - Only The Good (2017) - Audio Review

Starring: Derek Jacobi, Nicholas Briggs & Jonny Green

Written By: Nicholas Briggs, Jay Harley, James Goss & Guy Adams

Directed By: Scott Handcock

Easily one of the biggest wastes of potential since 'Doctor Who' returned in 2005, was the speed with which 'Utopia' dispatched Derek Jacobi as the Master. For the record, I do really enjoy 'Utopia' and I'm fond of John Simm's take on the Master too. Yet it's hard not to feel robbed when Jacobi only had about five minutes of screentime as the Master, and he was just that good. Fortunately, a decade later Big Finish announced they were launching their own series with this Master and I was immediately onboard for it. Around the time of the announcement, I was still only dipping my toes into the company's vast back-catalogue. But having been impressed by everything I'd heard up until that point, Vol. 1 of 'The War Master' became my first pre-order. And now with a fifth volume about to be released, I felt it was the right time to return to this first set and get into why it has since become my favourite Big Finish range.

BENEATH THE VISCOID

On the ocean planet Gardezza, deep beneath the Viscoid, a mysterious capsule is recovered from the Time War, and an equally mysterious stranger found within. The Doctor's reputation precedes him, even here... but can he be trusted? 

'Beneath The Viscoid' gets off to a strong start with Derek Jacobi slipping back into the role with menace as he delivers an ominous opening monologue, followed by the main theme of this new 'War Master' series. It's a re-imagining of the 'Doctor Who' theme, but with more of a punch and sounds a lot darker, so it really suits the overall vibe of the series. Like the theme and score in general, the story also features some really immersive sound design. Unsurprisingly given this takes place during the Time War, the Daleks are along for the ride and being set on an ocean planet, we get to hear an underwater squad of them. I'm not sure we've ever gone under the water with the Daleks before, at least in a visual/audio form, but it felt like a strangely novel experience to hear. 

But the Daleks are here to serve as a mostly background presence, rather than being the central conflict. While the native Gardezzans are fighting the Daleks, as the cover art implies, they're more in the background in service of the real main character, the Master. So with significantly more to chew on as the Master than he was given in 'Utopia', does that initial glimpse of Jacobi greatness pay off? Yes. Even going so far as to use a bit of hypnotism, this Master can perhaps be closest compared to Roger Delgado. I was initially a little disappointed that we wouldn't get to witness this Master let off the leash and just get to be a massive evil b*stard, as he instead spends the bulk of the story passing himself off as the Doctor. But with the benefit of hindsight, this feels very in character for the Master. Duplicitous is his middle name and concocting elaborates ruses and working his way into the fabric of different cultures is just what he does. Even though the Master is trying to impersonate his best frienemy, as time goes on you do start to see cracks in the façade. He tries to give inspiring speeches that don't quite land, his sincerity reads more as insincere, and he even fails to supress a yawn when listening to one character's backstory. 

Of course the Master also ends up betraying both the Gardezzans and the Daleks, and there is something rather satisfying about hearing the Gardezzans slowly work out that their guest is not the Doctor, and as the Daleks mount their assault the mask starts to slip as the Master makes his escape. I said earlier that I was initially a bit let down by not getting to hear Jacobi go all-out ruthless, but the last ten minutes do deliver. Especially when the Master tricks one of the Gardezzans into absorbing a huge amount of temporal energy and ages them to death. As he stands over the remains, his only comment is about how their child will be left an orphan now. Damn... 'Beneath The Viscoid' is a fairly routine story at the end of the day, but it's so well done and engaging when you're left waiting for the Master to ditch his act that it's hardly a problem. True, the amphibious Gardezzans as characters aren't as memorable as the setting of their underwater homeworld, but as a taster of things to come, this is a really great start. 8/10

THE GOOD MASTER

The Time War rages around Arcking - a planet serving as sanctuary for the sick and injured. But Arcking is protected by a mysterious, powerful force: a force the Master will stop at nothing to harness... even if time itself is against him. 

In many ways, 'The Good Master' does play out as noticeably similar to the previous story. In fact it has the same basic set-up: a base on a remote planet where the Master has infiltrated the populace and is posing as a good guy in order to fulfil his own ulterior motive. While that doesn't score this story many points for originality, it remains engaging and works for precisely the same reasons as before. 

Though that isn't to say 'The Good Master' is wholly unoriginal as it does continue to develop several previously established plot points. Notably, the Daleks are to put it lightly a little cross with the Master double-crossing them and they're not messing about when it comes to this story. They already felt like an ominous presence in 'Beneath The Viscoid', but here they're not interested in alliances or bargaining - they want the Master and they don't care who they might hurt getting to him. The Daleks have a ruthless streak to them here, and that's exactly how they should be written. Much like 'Beneath The Viscoid' gave us underwater Daleks, they're used in interesting ways here too, as at one point the Master is pursued by a squad of kamikaze Daleks. Kamikaze Daleks is such another wonderfully cool yet silly idea that I don't think I need to add anything to justify it... yeah, kamikaze Daleks! 

One of the main reasons I have a lot of respect for 'The Good Master' is the way it utilizes the backdrop of the Time War. With some exceptions, I've mostly stayed away from Big Finish's plays that focus on the Time War, i.e. 'The War Doctor', the 8th Doctor Time War sets, the 'Gallifrey' series etc. Much of this is because I generally prefer the more Lovecraftian approach that Russell T Davies had when he was writing for the show, and to think of the Time War as so epic and destructive that we'd struggle to comprehend it. That said, I'm not totally against some stories set in the Time War, and 'The Good Master' takes in my opinion the best approach by focusing on a hospital on a remote planet sitting on the outskirts. Stories that happen to take place in the Time War, rather than being at the heart of and about the Time War are generally more interesting to me. With the reveal of what Arcking's power source really is, it also means that the story factors in why this is a Time War - a war that actually affects time itself. The Master's plan to harness Arcking's power ultimately proves fruitless, but the ending does mark an important addition to the cast with Cole - a character who's about to prove very important. Of the stories in this set, 'The Good Master' is probably the easiest to overlook. Coming right about 'Beneath The Viscoid', it suffers a little by feeling very familiar, but it still works getting enough done to advance the overarching plot, and with enough of its own interesting ideas to justify its existence. 7/10

THE SKY MAN

When his new companion decides to save a planet, the Master indulges this most futile of requests. Materializing on a primitive, agrarian world, both the strangers quickly find their place in it... until fallout from the War invades their happy paradise. 

'The Sky Man' is a considerable change of pace from the last two stories - gone are the Daleks or the Master's attempts at infiltration, and in fact the Master isn't really the main character here. Instead that spotlight is handed to Cole, and 'The Sky Man' spends a lot of time fleshing out this character we've just been introduced to. Unlike the Master, you get the sense from Cole that he's a rather sweet guy who just wants to help people out, even when it seems that the whole universe is on fire. But despite that, Cole is in over his head arriving on this rural planet proudly claiming that he's here to save them, even when it appears that they don't need saving from anything. They're one of the lesser worlds to escape the Time War's reach, but you can't help but feel sorry for Cole as he stumbles his way through a heroic speech, and his constant attempts to fix things for them only inadvertently makes things worse. 

'The Sky Man' is very good at drawing you in to a false sense of security. It initially plays out like it's going to be a gentle tale - the Master gets to work making his own wine, while Cole does odd jobs such as fixing the village's water pump. There's even a blossoming romance between Cole and one of the villagers, Elidh, who's just so well characterized and comes across as a really lovely person. The whole thing just makes for pleasant listening, and I rather like the idea behind it of a planet that saw the Time War raging above it, so relinquished their technology and regressed to an agrarian society to go unnoticed. But gradually that warm, friendly tone grows a whole lot bleaker as the world starts to decay once fallout from the Time War hits them. It starts with a flock of sheep being struck ill, escalating to one villager suffering a miscarriage, right up until the finale which can knock the wind out of your sails with just how well it's executed and performed. 

With no cure for temporal blight, Cole ends up building everyone "isolation suits" to protect them from its effects. But it comes at a price - they can never leave the suits, never again hold anyone's hand, never kiss or have any kind of contact. The suits even control their panic for them. It's never said that these suits and their effects turn the villagers into Cybermen per se, but conceptually and thematically they're very similar. And much in the same way that the Cybermen and the concept of conversion and loss of humanity have given us some of the best 'Doctor Who' out there, hearing Elidh and others lose their humanity to the suits is heart-wrenching. 'The Sky Man' gets a ton of praise from listeners of this series, and it's not hard to see why. When I listened to it for the first time, I was originally a little disappointed that the Master was relegated to a much smaller role, but with hindsight and several re-listens I again think it works in its favour, and once again it's very in-character for the Master to allow Cole to make such a devastating mistake. There's little hyperbole in saying that 'The Sky Man' is not only the show-stealer of this set, but one of the best stories Big Finish has to offer. It's a devastating listen that's only gotten better over time - a rare but deserved: 10/10

THE HEAVENLY PARADIGM

With his plans approaching fruition, the Master travels to Stamford Bridge in the 1970s: a location he believes might hold the key to his success. But what terrible secret lies under the stairs of No. 24 Marigold Lane? And what sacrifices will the Master make in the name of ultimate victory? 

Like with every other story in this set, 'The Heavenly Paradigm' has a great concept behind it. This time we have the Time Lords hiding a weapons stash in an ordinary suburban house in the 70s, and the story does have fun with the image of a neighbourhood of everyday bystanders weaponized into mindless zombie drones against the Master and Cole. The bulk of the story takes place in this house on Marigold Lane which results in a small, but memorable cast. Alongside the Master and Cole, we have Nerys Hughes as Mrs Wilson, a.k.a. Tandeeka - a Time Lord guardian aged beyond her years as a result of fallout from the Time War, as well as Jonathan Bailey as the house's snarky computer. 

While I think 'The Heavenly Paradigm' is a strong closer to the set, it is admittedly the story most obvious in terms of its main flaw. While the pacing in 'The Sky Man' was terrific, it's a lot more rocky in 'The Heavenly Paradigm' as it gets a bit bogged down in technobabble and especially exposition. Towards the middle, there's one scene between Tandeeka and Cole which basically stops the plot to explain what the Heavenly Paradigm actually is. There's a lot of explanatory dialogue to wade through, which is a shame 'cause in every other regard, it works really well as a finale. The Master and Cole's story finds its resolution here, where it's revealed that Cole has essentially been groomed by the Master to be a giant paradox. Cole should never have survived Arcking, and then went on to inadvertently create a whole new race, and the Master has been coaxing this in order to use Cole as a human battery of temporal energy for the Paradigm. It's a smart conclusion that links these stories together really well, and keeping in character of course the Master ends up killing Cole without a second thought. 

Everything comes full circle in more ways than one, as the Master inevitably ends up losing control of the Paradigm. As things slip from his grasp, Jacobi plays the scared enraged Master incredibly well, throwing himself wholly into lines like his scream of "This is not what I wanted!" I'm unsure if Big Finish were planning further series of 'The War Master' or if they thought they'd only be able to get Jacobi back briefly, but the ending of this story also links straight back to 'Utopia', with the Master using the chameleon arch to hide away as Professor Yana. It's another great bit of connective tissue, and how interesting that the Master is forced into hiding and ends up exacerbating the Time War... as a result of him trying to bring an end to the war. While there is a fair amount of technobabble to get through, 'The Heavenly Paradigm' works well as a finale. It has plenty to enjoy and wraps things together nice and neatly. 8/10

So there we have the first 'War Master' collection, and if you ask me, it lives up to every expectation and then some. This release had me questioning which incarnation of the Master is my favourite, and by the time I finished Vol. 2, Derek Jacobi took that prize. Of the spin-offs I've explored from Big Finish, 'The War Master' stands as my favourite and to this day it's the only range where I've pre-ordered and followed every set. And if like me, you'd been wanting to hear more from this Master, I very much doubt you'll be let down by this one.

Overall score for The War Master Vol. 1
9/10