The Doctor discovers Tamasan taking an unusual route to a planet – the same unusual route he’s having to employ…

There’s clearly been a lot of thought put into the characterisation of the War Doctor for this new series of adventures. Like his two predecessors, we only know a small fraction of what his incarnation got up to – in his case his very start and his final adventure – so it’s up to the producers and writers to chart the path of a very long life. The ideas and intentions he had when he first chose to be a Warrior rather than a Doctor may well have been rather dented by the time we meet him later. He’s got a clear plan in mind here – which we become privy to along the way – and he joins forces with Tamasan to try to achieve both his aims, and assist her with hers.

Andrew Smith’s tale combines this insight into the Doctor with a clever twist on tropes from war movies, using the particular differences that would apply in a Time War compared to a more straightforward linear conflict. There’s a rather different way of disposing of a sleeper agent than you might expect, and the nature of the titular squad is a neat idea.

Jonathon Carley and Adele Anderson as the Doctor (and yes, I will keep calling him by that name!) and Tamasan are joined by Kit Young and Tracey Wiles with Louise Jameson’s confident direction ensuring that this sounds like a considerably larger cast. Nicholas Briggs gives us a number of different Daleks once more with the return of an old favourite well as a new very special Dalek (who sounds incredibly like Terry Molloy!). Jack Townley’s sound design is given some heavy story lifting to do, and there’s another strong score from Howard Carter.

With some of the recasting that’s been done, it’s taken a little time for the nuances of the performance to feel true to the originals – as I’ve said before, I’d rather have a well-acted role that’s vocally slightly different to a pitch perfect rendition without that feeling behind it. At the start of this story, it didn’t even register that the part of the War Doctor was being played by someone else – congratulations to all involved.

Verdict: A strong conclusion to a great first set. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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