The Master has set his sights on the Stagnant Empire, but he’s not the only ones with designs on ultimate power there…

James Goss kicks off this new set of stories for Derek Jacobi’s War Master with a tale that shows this incarnation at his most insinuating. He has made his plans, and nothing is going to get in his way – except for someone who keeps turning up at the most inopportune moments to push him off course. And that someone has all the Master’s own gifts of guile, double talk and lethal charm to use both in their own service, and against him.

Although it’s not a two-hander, in many ways this first Killing Time story feels like it, with Jacobi and Alexandria Riley (best known to Big Finish listeners as Ng from the Torchwood continuation series) engaged in a battle of wits that escalates as the story goes on. There’s plenty of collateral damage but you realise how evenly matched the pair are through their reactions both to that and to the other’s triumphs.

Verdict: It’s a strong opener that sets up the stakes – and makes me wonder quite what both the Master and Calantha have up their sleeves… 9/10

Paul Simpson

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