In the last of the review catch-ups from 2022 we have the fourth War Doctor Begins boxset with more great Jonathon Carley in the lead role. Once again if you’ve read my “Top 10 Doctor Who Stories of 2022” list from a few months ago you’ll know I was quite fond of this three-parter, so let’s just dive straight in!
The core concept of this story is that a Time Lord known as the “Barber-Surgeon” (Nicholas Le Prevost) has hidden himself away and created nightmare creatures out of the denizens of the Time Vortex and is now sending them to attack both Daleks and Time Lords alike in a bid to stop the war by eliminating all sides in the conflict. What’s fun is that the Barber-Surgeon makes lots of Doctor-ish references and lines during the three-hour story, implying that he might be an alternate universe version of our titular hero, or perhaps a later-aborted future incarnation. It’s never officially confirmed but it’s fun to pick up on the often-not-so-subtle hints.
The War Council, including The General (Ken Bones), recruit The Doctor to track him down and eliminate him, and while the job of hired assassin isn’t normally his thing The Doctor at least agrees that the Barber-Surgeon needs to be stopped. This sets up the first two episodes really, as he travels from place to place, including Kembel, and meets several characters, including Leela (Louise Jameson) as he follows a trail that’s full of classic Earth literacy references, something that goes over the heads of the Time Lords and Daleks but not the Doctor. This is really where my only criticism of the story starts as the adventures sees the destruction of key places, the deaths of key characters and even the apparent end of the TARDIS itself, which was layered on so thick that it became obvious early on that the events of the story would be undone by the end of it, and when you know that so early on it takes out a lot of the drama from things. Doesn’t mean its not a good story, just that the sense of high stakes is removed by raising the stakes far TOO high.
There are also some fun scenes with The Daleks and how they try to deal with our lead antagonist, including the Time Strategist trying to make a deal behind the Emperor’s back and seemingly getting killed for it (though again, probably undone now…) The final episode, which I’ll get into more detail with in the spoiler section, has some great scenes in it as well, and I do love that the Barber-Surgeon’s ultimate weapon to wipe out all sides is called “The Unforgiving Minute” which is not only a reference to a poem by Rudyard Kipling (apparently, I’m not going to claim to have caught that one!) but it’s extremely Russell T. Davies-y sounding.
The Continuity:
Great cover once again, though the Barber-Surgeon looks a bit… I don’t know, un-intimidating?
There are plenty of call backs to past stories given the nature of the “Barber-Surgeon”. Locations, planets and direct references include several to the original story “The Unearthly Child”, the planet Kembel from First Doctor classic “The Daleks’ Master Plan”, the final words of the Fourth Doctor from “Logopolis”, Raston Warrior Robots from Fifth Doctor anniversary story “The Five Doctors” are mentioned as being deployed by the Time Lords and the final words of the Eighth Doctor from “Night of the Doctor” are also intentionally uttered.
Plus being a Time War story there are call backs to previous stories set during this period, and a few big hints to its end as seen the Eleventh Doctor anniversary story “The Day of the Doctor”.
Overall Thoughts:
“He Who Fights Monsters” is a really fun three hours that sees The Doctor go through hell to come face-to-face with an enemy that seems to be some sort of alternate version of himself. Plenty of mystery that is sadly slightly undercut by them going too far with the “shocking moments” and telegraphing that everything will be undone, but it’s still a fun listen regardless.
So just before this final episode The Doctor has lost Leela, his TARDIS and found the corpse of the War Master strung up as a message from the Barber-Surgeon as well as a guide to allow him access to the dimension the villain is hiding in. There he is put to the test by the Barber-Surgeon by going through Totter’s Lane junkyard and meeting a Constable (Richie Daysh) and a Companion (Paksie Vernon) plus a Dalek that has been trained to follow orders called D9. This is all apparently constructed via the Barber-Surgeon’s memories in order to make sure that despite his tough exterior The Doctor was still The Doctor deep down, hinting that this Doctor wasn’t the first Doctor he had lured into his dimension.
Now as I mentioned unsurprisingly the Barber-Surgeon’s plans are stopped and his dimension begins to collapse but he gives The Doctor a prototype of his weapon and a Time Ring to escape his collapsing dimension, even quoting the “this is the end but the moment has been prepared for” line for that extra Doctor-y hint and saying he believes he’ll do the right thing. Now I don’t know if the implication is that the Unforgiving Minute is some prototype of The Moment, the device The Doctor does eventually use to end the war (well, sort of…) making the “moment has been prepared for” line even more relevant, but either way it was a good end. The Doctor explains that due to his nature and the nature of his dimension that all the things that have happened via the Barber-Surgeon will be undone with his death, but like I said: I figured that out a good while ago!
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