The second story in Conflicts of Interest isn’t as frequently downbeat as its predecessor but given its set just before World War II it isn’t the light relief you might be looking for either. It’s also oddly structured in that each part has a very different feel to it, which given Part 1 goes for the “main cast are acting like normal humans living normal lives” plot point, one I never really care for, that at least came as a relief… Let’s take a look!
As mentioned in the opening paragraph this story’s Part 1 is entirely based on the concept of “the usual characters are suddenly acting like they’re part of a regular Earth village”, with Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) bicycling in the French countryside looking to do some painting and coming across Jean-Baptiste (Matt Addis), who tells her not to panic when a strange wave of energy washes over them. Nyssa arrives at an Inn ran by a man named Armand (Phillipe Bosher) and Tegan (Janet Fielding), the two acting like something of an item and soon heading off together to have a look at the fortifications along the Maginot Line. There they encounter ghosts, though Tegan soon regains her real memories and notices they’re soldiers from WWII, the near future, not ghosts from the past.
Back at the Inn The Doctor arrives and is told he’s a detective from Paris but the forced narrative framing isn’t really working for him. A Madame LaChappelle (Poppy Miller) arrives and invites Nyssa to “the Count’s” party, and soon the Count himself (played by Alistair Petrie) appears out of the shadows and vanishes with LaChappelle, the freaky incident enough to snap Nyssa and The Doctor completely out of the “spell”. Part 2 then becomes a “time loop mystery” as Tegan and Armand encounter more “ghosts”, one of which shoots Armand in the leg, and then they’re picked up by LaChappelle only for her to vanish into thin air, with Armand’s bullet wound mysteriously healing along the way. The Doctor and Nyssa meanwhile make their way to the Count’s chateau as The Doctor thinks this whole thing is the work of a Time Lord and that the whole house is a TARDIS…
Once again episode 3 feels completely different to the alternate lives story of Part 1 and the time loop-based Part 2, though only in the way that if feels like a bit more of a standard “base under siege” story. It’s certainly one way to keep your story fresh, not that a three-parter is particularly long anyway. Once again the ending is a bit of a downer, so this whole box isn’t for someone looking for a light-hearted Who experience, that’s for sure!
The Continuity:
Now we just need a story where the Doctor rides a desert buggy dodging fire from WWII ghosts and we can reuse the same cover!
Beyond World War II, which has been featured some might say way TOO often in Doctor Who, there aren’t any connecting threads here!
Overall Thoughts:
The Edge of the War has some good ideas and spreads them out so the story never gets stale or predictable, but it has to be said that I never really felt invested in anything, the supporting cast never clicked with me and nothing really wowed me. Somewhere in the middle is a good way to put it because it wasn’t by any means bad either…
In a fun twist The Doctor is actually completely wrong and the Count isn’t a Time Lord nor is his chateau a TARDIS, instead he’s a time traveller who ended up in 30s France and saw “visions” of WWII so converted his house into a device that could rewind time and therefore save his village from their grizzly fate. Noble as his intentions are The Doctor points out how its, as per usual with these things, ripping some sort of deadly hole in the fabric of time and space so he heads up to the attic in order to stop it. Meanwhile Tegan, Armand and eventually Nyssa have to fight to keep the WWII ghosts from invading, plus Armand shoots Jean-Baptitse dead, though he soon comes back to life again anyway.
Eventually the Count gives in and allows The Doctor to undo his time re-writes and time jumps forward to the day France is invaded, only The Doctor and Nyssa can’t find Tegan. The Doctor to his horror figures out what must have happened and he and Nyssa go to the Inn to find Tegan there. She says that she was sent back a year earlier and has spent 12 months with Armand only to have to see him head off to a war he won’t survive, and that due that she’d rather be literally anywhere else. So another rather sour ending, but again not badly written or anything. It just makes the box a bit of a more serious set, with no real happy endings in sight.
Hogan Reviews 