Remember “Once and Future”? The big 60th Anniversary run of stories that ended up being almost entirely disappointing nonsense with little thought into the writing? Well, this is the “Coda” to that story, an epilogue with one more special crossover, in this case The War Doctor and The Fugitive Doctor. The latter has an interesting premise if your brave enough to run with it (a pre-Hartnell Doctor from the Dark Times either working for the shady division or running away from it) but for the sake of this story it’s actually just two Doctors who are more inclined to violence than the numbered ones accidentally at odds with each other, and you know what? It was really fun, perhaps the highlight of the whole Once and Future storyline… which isn’t saying much, but still! Let’s take a look.
The War Doctor (Jonathan Carley) has recovered from his Degeneration but thanks to the effects of the gun there is a couple of hours where his timeline is completely malleable with no ill-effects so he starts to think about essentially hiding until the danger passes, but instead he has a price put on his head and soon a mysterious Time Lord is sent after him: The Fugitive Doctor (Jo Martin). She accepts a contract from the Division to track down and take out a dangerous Time Lord who has broken all the rules of time and recently stepped into the vault of the Time Lord Immemorial, but isn’t given any other notes. The War Doctor manages to avoid his captor and heads to Vienna (Chase Masterson), who I’ve never liked as a character but hey-ho, but she tries to capture him instead and its here The War Doctor at least figures out that the person pursuing him is himself, having no ill effects due to his current post-degeneration condition, so he intentionally sets his other self on course to meet Bernice Summerfield (Lisa Bowerman) as a distraction.
Benny assumes The Fugitive Doctor must be from an alternate universe as she waves guns about and talks about raising an army to take out her mysterious foe (plus based on her recent history with the Unbound Doctor its suddenly a possibility) and follows along with her despite the Fugitive Doctor’s moaning. The two make a great pair for the record, though Lisa Bowerman tends to make a great pair with anyone. Knowing they have to have a big showdown the War Doctor heads to England’s past and recruits Queen Elizabeth I (Imogen Stubbs) and her armada while the Fugitive Doctor recruits a deadly sect of Voord led by Shalavar (Nicholas Kahn), but as the two great armies head towards the big clash it becomes clear something else is at work here…
The story is the fun kind of bonkers and both Doctors-that-aren’t-quite-Doctors play off each other really well (and don’t worry, their out-of-character actions here are explained…) along with a fun guest cast, with the exception of the still-ultra-bland Vienna, made the hour fly by.
The Continuity:
That’s quite the line up of characters alright!
As mentioned (and should be obvious from the title) this is the epilogue to the “Once and Future” set of stories that you can look at by either clicking on the “60th Anniversary” tag at the bottom of the review or by going to the War Doctor page at the top of the site.
The Fugitive Doctor first appeared in the Thirteenth Doctor TV story “Fugitive of the Judoon” and was later confirmed (I don’t care what a small subset of fans thinks) to be a pre-Hartnell version of the Doctor who worked for “The Division” during the Dark Times of the universe in the later story “Flux: Once, Upon Time”. She’ll be getting her own spin off series of Big Finish box sets starting this month (as I’m writing this) but I’m not sure if I’ll bother as the previews for it mention how its essentially like every other Doctor story but with Jo Martin, which is almost as much of a waste of the character as the TV version ended up being…
Queen Elizabeth I on the other hand first appeared as a quick gag in Tenth Doctor TV story “The Shakespear Code” before getting a full appearance in the 50th Anniversary story “The Day of the Doctor”, which funnily enough introduced the War Doctor to the continuity proper. Vienna first appeared in Seventh Doctor audio story “The Shadow Heart” where her entire character could be summed up as “cool gun reload sound effect” and she hasn’t had much development since.
Overall Thoughts:
*takes a deep breath* “Doctor Who: Once and Future – Coda: The Final Act” was a really fun story featuring the two non-numbered Doctors clashing with no worries about continuity or timelines thanks to the “Degeneration after-effects”. While the two leads were on fine form the majority of the guest cast was great too, especially the always reliable Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield. Overall, it was a good bit of fun, far more fun than the majority of the actual Once and Future storyline…
The armies of Queen Elizabeth I and the Voord clash while the two Doctors and Benny have a meeting where the latter points out how out-of-character they’re both being, leading to the War Doctor realising that another force had entered the TARDIS and thanks to his weakened state was manipulating him, otherwise he never would’ve risked the life of such a historically important person as Queen Elizabeth I, and the Fugitive likewise realises she’s on the run from the Division so whoever she took the contract from wasn’t them and she was likewise mentally manipulated.
The entity, whose name escapes me (sorry!) then breaks free and becomes a large Chinese dragon-like monster flying in the sky, leading to both armies uniting to take it down with the help of both Doctors working together. Shalavar dies and praises Elizabeth as a great leader before the Queen is placed back in her regular time to avoid any issues that could crop up when the War Doctor’s timeline re-establishes itself. Likewise The War and Fugitive Doctors say their goodbyes knowing the whole incident will be wiped from both their memories, for obvious continuity reasons…
Hogan Reviews 