The latest War Master set continues the trend of stand-alone stories that vary greatly in quality and normally fall into one or two categories of “The War Master acts nice but is actually evil” or “The War Master fights an evil more evil than himself”, but I will give Rogue Encounters some praise for being a bit more outside of the box with one or two of the stories. Let’s take a look!
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The War Master is back, but sadly Solitary Confinement feels extremely safe, touching on all the usual character beats that the character brings but doing nothing new with them. Now, as I always say, Derek Jacobi is amazing in the role and carries the set through all its predictability but this time there really were some stories that I just sat and listened to without any feeling of investment in it. Ah well, let’s take a deeper look.
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When this was announced it sounded like a fun idea and the stunning cover art only pressed that thought deeper. Now it’s here (or now I’ve found the time to review it…) I can say that two episodes lived up to my expectation, the other two varied in quality but at least were all enjoyable in their own way. Another extremely solid War Master set, who’d have thought?
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The War Master returns and this time he encounters David Tennant’s Doctor in a really top-class final episode. What about the three episodes leading up to it? As usual a mixed bag, but overall I enjoyed the set. I mean, Mr. Jacobi could read me the phone book and I’d be entertained, as the old phrase goes… Let’s take a look!
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The War Master is back and on fine form for those who wish to hear Derek Jacobi be a completely evil git. Frankly, who doesn’t wish that? However it does have to be said that the first two episodes in this box do have mild pacing issues, so it’s not quite on the level of some of the earlier War Masters sets, especially if you don’t like political scheming. Want more detailed / spoilery thoughts? Read on!
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Masterful is basically The Master’s 50th Anniversary story, and in proper Doctor Who fashion Big Finish have gathered as many Masters as they can for one big three-hour story. We have a new, earliest incarnation, the return of Big Finish’s own Master played by Alex Macqueen and no less than five TV Masters reprising their roles (plus more!). Is it a clustered mess, or does it somehow actually work? Let’s find out!
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As predicted, even though the original run of four stories formed a nice circular whole, the War Master range proved so popular that it returns not long after it last appeared. “Hearts of Darkness” is another hand-wavey encounter between the War Master and the Eighth Doctor (presumably set before their other encounter, which ends in a mind wipe) but it instead brings up an old sci-fi cliché with interesting results. Want actual detail? Read on!
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Let’s try and catch up with the Big Finish audio releases from the past few months, shall we? Starting with December’s offering of the final War Master box set (… for now) titled Anti-Genesis: it’s your standard “altering history causes the timeline to go all crazy” story, but it has some great ideas and performances at its core. Let’s take a closer look!
Rage of the Time Lords was actually released a few months back, but due to all the crazy nonsense in my life, I decided to save it for when I was better able to settle down and listen to it… and here we are! Admittedly, after all that, Rage of the Time Lords is good, but fails to live up to the hype of the previous two War Master sets, which have been among my favourite Who related material each year they were released. That’s not to say this is bad though! Let’s take a closer look…
The last half of the first War Master set won my pick for best Doctor Who story of 2017, and Master of Callous, which is one big story across four parts, might be pretty damn close to topping the list again! While once again David Jacobi’s Master is grin-inducingly brilliant, the new characters and world introduced here are really great too, and they’re given proper room to breathe thanks to the long runtime. It’s not perfect, but it’s damn good! Let’s take a deeper look then…
Hogan Reviews 