The Heart of the Battle

"You are a civilised man, not a man of war."

Writer: Nicholas Briggs 

Format: Audio

Released: December 2015

Series: Only the Monstrous 03

Featuring: War Doctor

Synopsis 

Trapped in a citadel swarming with Daleks, the Time Lord rescue force must find a way to overcome insurmountable odds. With the Daleks apparently planning to rule the Null Zone, perhaps their thirst for universal conquest and victory has been quenched...

The Doctor doesn't believe so - but how can he probe it without destroying any chance of peace?

As the countdown to the destruction of Keska proceeds, a deadly choice must be made... A choice that will define this Doctor and perhaps forever cast him

in the role of 'monster'.

Verdict 

The Heart of the Battle was a very good conclusion to the Only the Monstrous anthology of War Doctor audio adventures! The title of the anthology certainly had its name warranted in this story as we saw the Doctor being faced with such terrible circumstances. He was forced to make uncomfortable decisions and whichever choice he made, it would be monstrous. That's what the Time War had done now. It had turned even the Doctor into a warrior, whether he wanted to admit or not. This story followed pretty much immediately where The Thousand Worlds left off and the revelation about the thousand planets that the Daleks had at their mercy in the Null Zone was rather frightening! Instead of wanting to pilot the planet as they attempted with Earth in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, they were going to literally propel over a thousand planets into Gallifrey! The Daleks were absolutely intent on wiping out every single Time Lord. It was an incredible plan and even for the Daleks it was mightily ruthless. For both of the sides, the Time War was making them desperate. It did appear that both sides wanted an end to things now as they'd been fighting for eternity (which is quite a long time!) and the Doctor was certainly sick of things. John Hurt gave another wonderful performance and I really do think it's terrific that Big Finish managed to sign him to three more War Doctor boxsets to come over the next 18 months. It's not long to wait until the next one either! But we're still talking about his first boxset and its great ending. The citadel setting on Keska was again very good and I liked the aggressiveness of the Daleks. The Prime Dalek was very good though I'm not really sure how or why he differs from the Dalek Supreme. But I'm not one to dispute titles, especially when it comes to the Daleks. Ever since the revival of Doctor Who with Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor, I've wanted to know what happened in the Time War and I'm just so glad that these audios are giving us an insight into the terrible events. The only problem I guess that comes with the War Doctor from that though is that the Daleks are always going to be the enemies. Big Finish need to be careful not to fall into a trap of being repetitive as it could easily be done. I trust that they won't let me down though! Rejoice was again a lovely character and although TARDISwiki (a site I get a lot of information from and love reading the continuity section) mark her down as the companion for these first three War Doctor audios, I would argue against her being so. In my opinion, she's just a recurring character and despite the Doctor taking a liking to her, she was nothing more. I don't think we will be seeing her again in future audios but the ambiguity surrounding her ending certainly leaves the possibility open. I think it's nice how when the Doctor and Ollistra visited Keska's future that she was remembered as a symbol of peace. That would be one saving grace for the Doctor in the aftermath of making a terrible decision. The decision the Doctor had to make was actually quite an easy one as the consequences were the same for those concerned, namely Garv and the other Keskan scientists. The Doctor though was not aware that the scientists were actually guiding the drill into the planet's core from inside the descending drill itself! Once it reached its destination that would send the signal for the same to occur on the rest of the thousand worlds. The Doctor had found the signal that would blow it up before making impact but he just couldn't accept that there was no other way. Garv wanted to die in saving his family and planet but the Doctor didn't want him to die at all. Sadly, he had no choice and that was the decision he was forced to make. He had no other choice really. I really liked Traanus in this story and I thought he was a much better villain than in the previous audio. He was toying with the Doctor's cowardice but I think in the end even he couldn't doubt that the Doctor was monstrous. The way he dealt with the Daleks was superb. The Doctor's continued banter with Veklin has been a real highlight of this audio series and it continuing here was marvellous. Despite being primarily associated with the Time War, I could really imagine John Hurt's incarnation being quite the mischievous devil. The idea of peace was never going to work and I was astounded Seratrix thought it possible. But thanks to the Doctor all was out right. He dealt with the Daleks and saved the thousand worlds from being fired at Gallifrey. Despite his reluctance, I loved Ollistra's talk at the end in saying that he was on their side. I like to think of him as a neutral, but the Doctor couldn't deny he had the same goal as his fellow Time Lords. Overall, a very good ending to a marvellous little anthology! I can't wait for the continuation of adventures for this incarnation of the Doctor!

Rating: 8/10