War Wounds

"Violence is a sickness that creates more violence."

Writer: Mark Wright

Format: Audio

Released: February 2020

Series: Twelfth Doctor Chronicles 1.02

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Danny

Synopsis

When Danny Pink finds the TARDIS door open in a Coal Hill storeroom, he can't help wondering about Clara's double life and the truth about the Doctor.

But he gets much more than he bargained for. Stuck amid an alien war, can Danny and the Doctor stop arguing long enough to make it out alive?

Verdict

War Wounds was a really good audio adventure to continue my way through the Twelfth Doctor Chronicles! I really enjoyed this one and after the first story of the set, it was nice to have a familiar voice alongside the Doctor in the form of Danny Pink. It's rare to get new material for Danny other than what we saw on television during Series 8, so this is another example of the beauty of Big Finish in giving us an unknown journey Danny had with the Twelfth Doctor. Danny realising he was missing Clara when she was just on a year 9 residential trip was good and his domineering entry into the TARDIS to confront the Doctor after he'd landed it on school property as a lot of fun. I think I made it clear in my blog entries during 2014 that I wasn't the biggest Danny Pink fan, and I stand by that, but the absence of Clara here actually worked well for his character and relationship with the Doctor. The inclusion of the chalkboard within the TARDIS was excellent and really solid writing in capturing the era within which this story is set. I have to say that Jacob Dudman was tremendous as the Twelfth Doctor here and I definitely think that his Peter Capaldi impression is his best. It's truly uncanny. The writing of their interactions was really good, especially with the Doctor continuously calling Danny 'PE'. The pot luck protocols of the TARDIS were good and I liked that we got Danny's first experience of travelling in the TARDIS. The Doctor confronting him on his first alien planet after knowing he'd stowed away was great and the jungle setting was good. I liked throwing Danny into action with a fall and lengthy swim of sorts and then had him thrust in the middle of a war after being greeted unceremoniously by some soldiers. The talking dinosaur was unexpected and just seemed to be there for laughs, especially with him being suited and booted in combat. I thought the war theme of the story was brilliant and well suited to Danny given his experiences and the flashbacks he endured were presented impressively given the format. The border war of the planet was a good basis for the plot and Danny chasing after Yesath who was the Cathillian nurse was very good. It was clear she was good but he wanted to help and also learn. Colonel Quarang was a decent villain and I really enjoyed his relationship with Captain Reagan. Finding out that Yesath was the daughter of Uzek who turned out to be the dictator that started the war in the first place was very good and from there relations between the Colonel and Yesath were strained. Danny not wanting to leave in the middle of proceedings and actively wanting to stay and help Yesath was fantastic and I loved that the Doctor wanted him to make a case for them staying. Playing with the idea of Danny becoming a soldier again was terrific and I liked that he was scared that picking up a gun would just be natural again. His confronting of Quarang for his distain of Yesath after finding the truth out about her was decent and the connections with Dark Water and Danny seeing the little boy he killed was nicely done. His plan of fake surrender was pretty good too but I wasn't expecting the Doctor to then get shot! The farewell to Reagan was and leaving with the war unresolved was actually quite refreshing with the Doctor not able to wholly put things right. His reaction to the painkillers that helped his wound was fun as the memory engrams within did more than just remove the pain! The Doctor collapsed and had no memory of his journey with Danny which was good from a continuity perspective, but I did like how he also admitted he knew that Danny wouldn't have fired during the war before his memory went. Overall, a great listen!

Rating: 8/10