The Eternal Battle

"We face our bleakest hour."

Writers: Cavan Scott & Mark Wright

Format: Audio

Released: February 2017

Series: FDA 6.02

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana II, K9

Synopsis

The TARDIS has landed in a war zone. The Doctor, Romana and K9 find themselves traipsing through an inhospitable battlefield. Strange lights flicker in the sky, and stranger creatures lurk in the darkness.

When rescued from an attack by a Sontaran tank, the time-travellers discover they're facing a far more dangerous foe than the battle-hungry clones. This terrifying fight has been going on longer than anyone can remember... and shows no signs of stopping.

With the TARDIS missing and their luck running thin, the Doctor and his friends' only hope of survival is to uncover the truth about what is happening on this planet. If they can discover the secret of the eternal battle they might just survive... but it might just mean the end of them all.

Verdict

The Eternal Battle was an excellent audio adventure! I really am a big fan of the Fourth Doctor Adventures as I think the one-hour format works really well and is very much suited to Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor. Coupling him with Lalla Ward as the second incarnation of Romana and you have what is potentially my favourite TARDIS pairing. They're just terrific together and that chemistry and relationship was there from the off as soon as they were pitted against the Sontarans. I'm a massive fan of the Sontarans as enemies and I loved the premise behind this story. The concept of the Sontarans being scared is magnificent and I think it's just wonderful that the only thing that caused them to admit fear was themselves. The irony from a personal perspective with the fallen Sontarans returning to life was that I listed to this audio shortly after watching the film World War Z and the parallels were quite uncanny! That made me chuckle for sure. The Doctor intending to take Romana to a pencil museum was a fun way to start the audio given her somewhat lack of enthusiasm and this reminded me of a trip to Bratislava I had last year and made sure to go to the Museum of Clocks. It's fair to say my social media replies were echoing the sentiments of Romana! Having K9 in an adventure is always a lot of fun and his logical and point blank humour never fails to amuse me. I thought Lenk was an excellent Field Major and I loved how things developed from his initial plans to execute the Doctor and his associates on sight. The Doctor not fearing that would come into fruition was a lot of fun as well and showed his boldness. There was something more at play here and zombie Sontarans is a wonderful way to go. The addition of 'human scum' into the story worked really well and I liked how they thought it was the Sontarans that were responsible for the dead returning to life. Stom was another marvellous Sontaran and I really loved his relationship with the Doctor. The Sontarans being a little surprised by the Doctor and Romana's willingness to help was wonderful stuff. The theme of dishonour was brilliant here and with the Sontarans devoting their lives to Sontar and the honour that comes with battle and death was made fascinating given that returning to life after falling and not truly dying was seen as an incredible dishonour. I was a big fan of that. The Sycon was an unexpected and intriguing element of the audio and her place at the far future and ends of the universe was really good. I liked how the Doctor likened the Sontaran-human conflict to being specimens in a jar and it was just fantastic that the Doctor had always wanted to meet one. That said a lot about their standing in the universe. Them doing this to show the futility of conflict was a terrific idea and there is no species better to incorporate into a situation like this one than the Sontarans. Their intentions for a time loop to keep the war going, but it going wrong in the code resulting in the dead returning to life rather than events being repeated was really well done. I thought that was an excellent concept and a fun way to resolve things for the Doctor. Romana's reaction when the TARDIS and Doctor finally came for her was marvellous. I thought the ending with the use of the probic vent and the Sontarans allowing the Doctor and Romana to leave, but with a slight semblance of honour, was just terrific. Overall, a hugely enjoyable listen!

Rating: 9/10