"Half a Dalek does not make for a fearful foe."
Writer: Tim Foley
Format: Audio
Released: September 2022
Series: Unbound 10.03
Featuring: Warrior
Synopsis
As battle continues to rage across the history of the cosmos, the White Guardian opts to provide the Warrior with a way out... located at the end of the dangerous quest, with an even more dangerous companion. But can a Time War ever truly end?
Verdict
The Key to Key to Time was an excellent episode to conclude the Destiny second volume of Doctor of War! I do hope there is a lot more to come from the Unbound series as the potential really is endless with so many different moments you could take in a different direction. I was intrigued that a lot of this particular adventure mentioned that this was a deviant timeline and the Warrior having flashing memories of what never was with the likes of assembling the Key to Time and the name of Romana was really intriguing. The Time War that ravaged in this timeline was on a huge scale and here we actually got a depiction of it destroying everything. It was good to have Time Lord involvement on Gallifrey and the President looping in with the White Guardian was an unexpected partnership. I was worried that we were going to squeeze the quest for the Key to Time into one short episode but with the separation of parties to get there and them literally splitting off helped. The idea of pairing the Warrior up with Davros was excellent and it never crossed my mind that they would not be aware of each other given how events deviated from Genesis of the Daleks. That was really clever and a unique approach to their relationship. They worked very well together and the more sinister traits of the Warrior's personality were on show as he almost ridiculed Davros as half a Dalek. The creator did not take too kindly to that and he boomed with pride how he was the Daleks as without them they wouldn't be anything. The Daleks later in the episode not recognising him nor that they had a creator was brilliant as to them, the Daleks had always been. That was not logical, but it presented a fun dynamic between Davros and his creations. The interaction between Davros and the White Guardian was fun as the latter was only wanting to be communicated in an emergency. The sound effects in this one were really strong in setting the atmosphere, especially when all of creation was destroyed and we were in the realm beyond Time where even the Guardians had gone to escape the threat of the Time War which had completed ravaged creation. That was interesting and fun to try and comprehend, but I loved that it was actually this fragmented and distorted version of Romana that gave the ignition required to destroy the universe. The different segments of the Key to Time not fitting because they were actually from different Keys was something I didn't expect, but it was a fun idea. The Warrior and Davros themselves possessing the power of and therefore becoming the Key to Time was a brilliant idea and with them linked as always the genesis and conclusion of the War, the only solution was to rid them both from reality. The Collective Victorious was superb and I loved the idea of Time Lords, Daleks and who knows what else joining together now that Time had fought back. A little more on that would be welcomed, but the extent at which the War had gone on now was clear as the Warrior had aged and was getting on now. The fact he revoked that title and returned to being the Doctor was nice, and concluding things by bringing us back to the events at the start of Dust Devil with the Doctor reunited with Sarah and Harry was lovely. Overall, a fantastic finale!
Rating: 9/10
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