Once and Future: A Genius For War

"I will help you defeat the Daleks."

Writer: Jonathan Morris

Format: Audio

Released: July 2023

Series: 60th Anniversary 03

Featuring: Seventh Doctor

Synopsis 

The Time War. The Doctor has been injured and brought to a Time Lord field hospital. His body glows with energy, but this is no regeneration into a future form - instead, the Doctor's past faces begin to appear as he flits haphazardly between incarnations...

Staggering to his TARDIS, the Doctor sets out to solve the mystery of his 'degeneration'. Who has done this to him? How? And why? From the Earth to the stars, across an array of familiar times and places, he follows clues to retrace his steps, encountering old friends and enemies along the way. Tumbling through his lives, the Doctor must stop his degeneration before he loses himself completely...

In the midst of the Time War, the Time Lords have received a communication from Falkus, the prison moon of Skaro. Its sole inmate, Davros, wishes to make them an offer. 

He will help them win the Time War... but only if the Doctor comes to his rescue.

Verdict 

A Genius For War was an excellent audio to continue the Once and Future sixtieth anniversary celebrations from Big Finish! After something of a shaky and convoluted start whilst maintaining good quality, I am hopeful that this episode will really kickstart to the series now. Venturing back to the Time War where the degeneration weapon seemingly originated was unexpected this early on in proceedings, but I certainly wasn’t complaining! I’m a massive fan of the Time War as a setting and it was utilised superbly here. It was good to have the Doctor’s degeneration acknowledged and whilst I think the dwindling between the first three incarnations in particular for brief moments feels like nothing more than a token gesture, I was glad that they weren’t lingering and we got straight into the story. Having the Seventh Doctor in the Time War is fun stuff and something that just shouldn’t happen given the time lock so I thoroughly enjoyed that. His knack for scheming and plotting is well suited to war on this kind of scale so he more than fitted in! I liked the idea of the Doctor once again being forcibly recruited by the Time Lords and the General admitting it wasn’t the face he was expecting was fun stuff. We simply couldn’t have a sixtieth anniversary celebration without Davros and he’s the main focus here, absolutely stealing the show. This is one of the better uses of Davros in my opinion and his position of being relegated to Falkus actually helped him! The very idea of him offering his services to the Time Lords to help bring down his own creations is a sublime concept and a really great basis for a story. It worked well but it was clear that he couldn’t be trusted as the Doctor acknowledged almost immediately. I was surprised the General was so accommodating of the request and he seemed to genuinely believe Davros would revenge on the Daleks. His desire to actually get back in their good books and doing so by flirting with the enemy was terrific. I really enjoyed that. Tapping into the legend of the Hybrid was good as well and I must admit that’s not something I thought we’d come back to following on from The Witch’s Familiar and Hell Bent, but here we are! The discussion between the General and Davros about the legend was excellent and the audacity of Davros to proclaim himself the only scientist capable of creating the super race of Dalek Time Lords was magnificent. The aggression of Daleks combined with the regenerative qualities of the Time Lords. How could they lose? A Time War was not winnable, so creating a mix of the two races to bring peace and rule as gods was what Davros was proposing. But was it really believable that he wanted to bring peace? I certainly didn’t think so. Davros rules in chaos and it would be him that he’d want as the god. I thought Veklin was a really good character and she filled that companion role very nicely. The moment she said the Doctor didn’t have a choice with her accompanying him after he’d agreed to the mission was brilliant. She stood up to him right away but he laid down that it was his TARDIS and his rules which was fun. She worked well with the Seventh Doctor. The General rounded out the trio nicely. I thought Davros requesting the Doctor to save him was delicious and the Time Lord just couldn’t help himself. His curiosity was appealed to and that wouldn’t fail! The fact Falkus was actually a giant Dalek containing a brain was a bit of a surprise but I liked that a lot which fitted in with the absurd nature of the Time War. Its destruction taking the gene pool with it and the Doctor’s Time Lord factor was an emphatic ending, with Davros returning to the Lake of Mutations which was fantastic. Overall, an excellent listen and certainly the best of the series yet!

Rating: 9/10