Infernal Devices: The Neverwhen

"War is our landscape. It is the air we breath."

Writer: Matt Fitton 

Format: Audio

Released: 22nd February 2016

Series: War Doctor Adventures 2.03

Featuring: War Doctor

Synopsis 

On an isolated world ravaged by battle, time itself has become a weapon, laying waste to all who live and die there. Arms and technology are in a state of flux - and it seems that everlasting war is their only option.

The arrival of one bartered Type 40 TARDIS inside this nightmare offers hope to the combatants trapped within.

But when he discovers the truth, the horrors of the Neverwhen will shock even the War Doctor...

Verdict 

The Neverwhen was an absolutely outstanding audio adventure and, at the sixth attempt, has saw a War Doctor score a perfect rating! I was absolutely thrilled with this story from start to finish and it really was a superb conclusion to Infernal Devices. It continued on pretty much immediately where A Thing of Guile left off and an hour or so later quickly replaced it as the best War Doctor audio so far. The story itself got a nice reference in the story and I liked how the Anima device fitted in with the plot of this one. The same can be said for the Annihilator as the series as a whole quickly all tied together with it being revealed that recents events for the Doctor were all a plan to get to the Neverwhen anyway. The references to The Heart of the Battle and Legion of the Lost were excellent and I like how close in proximity the first series is to this second. I'm not sure if the release dates had anything to do with that or not but it's merely academic. This series has certainly been better than the first but that's not taking anything away from Only the Monstrous as my ratings would indicate. I think the reason the quality has been able to increase is the freshness of having three separate writers for the stories. I mentioned in earlier blogs of this boxset that each story seems to have more of a sense of individuality whilst maintaining the overarching story and theme of weaponry in the Time War. It's a brilliant, and of course obvious, theme to focus on and the difference between the weapons in each of the three stories have been great. However, it was the Neverwhen weapon that really stood out for me. The time phasing was simply phenomenal and the concept of it was executed wonderfully by Matt Fitton. The time flux was a horror weapon and the Doctor's reaction to finding out the truth about it clearly indicated that. The Doctor arriving on the planet against his will was good but I liked how he was immediately helping someone out that was infected with the sickness. Daylin was a fantastic character and I liked how she was thankful for the Doctor's help and willingly believed that she wasn't a spy from the other side. Thrakken was accepting but was willing to give him a chance. However, the Doctor would soon be on the run as the first time distortion hit the planet whilst he was there. It turned out that he was on enemy territory and that the very people he was interacting with and had helped were actually Daleks! The time flux had reverted them back to a primary version of the Kaleds and when they were reverting back to the Daleks that we all love, it was simply brilliant. I don't think I've smiled at something in a Doctor Who story in the way I did for an incredibly long time. It was my favourite moment for many a story, I really did adore it. But with the time flux, it meant the Time Lords reverted back to their evolutionary state of the Dark Ages. It was sticks and stones against the Daleks and the death toll would be huge. Except with the time distortion, the dead returned to die again. That was something the Doctor couldn't accept. Kallix and Barnac were good characters and I was glad to hear Valis again after her recent appearance. I liked how Cardinal Ollistra stepped into her own with this story and it was revealed that she wanted to use the Neverwhen flux, along with the Anima device, to destroy the time lock on Skaro and cause civil war at every point on the planet's timeline. That was ruthless but I loved how Ollistra questioned once again why the Doctor has revoked his name. Deep down, this story highlighted that the War Doctor was still very much the Doctor. He was disgusted by the Time War and wanted to see it end as much as anyone, with a wonderful foreshadowing of The Day of the Doctor thrown in, but he couldn't accept the Neverwhen experiments. So by using the potentiality warp, he destroyed it on its beginnings saving many from dying and dying again. Ollistra was disgusted but she would soon be even more annoyed by the Doctor's escape. He'd excellently turned his artron leash into his own weapon and was soon leaving Gallifrey once again. Overall, a simply magnificent audio!

Rating: 10/10