The Conscript

"Your staser is your best friend."

Writer: Matt Fitton
Format: Audio
Released: October 2017
Series: The Eighth Doctor: The Time War 1.03

Featuring: Eighth Doctor

Synopsis

Cardinal Ollistra has a new tactic to persuade the Doctor to join his people's fight. With his friends locked away, he has been conscripted alongside fellow Gallifreyans to train for the front lines of battle.

Commandant Harlan has a reputation - his camp's regime is harsh. He believes the Time Lords must adapt to win this war, but the Doctor is not easily intimidated.

Can there be any place for dissent when the Time War looms so close?

Verdict

The Conscript was a great audio adventure and a very good continuation of the Eighth Doctor's first Time War boxset. I look forward to these stories continuing in the coming years and this one really did move the collection in a different direction. Instead of seeing events that the Time War had a direct effect on, the Doctor had now been captured by Ollistra and with her desperate for him to join the fight against the Daleks, she wanted him to undertaker training. He had effectively been conscripted and was at the mercy of Commandant Harlan. He immediately though made a mockery of the whole facade and was not afraid to stand up and joke and question what he was instructed to do. Even if it meant receiving some physical abuse from Tamasan. Ollistra was a bit more ruthless in this story than we're used to from hearing her alongside the War Doctor but that was brilliant. The Doctor had riled her up and we got to see that the Time War was getting to her. She was letting things get a bit too personal with the Doctor and that can only work to his advantage in the concluding story. I was quite surprised that Bliss barely appeared in this story and considering she's being dubbed the new companion, I would actually argue against her being one at this point. She barely featured in The Starship of Theseus and was only in the last five minutes or so of this one. I still very much like her though so I do hope we hear more of her in the boxset finale. I thought the references to The Five Doctors and Echoes of War were wonderful and I also really liked the characters of Veeda and Norvid. They both had quite contrasting views of the Doctor and I was quite taken aback that Norvid died in following the Doctor. It was quite a lesson to teach and it made you realise just how special the Doctor really is as nobody can quite be like him. His causing of minor rebellions amongst the Time Lord ranks was brilliant and exactly what I would have expected from the Doctor in this situation. His thoughts on the Time War were quite interesting and I loved his explanation for why he doesn't get involved. Despite all the murderous barbarity that is going on and all the lives being lost by the Doctor's inaction, he doesn't get involved because he simply doesn't know how to solve a Time War. That really did put the Time War into some kind of scale and it made the Doctor's stance all the more intriguing to me. Would he want to join the Time Lords and defeat the Daleks if he knew how? I'm really not sure. He's still horrified by the new attitude of the Time Lords and his disgust at the War Council staying safe was terrific. I thought the story itself was good and showed us a good insight into the training Time Lords received for the Time War and how Gallifrey prepared but my only criticism was that there didn't seem to be much of a direction, only that the Doctor would cause trouble and influenced Harlan into not being so ruthless. The cliffhanger though was outstanding and has set up the next adventure very well. The Doctor was free to leave, but his friends were not. He would obviously not agree to those terms so Ollistra stood firm and she'd had enough of this incarnation. She was going to shoot him just enough to regenerate in the hope she could reason with a new personality. Oh, the irony there is quite poignant. Overall, a great story!

Rating: 8/10