Rage of the Time Lords: The Coney Island Chameleon

"Freak shows? They're a thing of the past."

Writer: David Llewellyn 

Format: Audio

Released: July 2019

Series: The War Master 3.02

Featuring: War Master

Synopsis

When the carnival arrives on Coney Island, it brings with it the most incredible specimens that New York will ever see. Unfortunately for the acts, not all eyes on them are friendly. Enigmatic businessman TS Mereath has taken a shine to the Coney Island Chameleon, for example... and he will seemingly stop at nothing to acquire her.

Verdict

The Coney Island Chameleon was a superb audio adventure to kick Rage of the Time Lords right into action! This was actually very similar in format and structure to The Survivor, but I think it worked a lot better with the Master very conniving and manipulative in his schemes. It really was a masterful performance from Derek Jacobi as the War Master and I thought it was great how he was after the Chameleon that was Esther. Her abilities were interesting and probably could have been explained a little more, but I guess the explanation is in the fact that she is a chameleon. Her being used as part of a carnival performance was good and it made me laugh a little that someone with her abilities was struggling financially and second fiddle to Sabatini. The Master's disguise as an American businessman was good and whilst it was incredibly easy to work out that his guise as TS Mereath was an anagram of 'The Master', I loved it. I really am a fan of the Master's deception, even when it is so obvious to us listeners, and whilst the accent was questionable, it was just good to have the Master up to no good. I find it fascinating that there is so much potential on Earth for use in the Time Lord as the human race wouldn't really have much to offer in a war of the scale between the Time Lords and the Daleks, but of course Esther wasn't human at all. The use of the carnival setting was fantastic throughout and the Master's ability to use that and everything that it provided for Sabatini and Esther in their lives was excellent. He wanted to buy Esther and offered an incredible sum of $2,000. Putting that into context, Sabatini's rent was $15-20 per month so he would obviously benefit greatly and be set for a very long time financially. The Master putting a horrific plan into action once his offer was rejected, which I was actually surprised was the case, and that involved burning down the hotel that Sabatini was staying at and then murdering his landlord of Fletcher. Things advanced very quickly from there and we had the War Master at his very best. It was brilliant and I think Jacobi does so well as being evil. I loved it. Sabatini and Esther going on the run was a good development of the story and it injected it with a good pace and a lot of excitement which was a shift from the mysterious atmosphere that has accompanied the War Master series so far. The Master tracking them down was always going to happen though and that meant he would soon meet Genevieve. I really liked her character as she was questioning her old flame and how she initially thought that Sabatini and Esther were seeing each other in more than just a carnival act, despite the huge age discrepancies. The ending was a very unexpected shift though with the Master trapping Sabatini in a force field and actually taking him in his TARDIS and leaving Esther free. I really didn't see that coming and I'm intrigued to see how things are followed up in the next instalment of the series. Surely a chameleon would be a better weapon in the Time War than some special DNA? I'm also looking forward to seeing how he will be used alongside Alice. Throwing the Eighth Doctor into the mix makes things very exciting and I can't wait to see how things pan out. For now though, an excellent audio story!

Rating: 9/10