Rage of the Time Lords: The Survivor

"We all have hidden depths."

Writer: Tim Foley

Format: Audio

Released: July 2019

Series: The War Master 3.01

Featuring: War Master

Synopsis

At the height of the Second World War on the planet Earth, Alice Pritchard wants for nothing more than the fighting to stop, and to do her bit for King and Country. But when the village priest offers her guidance, her life will change in ways she could never imagine.

Verdict

The Survivor was an intriguing and pretty good start to the Rage of the Time Lords boxset that serves as the third series of adventures for the War Master. I have been very excited for this series for a long time due to the prospect of the Doctor meeting the War Master for battle and I'm intrigued to see how the dynamic works with them technically being on the same side in the Time War. I'm always interested in throwing the Eighth Doctor into the Time War given that he claimed to not be a part of it in The Night of the Doctor so how things pan out will be very interesting indeed. I didn't expect the first story to be set during the Second World War and it basically served as a lengthy introduction to Alice Pritchard. I get the sense that she is going to be a pivotal part of the series and I must admit that until very near the end, where her background was hinted at being along Time Lord lines, I was a tad disappointed with what was going on as it seemed awfully similar in structure to The Master of Callous, which was not a traditional series and probably was not the best utilisation of the War Master. I really liked that he returned to his guise as Reverend Magister which was a lovely nod to the past and The Daemons which is really great continuity and just something simple that works very well. I'm very interested to know why the Master has so willingly gone to Earth during the Second World War and searched for and manipulated Alice into coming with him. The Time Lords obviously have a plan but I do wonder what she can provide against the Daleks. I'm really looking forward to finding out though! The use of the World War Two setting was excellent as the parallels that could be drawn with the Time War from the Master were brilliant. I really liked that and I thought it was good how insignificant he thought the conflict on Earth was. And to be honest, why wouldn't he think that? Lady Raleigh was a really good character and I was very surprised when she was killed off. I thought she might come back at some point further down the line in this series but that will not be possible now. I have read a review of this first story and Blogtor Who has used the word unsettling to describe this tale and I think that's an apt description. Slowly but surely we hear the Master's manipulation increase, but I'm not sure why he has to do this from the shadows. As I mentioned in my blogging of the second series, I bought the boxset because I want to hear Derek Jacobi as the War Master! I think there was a bit too much of the other characters and whilst I understand background is important, I think there could have been less without any issues. I also found it interesting that the story was initially meant to take place in the 17th century with the Master as a Witchfinder General, but that was vetoed due to the similarities with The Witchfinders. I was surprised that occurred given that the televised episode came out around a year ago now. How that has impacted the whole series remains to be seen, but for now this was a solid start that has left me wanting more.

Rating: 7/10