Doctor of War: Genesis: Aftershocks

"For the glory of a unified Skaro!"

Writer: Lou Morgan

Format: Audio

Released: April 2022

Series: Unbound 9.02

Featuring: Warrior Doctor

Synopsis

The ripples are spreading out. The Warrior is on trial. Or is he? No-one's willing to tell him his crime so how can he know if he's guilty? And who is trying him anyway?

Verdict

Aftershocks was an outstanding story to continue the Genesis boxset of the Doctor of War series in the Unbound range! I thought this was truly brilliant from start to finish and was a little more like what I expected from the range following on from the fantastically confusing amalgamation of timelines in Dust Devil. The idea of the Warrior being on trial here was a lot of fun and it was great that he didn't know what crime he supposedly had committed if it wasn't referring to the attempted genocide of the Daleks in the alternative ending to Genesis of the Daleks. I was a big fan of Narvin leading the trial and he and the Warrior really built quite a great dynamic with their back and forth dialogue. They bounced off each very well and the amnesiac element of the Warrior's post-regenerative trauma was very strong in establishing this new incarnation's personality. I'm really looking forward to hearing where the Warrior develops moving forward and having him on trial on Skaro was really good. I liked how he thought initially that he was on Gallifrey but in this timeline the Doctor's actions had sparked unity on Skaro between the Thals and Kaleds. That concept was extraordinary and it's really fun to think about the disastrous impact of the Doctor's actions that were supposedly going to wipe out the Daleks. But here they still were leading the Skaro Empire and that involved the backward world of Gallifrey that had long been conquered. I thought that was tremendous. The Warrior's dream was really strong and I thought having the Master in his own subconscious was delicious. Geoffrey Beavers put on a wonderful performance and it was really good to hear him alongside Colin Baker for a first time from my perspective. I loved that the Master was slightly revelling in this new incarnation and suggesting that he had a taste for genocide was magnificent. I liked the idea of the Doctor leaving a time ring behind providing Skaro with the means for universal domination, and Commander Esk was a brilliant Skaro native to head their empire before being replaced by the Daleks. She didn't take to that well. The revelation that Narvin was on the side of the Daleks in a strange temporal alliance was great and him selling out the Master was devious. The Master getting exterminated beyond extermination was quite extraordinary! I really liked the conflict from the Warrior in the different appearances of the Master on trial and the one in his dreams because of his positioning in the timeline. The temporal nature of the resolution with the particum was excellent and further use of good confusion. I liked how he was realising that the sky of Skaro was actually green and the same colour as the particum, which meant they were already inside. It was all a bit paradoxical and that was fun as the Doctor had, or would, have the detonator required to put things on track. Narvin's reaction to him then saying he was on Gallifrey at the end was very humorous. Overall, a superb audio adventure! 

Rating: 10/10