Beyond War Games: The Final Beginning

"Your future is waiting for you."

Writers: Mark Wright & Nicholas Briggs

Format: Audio

Released: July 2022

Series: Second Doctor Adventures 1.01

Featuring: Second Doctor

Synopsis

Believing he has escaped exile – and a change to his appearance – by the Time Lords, the Doctor finds himself lost on a snowy, alien world. He is not alone – prospectors Catrona and Silas are stranded on this nightmare planet, but without his TARDIS, the Doctor is powerless to help them.

Seeking answers – and freedom – the Doctor's hopes and suspicions are aroused when a crashed TARDIS is discovered in the snow. Are Catrona and Silas as innocent as they seem? And who is Raven, the young woman who watches from afar?

Long buried secrets are about to be revealed in this icy wasteland, and the Doctor discovers that every end has a terrifying new beginning...

Verdict

The Final Beginning was a fantastic and very intriguing start to the Beyond War Games opening series of Second Doctor Adventures! I have long been fascinated by the idea of Second Doctor stories set after Patrick Troughton's final appearance, and just going beyond The War Games is so exciting and something I think there is definitely plenty of room for with us not actually seeing the regeneration into the Third Doctor. I like the idea of the CIA being quite new at this point in Gallifrey's history and Raven as the head of the mission enlisting the Doctor where Gallifreyan intervention was needed but the Time Lords could not be seen to be interfering. Who was better placed than the Doctor? I must admit, it was a little strange to incorporate this kind of adventure into a sequel to The Evil of the Daleks. I was absolutely fine with the Daleks being involved and I think it was brilliant to reveal that the planet was Skaro all along, as well as the memory flashes and voices being of Daleks. But now I'm not really sure where this places The Death of the Daleks as that was a recent sequel set straight after it and I think that serves better with the Doctor contemplating his actions. Regardless, this was still a fascinating audio and the enigmatic atmosphere was really good and probably what was needed for the first story after the Doctor was plucked out of his time stream right before a forced regeneration. Raven mentioning the word regeneration with slight trepidation was fun given that it wasn't named as such until Planet of the Spiders. I loved how the Doctor thought he had initially escaped being exiled when landing on the snowy landscape, but the lack of TARDIS kept him questioning. Catrona and Silas were good characters and their trepidation towards the Doctor was very good, but they went on to build a solid relationship. I really liked how the Doctor gained their trust and the presence of another TARDIS was terrific. Celestine as the Time Lord that was initially sent to Skaro and going missing was brilliant and the fact he was deranged out of his mind added to the strange feeling of the story. Catrona's arm going into a time wind and actually blending with a Dalek causing mutation was a horrifying prospect and the voices were growing stronger in her mind as she was becoming a Dalek. I loved the Doctor going into the Emperor's throne room and the sound effects were chilling as he came face to face once again, something he never thought would happen. It was fun for the Daleks to flaunt their survival after the Doctor's supposed destruction of them, and as Raven explained those actions had thrown the Web of Time out of balance before the Daleks returned again. The Doctor's mission simply being to retrieve Celestine was interesting and left a little feeling of incompleteness as far as the Daleks were concerned. The Doctor trying to escape into his freedom after his horrifying frilly shirt glimpse of the future with the Brigadier and his future incarnation was marvellous, but Raven showed that the CIA were firmly in control now. They had a motive too as they went against their promise as far as Catrona was concerned and they used the Dalek mutant-human for themselves. To what end, I'm not sure but now the Doctor is off on another mission! I should also mention that I'm still not sure what to make of Michael Troughton's take on the Second Doctor, but the writing for this incarnation was superb. Overall, a fascinating start to the series! 

Rating: 9/10