Anti-Genesis: He Who Wins

"Your army awaits its conquering."

Writer: Nicholas Briggs

Format: Audio

Released: December 2019

Series: War Master 4.04

Featuring: War Master, Unbound Master

Synopsis 

The Master has achieved an ultimate victory. But at what cost?

Verdict 

He Who Wins was a very good story to conclude what has been a marvellous Anti-Genesis fourth series of adventures for the War Master! While each individual episode has obviously had its minor issues, the overall story arc has been nothing short of brilliant and this rounded things out nicely. I must admit I was hoping for a little more of a high intensity feel as the stakes didn’t quite match the slow pace of the story, but it was delightful to have the War Master interact with the Unbound Master. It was fun for the Unbound version to be visiting the War version in his subconscious. It was good to establish that the reason the Master didn’t recognise his alternate self was because he was from a different dimension altogether. This was no future or past incarnation, this was a different Master altogether. Their conversation was solid and I enjoyed the interaction, but I do feel like it could have been a bit more confrontational given that the Unbound version was actually helping the Daleks to try and re-establish the timeline. The Master having trouble with his Daleks obeying him was good fun and I loved his boldness in claiming he was better and more in control than Davros. His reaction to the true Dalek creator’s name even getting mentioned was delightfully angry and he couldn’t understand how it was remembered. The Master being the focal point of ensuring the initial timeline was restored was good and his ship being what was left of the true progression of things was good. So it seems he was the Progenitor of the previous episode after all! That worked well. I loved the encounter between the War Master and the Dalek Time Strategist, with the former a little surprised by that designation but accepting of it given that all of the Daleks he created had a bit of his genius in them. Well, I thought that was tremendous! His reaction when timelines were not going as he hoped was superb and I liked the action that came at the end as the Unbound Master was sent off into another dimension thanks to some exotic particles whilst the real timeline was restored. A universe where the Master created the Daleks bares thinking about, but for a moment it happened and the likes of Narvin and Livia were far from being in control. I thought the pair were slightly reduced to minor roles in this episode which was a shame, but I guess the focus should have been on the Master and I can’t argue that this wasn’t the case here. I thought it was fun that even after the universe was restored to a normality of Time War and the timelines restored to have Davros as the creator of the Daleks, the Daleks still sought him out given his genius and potential knowledge. The vagueness regarding the secrets of the TARDIS that the Daleks wanting from the Master was a bit rubbish considering they have their own time machines, but I did like the fact they were seeking him out to bring us to a nice conclusion. Overall, a very good end to a terrific series! 

Rating: 8/10