The Third Wise Man

"War is poison."

Writer: Dave Rudden

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2018

Printed in: Twelve Angels Weeping 10

Featuring: War Doctor

Synopsis 

On every planet that has existed or will exist, there is a winter...

Many of the peoples of Old Earth celebrated a winter festival. A time to huddle together against the cold; a time to celebrate being half-way out of the dark.

But shadows are everywhere, and there are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things, lurking in the cold between the stars.

Here are twelve stories – one for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas – to remind you that to come out of the darkness we need to go into it in the first place.

We are not alone. We are not safe. And, whatever you do: don't blink.

Verdict 

The Third Wise Man was another excellent story to continue my way through the Twelve Angels Weeping collection! Now we were always going to get a Dalek adventure in this collection focused on villains in Doctor Who because they are the epitome of what a Doctor Who villain is. I’m a big fan of including the Doctor to go against his greatest enemies yet again, but it was perhaps not the incarnation I was expecting! I love the Time War as a setting because although thanks to the likes of multiple Big Finish series, Titan comics and the Engines of War novel we know a lot about it and have examples of the fighting, there’s still so much untapped potential there. Literally anything could happen within it and that’s hugely exciting. Just hearing the way Time Lords described the past, present and future as battlefields and wanting to station an assembly in the latter was incredible. That’s not how war ordinarily works but it was really fun to hear. The use of different technology in the story was good too and just hearing weaponry such as the Anything Gun is terrific. I don’t know what it means but it excites me that it could literally be a gun of anything. With the Time Lords responsible for it, the potential is endless. I thought the narration was pretty good although I’m not sure why Dave Rudden insists on not revealing the identity of the narrator until the conclusion of a story. It worked well in A Soldier’s Education but having it happen again here felt repetitive. I would have honestly preferred it to just a remain a nameless Time Lord. It was fun to know the General had the history with the Doctor stemming from here and even knowing him as a Lord President, but I just think the story would have been even better if we knew who was telling it from the early stages. There was no real benefit in hiding. As you can tell from my rating though, that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story! The characterisation of the War Doctor was very good and I liked that he still had those infamous Doctor traits despite dropping that name. He was more referred to here as the Renegade which didn’t seem to quite fit, but that uncomfortable and just alien nature of his incarnation is good stuff. It’s almost the intention and I can appreciate that. The Doctor picking up a distress signal was interesting and his reputation in the first year of the Time War, at least that’s how it would become to be known, was high as someone not always fighting the Time Lord cause. He was against the Daleks absolutely, but that didn’t mean he was on the side of his own people. That was fun to play around with. The reactions of the Time Lords when it looked like he was answering a Dalek distress call we’re brilliant. They were almost in shock despite the Doctor’s reputation and the persistence of his old Type-40 TARDIS. That was fun to think of with the battered police box always a presence amongst Daleks. Getting an encounter between the War Doctor and Davros is just tremendous and it actually depicting the moment he was taken into the jaws of the Nightmare Child was sensational! Davros was as deranged as ever which was no surprise given the Time War setting. We even got a mention of Dalek Caan trying to save Davros which we know would be successful. That was a nice continuity moment. The fact Davros saved his side in the War from his own tortured creation was terrific and I thought the concept behind the Nightmare Child in being a Dalek that knew all about its species without fighting for its cause was tremendous. Overall, a fantastic read!

Rating: 9/10