Forged in Fire: Light the Flame

"There is no Doctor here."

Writer: Matt Fitton

Format: Audio

Released: June 2021

Series: The War Doctor Begins 1.01

Featuring: War Doctor

Synopsis

The Sisterhood of Karn have a guest, recovering from his traumatic regeneration. To do what is asked of him, the Doctor has rejected his name and his code.

The Time Lords have plans for him and for Karn. Is he ready to light the flame of war?

Verdict

Light the Flame was a great start to the Forged in Fire opening series of The War Doctor Begins! I think it’s so exciting and brilliant that Big Finish get to continue the adventures of the War Doctor because after the four superb boxsets featuring John Hurt in 2016-17, there is definitely untapped potential and unfinished business for this incarnation. I love the idea of starting off at the very beginning for the incarnation with it basically following on from where The Night of the Doctor concluded. It’s a post-regeneration story but there’s not much of the usual trauma at all. This is the Doctor coming to terms with the fact he must make a change to try and avert the Time War destroying the universe for good. That’s essentially the basis for the entire episode and it really works well. I think Jonathon Carley is absolutely astounding in his take as the War Doctor. It obviously helps that the version we see in The Day of the Doctor is one that is somewhat old and clearly tired of fighting. He’s on the verge of ending it all there, whereas here he is coming to terms with who he is and is much younger. But honestly, the voice is uncanny. It’s such a good representation and that helps with the episode incredibly. It’s authentic and just exciting to hear this early version of a Doctor we barely got on screen. The setting of Karn is brilliant and I like that Ohila features, also now recast and seemingly youthful. The importance of the Flame is terrific and I was surprised that Sanmar’s plan was to literally extract the source of it! That was audacious to say the least, but this was war. Rassilon taking an interest in the Doctor’s regeneration was fascinating and I like that he knows how important he could be in the war effort. Whilst he claims to have revoked the name almost instantly, I think it’s a nice Doctorly moment in him outright refusing for his old girl to become a battle TARDIS. She would not be weaponised. That was a nice touch. I thought Lithia was a strong character and her demonstration of her seeker abilities to the Doctor had him very impressed. Was she connected to the Matrix? Exploring the history between Karn and Gallifrey was good stuff and I was loving the dialogue throughout. The story aim itself was relatively simple, so when Tamasus and Rasmus arrived I enjoyed the conversation regarding the Doctor’s previous self. It was fun for the Doctor to talk of his past incarnation as a separate person and I liked how he figured he would go on forever in that body. Something tells me he actually will. Whilst Jacqueline Pearce has sadly passed away, making reference to Ollistra and ensuring that her role continued was nicely done. The use of the time lock at the end was intriguing and I quite enjoyed the concept of Karn being removed to protect itself from the ravages of war. Who could blame the inhabitants? I enjoyed the Doctor discussing the scale of the Time War and with a clear motive now in hand for this incarnation, where would he start? That’s hardly an unreasonable question. And it turns out the beginning was against his own kind. The fate of Sanmar was pretty brutal and the Doctor being involved in the downfall was a good tester for this new personality and direction. He was ready to fight now and that’s set us up very nicely for the next episode! I’m rather excited by this series as we may hear the Doctor go further than ever before. But for now, a pretty simple but strong opener!

Rating: 8/10