Self-Defence: Boundaries

"I had to fight, and I had to win."

Writer: Lizbeth Myles

Format: Audio

Released: June 2022

Series: The War Master 7.03

Featuring: War Master, Cole

Synopsis

As his companion Cole attempts to save a world, the Master discovers an extraterrestrial entity that threatens to spread across the globe.

Verdict

Boundaries was a great story to continue my listening of the Self-Defence seventh series of the War Master's adventures! I was really intrigued by this one and I felt this benefitted from the format of the series in having the Master provide his own defence as testimony. That allowed him to basically tell another Companion Chronicle style story that took us brilliantly back to The Master of Callous second series of the range. I was quite surprised to find that it has been six years since I listened to that series but it's one I remember well because I wasn't massively impressed with it as a whole. Some of the individual episodes were strong as my ratings reflect, but I didn't overly like the format. I think at the time that was due to the quality of Only the Good and it was a somewhat underwhelming follow up, but returning there now was magnificent. I have a new appreciation for the War Master getting involved in producing a wine vineyard and just having a companion! This was a rare occasion where I had read the synopsis prior to listening and I was very excited by the prospect of Cole returning. It's a good dynamic to have someone like him alongside the Master and his insistence here to bring everything back to the Time War and keep that looming in the foreground was great. The Master wasn't exactly thrilled by that because even someone as callous as him just wanted an escape from it all. Who could really blame him? I thought the contained feel of the story was excellent and really helped with the atmosphere. If we didn't have the little callback scenes to the Master in present day as far as the series is concerned then I think this could have flowed even better, but that's not to say they were an interpretation. I'm really enjoying having the Master defending himself and I think this is easily the best incarnation to do so. He's by far the most patient when it comes to temperament and that's being evidenced in his little chuckles to Salaskin when producing details for his defence. I thought the throwback to The Sky Man was good too with Fenice referring to the Master and Cole as Sky Men. As far as continuity goes for the War Master range, this was a fantastic throwback that I loved. She was a very strong character too and she wasn't afraid to give it out to the Master. I am very impressed with this incarnation of the Master in his ability to exude control. The moment he mentioned feeling Fenice touching his mind and trying to influence it, I knew she was caput. He's always one step ahead and that's quite the feat given the effort of a planetary infection! I thought the use of boundaries was good and added some jeopardy to general walking about which was fun. Hearing the Master trying to save innocents was a tad disconcerting even if it isn't always that simple where he's concerned. His telepathic ability coming into play was nice and I liked that he confronted Fenice about that. He wasn't afraid to label her a poor telepath even if she was working hard to transform the Master. He clearly wasn't all himself, but that never seemed to indicate to me that he had lost control. That was clear when he had no hesitation in laser screwdriver usage on what had the appearance of Cole! He became briefly brutal which was excellent to hear. The Master's defence being questioned with the events' similarity to The Forest of Penitence was intriguing as they are quite similar stories being so close in a series, but I never got the sense of things being repetitive. The foreshadowing for the Master's plan for Cole and The Heavenly Paradigm was a nice touch too. I'm a big fan of the continuity and links that occurred here and that was a beautiful use of delving back into another series. The tease at the end with the Master calling upon his greatest enemy as a witness for his own defence was marvellous and sets things up very nicely for the finale! I can't wait. Overall, a terrific listen.

Rating: 8/10