Family Ties: The Golden Child

"He's defending the wrong timeline."

Writer: Peter Anghelides

Format: Audio

Released: August 2024

Series: Susan's War 2.02

Featuring: War Doctor, Susan

Synopsis

A key ally to Gallifrey has winked out of existence. When Susan investigates the disappearance of this gift politician and strategist, she finds someone else is also interested in the changed timeline. 

The interloper is her grandfather. But this version of the Doctor is from the future of the Time War, and he's not the man Susan remembers...

Verdict

The Golden Child was another great episode to conclude the Family Ties second series of Susan's War! This was a really strong story and it saw a really intriguing reunion between Susan and her grandfather. The idea of her crossing paths with the War Doctor of all incarnations is fantastic because the dynamic between them is very different. I like that despite becoming a warrior the Doctor is still very much caring for his granddaughter and just the simplicity of him calling her child and saying he loves her really is powerful stuff. I actually think this battered and bruised incarnation of the Doctor is more like the version Susan is accustomed to in the form of the First Doctor and that's quite the way to come full circle for her. She has lived an extensive life and touching upon the fact she hasn't yet regenerated was really interesting. In theory she still has twelve lives ahead of her and that's certainly envious! I really enjoyed her relationship with Andolar here and whilst I did think it was a bit too easy for them to just break the time lock and travel to see what fate became of Maxor, it was fun to play around with different elements of the Time War setting. Why wouldn't you take advantage of the setting? It's an almost limitless playground when it comes to potential adventures to tell. Andolar being the only one to remember about Maxor was intriguing and whilst that isn't uncommon in the Time War, her knowledge of the conflict's history was fascinating. She knew what kind of role he would play for the Gallifreyan effort and touching upon time travel within the Time War was great fun. The Doctor was doing exactly the same thing and in order to save Susan he had returned to an earlier point here. The Eighth Doctor was still out there somewhere at this point in time refusing to take part, but the War Doctor here being from the conflict of the future was marvellous. That's fun to play around with and it looks like that will become more of a focus in the next series as the cliffhanger suggests the War Doctor will be getting involved in the War Room. The timey wimey nature of the episode got a tad repetitive as we heard events repeating themselves with Susan and Andolar trying to prevent Maxor's death but their efforts were in vain. The Doctor not exactly being happy by his granddaughter's attempted interference presented a tense dynamic and the callback to The Aztecs and the not rewriting one line of history was nicely done. The fact Susan and Andolar decided to stay the long way around for twenty years and try and see that Maxor would become the man the latter remembered to impact the Time War was quite the commitment, as was that of the Doctor in sneaking through with them and hiding in the shadows for two decades whilst they did so! Andolar's death was quite a shocking moment but her first regeneration had been prepared for. It turned out the Doctor had a very good reason for letting Maxor not be saved and that was because Andolar would become Maxor! That was a good twist but it was one I actually saw coming, but that didn't take too much away from the episode. It seemed the only logical route and why she knew so much so now she can shape the future she already knows. Overall, a really good episode that also sets things up nicely for the future. A great listen!

Rating: 8/10