World Game

"We ourselves cannot be seen to interfere."

Writer: Terrance Dicks

Format: Audio

Released: October 2005

Series: PDA 72

Featuring: Second Doctor

Synopsis

The Doctor has been captured and put on trial by his own people, accused of their greatest crime: interfering with the affairs of other peoples and planets. He is sentenced to exile on Earth. That much is history. 

But now the truth can be told – the Doctor does not go straight into exile. First the Time Lords have a task for him. From the trenches of the Great War to the terrors of the French Revolution, the Doctor finds himself on a mission he does not want, with a companion he does not like, his life threatened at every turn. 

Will the Doctor survive to serve his sentence? Or will this adventure prove to be his Waterloo?

Verdict

World Game was an excellent Past Doctors Adventure book! There’s so much to unpack here but this is a novel I have wanted to read for so long now. I’ve made it no secret that The War Games is my all time favourite story and I’m really intrigued by the current Second Doctor Adventures timeline going beyond that prior to exile. But it just feels a little different and more enigmatic in prose form which I like. There’s something appealing about the mystery of it all and this also ties in very nicely with the Second Doctor’s appearance alongside Jamie in The Two Doctors. Terrance Dicks is the master of trying to make things work and tie together when they really ought not to and that was evident with The Eight Doctors which surprisingly came into play here! That was a fun and unexpected element as the Eighth was encouraging the Second to do what was right. The prelude chapter depicting how the public record of the Second Doctor’s trial wasn’t the true version was really fascinating and something I can get on board with. I love how mysterious everything surrounding Gallifrey is at this point in chronology when we have only just been introduced to the Time Lords and that world was presented really well here. I thought Sardon was a strong character as the Time Lord essentially utilising the Doctor for their mission in interference where they couldn’t be seen to break their golden rule. A rule for which the Doctor had just stood trial! The irony was not lost there. Pairing him up with Serena was really good and I definitely had strong Romana vibes from both her full Gallifreyan name and the nature of her becoming companion for the story. A whole new horizon was opened up for her as she joined the Doctor in the nineteenth century within the midst of the Game. I love that this sees a return of the Players who made a huge impact in Players that absolutely warranted a return! Medium specific enemies building rapport is very exciting and the Countess in particular here was magnificent. I enjoyed her interactions with the Doctor massively as they touched on their past and the Grand Design. That was a bit whacky as I’m not sure her actions entirely made sense given that was seemingly fluctuating what side she was on when it came Napoleon, but the hints she kept giving to the Doctor were quite fun! She couldn’t help herself but it just kept giving him an advantage as he was obviously going to cotton onto what she was saying. The historic permutations between Nelson and Napoleon were really good to explore and I thought Dicks did a good job in explaining the history and its significance. Serena soon knew how important things were which I think was good to establish given her unfamiliarity with the period. I was not expecting her to sacrifice herself and die without regeneration though! That was a huge surprise but admirable. She’d survived a Vampire and a Raston Warrior Robot which was a good clue implicate that someone on Gallifrey was working alongside the Countess, but a side on bullet was her end. That was a shame as I felt she had a huge amount of potential! I enjoyed meeting the Countess across numerous different timelines and the Doctor and Serena utilising a Type 97 TARDIS to see the future and see the impact of things was really good stuff. I do love an alternate timeline especially one within a game! The Countess accepting defeat was good whilst leaving things open ended for her which was nice as a bit of ambiguity. I thought this story also introducing the psychic paper was a stroke of genius with the 2005 release date! It is fun to give that an origin story and it being a device of the Celestial Intervention Agency certainly makes sense. There was a great deal going on in the book which was all very exciting that I’ve probably missed a lot of the details! But overall the history and playing with it was excellent, the Time Lord mythos was delightful and I thought the Countess and the Players were fantastic again. A superb read!

Rating: 9/10