Big Finish: The War Doctor Begins – Forged in Fire – Review

Ah, the Time War. What was once something that was biblical in Russell T. Davies era has now been explored to great length by Big Finish. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, one does wonder sometimes whether the Time War might have been done a little too much now. But I have faith in Big Finish that they know what they are doing and if Forged in Fire is anything to go by, then there are plenty more excellent tales set in this period of the show’s mythology that is waiting to be told.

The set opens with Light the Flame, which picks up right from the ending of Night of the Doctor, which saw the Eighth Doctor regenerate into the War Doctor. Matt Fitton’s script sets the stage for how the boxset and hopefully the rest of the series will be by keeping the action confined to one place and with only a small handful of characters, which allowed for this story to have a lot more heart than previous Time War outings.

Whether it was a thing with the War Doctor or just something that had to be avoided for a time, the War Doctor doesn’t have any of his predecessors post-regeneration confusion or unconsciousness. Instead, he gets straight into the story, which did feel a little jarring given how long it takes the Doctor’s in other post-regen stories. But it was also quite nice that we’ve got a boxset where one story is devoted to the Doctor trying to regain consciousness. Instead, we get an interesting tale of the Doctor trying to discover who he is. While he used an elixir to make him a warrior, it’s very obvious right off the bat he doesn’t know how to be a warrior.

Instead, he sticks with what he thinks the idea of a warrior is, and it’s nice that Fitton doesn’t give the Doctor a moment to realise he’s always been a warrior. Instead, he’s pulled in so many directions that it’s pretty much impossible to make the right decision. To make matters worse, a Time Lord is also on Karn who is determined to utilise the planet’s strange abilities for the war effort. It’s a cool exploration of this strange world which hasn’t really ever had much exploration as to where these powers come from.

Where the story might not sit right with listeners is that there is a large amount of dialogue. Being a radio play that’s to be expected but it’s very Shakespearian, characters stand around and talk to one another for a few minutes at a time with nothing else happening in particular and as a result, the story takes a little while to get underway. However, the fast-paced second half more than makes up for the slower opening half. For a debut story for a new Doctor, Light the Flame works well, even if it is a little plodding.

The second story of the set, Lion Hearts is a much better affair, with the Tharils, the lion-like race from Tom Baker’s Warriors’ Gate, making their return. Lou Morgan gives us an excellent story in the form of a mission debrief with the character, Lorinus giving us the details of the action after the event. Here the Doctor also feels much more rounded, like some time has passed between this story and the first and this allows for some better character exploration.

Morgan does a brilliant job of giving the Doctor and Lorinus a very difficult moral dilemma with the mission being to rescue Biroc, the main Tharil from Warriors’ Gate, and then discovering that the Daleks have captured quite a few Tharils, all of whom need rescuing. There is a genuine moment where you feel like the Doctor might actually commit mass murder and kill all the Tharils. While the Doctor might not like being called that here but he still acts like the Doctor and doesn’t, but just for a moment, with the use of the seemingly nasty device, you do wonder, did the Doctor just do that?

Biroc is now played by John Dorney who does a great job of recreating the original character and he gets some brilliant moments with the Doctor and Lorinus calling out how futile and evil the Time War is and how the Time Lords really aren’t much different to the Daleks. Lorinus, played by Amy Downham makes a great stand-in ‘companion’ and it would have been great to hear more from her in this set had she gone with the Doctor. You do get a moment at the end where you wonder if the Doctor is subtly asking her to travel with him, but the pair go their separate ways. But given how this series is bringing back many characters we’ve met over the course of the Time War releases, maybe Lorinus will be making a comeback at some point.

Forged in Fire concludes with The Shadow Squad, and writer Andrew Smith seems to really enjoy playing with the time-aspect of the Time War. Here the Daleks are going back in time and exterminating their enemies before they can defeat them. Smith shows the Daleks as great military tacticians here with them performing many dirty deeds, and giving Nicholas Briggs an excuse to do many different Dalek voices too.

Smith actually gives the Daleks possibly one of their best Time War appearances here, by taking them back to their manipulative and scheming roots, rather than just armies and armies of them invading planets and exterminating the populace. He is also very clever with the script, making it only so that the Doctor and his ‘companion’ for the story Tamasan are aware that anything is going wrong, it does give the listener a moment to wonder whether the Doctor will save the day this time.

With the Daleks manipulating events from the shadows, it does also allow the story to not need them that much until the final act, which means that it feels much more like a threat when they finally do appear. Portraying the Daleks in this way is something that hasn’t happened for a long time, so it’s nice to see them go back to their old ways. As a result, The Shadow Squad is a strong way to bring the opening volume of the series to a conclusion.

The elephant in the room is of course how could Big Finish continue the story of the War Doctor when the original actor, John Hurt is sadly no longer with us? Well, stepping up to the plate brilliantly is actor Jonathan Carley who sounds exactly like Hurt and puts in a phenomenal performance. Carley effortlessly captures the character of the War Doctor and runs with it, being hard when he needs to be while softening the performance when the script or he feels scenes call for it.

Carley also makes sure that his take on this Doctor takes a step away from what Stephen Moffat implied with him in Day of the Doctor, that this was the Doctor who had no principles, was a warrior through and through and didn’t care about the consequences of his actions. Here is every bit the Doctor we’ve loved through all his previous incarnations, which I feel is the right move to make. The War Doctor felt a little out of place in Day of the Doctor but had this version of the character been there, it may have worked. But Carley rightly makes the role his own, delivering his own take on the War Doctor, while honouring the performance that came before him.

As a finished product, The War Doctor Begins: Forged in Fire is an excellent opening volume for this new series. Each of the stories gives us a new perspective on the War Doctor while the strong performance from Jonathan Carley makes us instantly fall in love with this incarnation of the Doctor, even if he is supposed to be a little morally dubious, and the hard work put in by the scriptwriters and director, Louise Jameson, gives us a very enjoyable set of stories that feels very different from anything else put out by Big Finish at the moment.