Doctor Who: Once And Future A Genius For War by Jonathan Morris (CD review).
Moving on from the whimsy of the previous outing, the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) has temporarily stabilised as the Seventh and, unluckily for him, the Time Lords have come a calling. Whisked into a time scoop, he is taken to meet up with the General (Ken Bones).
Pressganged into service, the Doctor must devise an escape plan for Davros (Terry Malloy), who is not at the top of his Christmas card list, currently at the pleasure of the Daleks on an impenetrable moon prison. Davros is keen to have a chat with the Time Lords. He has an escape plan but, as we know, is so tricksy he probably doesn’t know himself just when he will betray everyone.
This is the big bang action with Daleks, explosions and some major snark from Davros that we’ve been waiting for. The metal menaces always sound so pissed off, so what’s not to like? How do they not know they are going to lose? They always lose.
There’s good referencing to other adventures here, too, which fans will pick up on. I got some of them because my memory is more metal sieve than the Dalek brain casing after a high velocity shootout. The episode is following the format of getting characters in who have featured, some more important than others, in the last 60 years. The General has previously been seen in both male and female incarnations in ‘Hell Bent’ and ‘Day Of The Doctor’. Davros has been very much part of the Dalek tradition with his continued hate-hate relationship. Terry Molloy is well settled as his Big Finish incarnation and his delivery is immaculate. Hopefully, the fans will enjoy and new listeners will be intrigued enough to get involved with the show in all its forms.
Sue Davies
November 2023
(pub: Big Finish, 2023. 1 CD 76 minutes. Price: £10.99 (UK), $13.51 (US). ISBN: 978-1-80240-080-9)
cast: Sylvester McCoy, Ken Bones, Nicholas Briggs, Beth Chalmers, Esmonde Cole, Terry Molloy, Yasmin Mwanza, Stephen Noonan, Tim Treloar and Michael Troughton
check out website: www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-once-and-future-a-genius-for-war-2776
