In Review: Big Finish: THE EIGHTH DOCTOR – THE TIME WAR SERIES 02

Synopsis: The Doctor and companion Bliss continue their travels through the turmoil and tragedy created by the Time War in this new set of adventures.

Review: This latest series of interlinked adventures, which explore the eighth Doctor’s battles during the Time War is damn close to perfect. In not only illustrated how insane the Daleks are, but it continues to delve deep into the darker side of the Doctor’s own people The Timelords and does so right from the get-go.

‘The Lords Of Terror’ by Jonathon Morris opens up this set of adventures with the Doctor taking Bliss back to her homeworld, but upon arriving they both bare witness to some pretty radical changes. As the plot unfolds they uncover a conspiracy and find that the world has been taken over and put on a war footing. This is a really big story that does much to develop Bliss’s character and Rakhee Thakrar does an awesome job of unraveling the layers that make up her character.

The second story on the set ‘Planet of the Ogrons’ makes very clever use of the brutish hired thugs that the Daleks once used during one of their encounters with the Third Doctor. In this story, the Doctor meets an Ogron version of the 4th Doctor who has to work very hard to convince the 8th incarnation that he is for real. Writer Guy Adams makes very clever use of the Ogron’s and actually makes them seem a lot more threatening than they were in the TV series. I also enjoyed the fact that we got to learn about some Ogron beliefs. Jon Culshaw does a solid job of voicing the Doctor Ogron. The story also acts as a brilliant segue into the third story, which makes clever use of the Twelve.

‘In the Garden of Death’ by Guy Adams opens up with The Doctor, Bliss and The Twelve living in a simulated environment with no memory of who they really are. As you will have already guessed. This is a Dalek plan to keep them off balance between torture sessions. This story makes way for a masterful acting performance from Julia McKenzie who is playing a reformed version of The Twelve who is helping The Doctor and Bliss in their fight against The Daleks. The fact that Twelve is an unstable element makes her the only person that can really break the facade that the Daleks have created for them.

The final Story ‘Johah’ by Timothy X Atack sees The Doctor Captaining a Submarine on a world where time travel doesn’t work. We get some really tense and exciting battles under the water in this story and we also begin to unravel the truth behind Twelve’s insanity.

Overall. This is a wonderful set of stories, which gives us much more information about The Twelve than we have gotten in previous encounters. I loved the dynamic of The Twelve working as an Ally alongside The Doctor.

We get some brilliant acting performance from all concerned here, but for my money, Julia McKenzie absolutely nails it with the performance of Twelve.