The War Master: Hearts of Darkness

The War Master #5

by David Llewellyn, Lisa McMullin

“Find the Doctor… stop the Doctor… and, if necessary, kill the Doctor!”
Recruited by the Celestial Intervention Agency to track down his oldest enemy, the Master finds himself thrown into a mission that will take him into deepest Dalek territory.
Abandoned on the planet Redemption, he assembles a crew and acquires a ship – the journey that follows is certain to test them all... and not everyone will survive.
But space pirates and living corpses are the least of their worries. Their biggest threat remains at large: a Time Lord who likes to call himself ‘the Doctor’.
5.1 The Edge of Redemption by David Llewellyn
5.2 The Scaramancer by Lisa McMullin
5.3 The Castle of Kurnos 5 by David Llewellyn
5.4 The Cognition Shift by Lisa McMullin

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, British Literature, Audiobook

Audio CD

First published October 28, 2020

About the author

David Llewellyn is a Welsh novelist and script writer. He grew up in Pontypool and graduated from Dartington College of Arts in 2000. His first novel, Eleven, was published by Seren Press in 2006. His second, Trace Memory, a spin-off from the BBC drama series Torchwood, was published in March 2008. Everything Is Sinister was published by Seren in May 2008. He has written two novels for the Doctor Who New Series Adventures: The Taking of Chelsea 426, featuring the Tenth Doctor, and Night of the Humans, featuring the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond.

In addition to writing novels, Llewellyn wrote the Bernice Summerfield audio play Paradise Frost and the Dark Shadows audio drama The Last Stop for Big Finish Productions.

Llewellyn lives in Cardiff.

Reviews

[Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first War Master box set and it's a purely financial reason why I hadn't continued following on. However the feature and drama tease on the Big Finish podcast made me want to dig into my pocket and get this 5th entry in the series. This is one of big Finish's best. There are twist, turns, action, humour, superb performances throughout, sublime almost vangelis like music at times and excellent immersive sound design. Derek Jacob is the best master since Delgado and I'm glad big finish is continuing to do more adventures with him in the future 👍

[Taksya · Rating 5 out of 5]

5.1 The Edge of Redemption by David Llewellyn
Il Maestro viene assunto da Narvin, per conto della C.I.A., con la missione di trovare il Dottore e, nel caso, ucciderlo.
Nota stonata che mette l'ascoltatore sull'avviso e in attesa di scoprire cosa avranno combinato questa volta i Time Lord.
L'episodio è una sorta di rivisitazione Western (o a la Star Wars) ma risulta gradevole e interessante.
La banda di scapestrati raccolta dal Maestro non fa in tempo a partire che...
5.2 The Scaramancer by Lisa McMullin
... vengono catturati da un gruppo di pirati spaziali. Il capo, la Scaramancer del titolo, ha un contenzioso con i Time Lord, la Guerra del Tempo e, soprattutto, il Maestro, colpevole di averle rovinato la vita.
Le cose volgono a favore del Maestro, giusto per la grande rivelazione finale, che cambia completamente le carte in tavola.

5.3 The Castle of Kurnos 5 by David Llewellyn
Via di flashback, per spiegare l'affermazione finale del Maestro nel precedente capitolo.
Ci ritroviamo su un classico pianeta poco tecnologico, dove è stato esiliato il solito Time Lord pazzo, lontano dagli occhi ma libero di proseguire i suoi esperimenti.
Il Maestro ha deciso di continuare gli esperimenti e, sfortunatamente per il Dottore, riesce a portare a termine quello che il loro illustre collega non era riuscito a fare.

5.4 The Cognition Shift by Lisa McMullin
Tornando al presente ci ritroviamo a dover rimettere le cose a posto, catturare il cattivi e, nel caso, metterlo nell'impossibilità di agire.
Con vari cambi di prospettiva, riusciamo nell'intento ma, al solito, il Maestro trova il modo di liberarsi di qualsiasi costrizione, pronto per il prossimo capitolo della saga.

Rispetto alla una trama noiosa che ha penalizzato The War Master: Anti-Genesis, in The War Master: Hearts of Darkness ho trovato più dinamicità, data anche dall'artefatto creato dal Time Lord rinnegato.
Resta un solo problema, anche se è possibile che abbia perso qualche pezzo per strada: l'ottavo Dottore e il War Master si sono affrontati di persona, come può il decimo Dottore non aver riconosciuto Yana?

[Ellen Schoener · Rating 5 out of 5]

Right.
First things first- this was awesome!
They really are on a roll with these Time War releases recently, aren't they?

While I have to say that this is not my favorite War Master set (that honour goes to the very first one), it definitely is my favorite 8th Doctor release for this year.
Yeah, I know, Palindrome and Davros in Time War 4 are very hard to beat and I am afraid that Palindrome had the better performance with Terry Molloy...
but Hearts of Darkness wins because it is just exactly the type of story I love.
It is this "Fellowship on a Quest" type story, the assembly of a crew, the cruising about in a space ship (no wonder when Mass Effect 2 is one of my favorite games!) which I really enjoy.
Paired with a plot element which would be a really huge spoiler here and which was a great twist...

Hearts of Darkness has a lot going for it.
- there are NO Daleks in it! Can you believe it? My ears did a happy dance.
- no reliance on superior technology and gadgets, there are no time rings, TARDIS or magic screwdrivers for at least the first half of the set which made for a really nice change
- a long 4 hour epic story
- great characters
- spooky atmosphere, just right for Halloween listening, especially episode 3 which reminds me a lot of Brain of Morbius
- sound and music were again top notch, really helped in creating said atmosphere
- action and a great fellowship on a quest type story
- A LOT of twists and turns and definitely something you need to listen to at least twice
- some great performances by the leads- I really would love to see these videos of these actors going through the motions in their booths!

McGann and Jacobi are clearly having a ball playing against each other and they give everything.

In short, this is amazing.
If you love the 8th Doctor and the Master, this is for you.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

5.1 The Edge of Redemption - It’s a heist! Oh, how fun! The (War) Master has to put together a motley crew of loners with special talents. And it’s only an assemblage of tools for a bigger scheme. Oh, the Master is doing his thing, that’s for sure (4/5).

5.2 The Scaramancer - Fun adventure with pirates in space. But it feels really straightforward. But then there’s the ending! What a cliffhanger! But it’s not really enough to pull the overall story up that much (3/5).

5.3 The Castle of Kurnos 5 - Just exactly how did that cliffhanger revelation in the last episode come about? Well, interesting that you should ask … (4/5).

5.4 The Cognition Shift - Well, they certainly made the landing. Heck, they nailed the landing. Nicely done (4/5).

[Jurgen · Rating 5 out of 5]

5.1 'The Edge of Redemption' by David Llewellyn: 4,5*
5.2 'The Scaramancer' by Lisa McMullin: 4,5*
5.3 'The Castle of Kurnos 5' by David Llewellyn: 5*
5.4 'The Cognition Shift' by Lisa McMullin: 5*

[Seb Hasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hearts Of Darkness is not only a excellent addition to the War Master range, but also a superb piece of fiction. Full of twists and turns, amazing acting, rich characters and a fantastic plot; it is a delightful four hours of storytelling. Right from the start it kicks off with a surprising, attention grabbing premise; leading into a fun little heist plot. Following that is two episodes of adventure and character building, ending with a finale that is absolutely satisfying. The music is so ambient that you are able to really immerse yourself in the mellow or action packed moments, never intruding on the dialogue or drama. This is further complimented by the sound design which is especially great in episode three, bringing the mysterious castle and strange alien world to life. These aspects are key to the set and done with such quality that they are a merit to the narrative. The true brilliance of the boxset lies truly in the characters, with fun and believable performances.

I adore Colin McFarlane so I was overjoyed that he is most prominent side character, playing the hilarious Morski. The Master’s group of bandits in episode one are hilarious but the only real main characters are Morski and the Scaramancer. It was such an amazing concept to have such a charming and loveable character like Morski be offset by someone dark and a serious like Morski. Together they balanced out the tone and allowed for the Doctor and Master to progress the plot with occasional interjections from the others. The Master’s plan is a nice new idea, less evil than usual but with the usual bombast you expect from him. The adorable Paul McGann helps make the story interesting, more prominent than the Master; yet allowing the Master’s plan to be engaging and strongly focused on too.
A small thing I adore is the introduction of the middle eight to the theme song of the set, pure ecstasy to listen to; allowing for a perfect close to the story.

Simply put Derek Jacobi and Paul McGann are on perfect form, and you really do forget they’re acting shockingly quickly. I love sets that have single narrative, and this one made the most of that. It features action sequences, evil plans, drama, comedy, fab sci-fi nonsense; all the traits of this marvellous series. Overall I genuinely cannot think of a single criticism of the set, and would absolutely re-listen to it in a heartbeat. If I was forced to think of one I’d say that the Master doesn’t feel as evil as usual but it gave a chance to demonstrate Derek Jacobi’s wide range as an actor; adding some variety to the character.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid story arc, and not as dark as this series can get. Derek Jacobi is establishing himself as the most evil incarnation of The Master. Where others are crazy-insane, Jacobi's Master is calculating and especially cruel.

The set kicks off with Narvin sending The Master deep into Dalek territory to track down and if necessary kill The Doctor. (It's no spoiler to say that Narvin is in this. He's in the very first scene.) Great set-up. And if the title has you thinking of Conrad's novel, I'm sure that's intentional.

The Master hires a ship and a crew to take him to the planet where the Doctor is said to be. Naturally, you expect the double-crosses to begin almost immediately. The first two episodes involve acquiring ship and crew and then facing pirates on the journey into Dalek space.

But there's a twist at the end of episode two that will have you wanting to start over from the beginning for a more careful listen. Though I did not go back and re-listen, I'll just say that I felt from the beginning that The Master was a little less cruel than he usually is. And the twist explains why.

However, comparisons to Heart of Darkness don't go much farther than the basic set-up. No, I wasn't particularly expecting The Master to discover the Doctor, dying and muttering "The horror, the horror." However, maybe I expected something a little more "dark" than what ended up being a typical crazy-kooky plan of The Master. Though as far as kooky plans go, this one is rather unique (and . . . now that I think about it, it foreshadows a plan of the John Simm Master on the TV show).

Paul McGann is excellent here as well, when he arrives on the scene. And to say much more about his performance would be spoiling it, but I'll bet he had a lot of fun with this script. Everyone else is quite good, too. I could have sworn that Colin McFarlane (playing Captain Morski) was Stewart Alexander, who played Valeros in the Pathfinder Legends series. Their voices are startlingly similar when McFarlane is putting on an American accent.

I'll give it four stars because it's highly entertaining, even if it doesn't live up to the "Darkness" of the title.

[Jamie Revell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The premise of this four-part story (as revealed before the opening theme music) is that the Time Lords believe that the Doctor has gone rogue deep behind enemy lines and send the Master on a mission to stop him. To be honest, that's about as much of a connection as you're going to get to Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now but, as a set-up it's an interesting one.

From there, we kick off with a heist story as the Master tries to steal an impounded ship that will take him into Dalek-controlled space, followed by a second episode that introduces further characters and sees some of the Master's past deeds coming back to haunt him. The Doctor only turns up in part three, which is a flashback that explains what has really been going on, and then we're down to a complex showdown between the two as the supporting characters have to figure out who to trust.

There is some great scenery and atmosphere here, much of it dark and menacing, even if the body count is lower than in some other Master stories. The real joy though, is, as always, the nuanced performances of Jacobi and McGann. Some earlier releases in this series glossed over the willingness of this particular Master to hide his true self behind an affable front, but here that's really played up - and, indeed, forms a key part of the story when the Master seems to be acting weirdly out of character for much of the first half.

Needless, to say, he really isn't and while I'm sure other Goodreads reviewers will have given away the reason in the first line of their public review, I'll avoid doing so. Finding out why, and what the consequences of the answer are, is a large part of the strength of this story.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Edge of Redemption:
7/10
Verdict: Recommended

Love a good heist story, really fun sequences and a great ending. The Master felt a little off in this, but there's good reason for it and I'm so glad I listened to the full boxset before reviewing the stories alone. The characters are all likable and unique, which really makes the ending hit harder.

The Scaramancer:
6/10
Verdict: Recommended

This story is a bit weird, It's setting up quite a few elements, mainly the titular Scaramancer herself, so it's quite dependant on you caring about her and her story. I didn't enjoy her, but I did enjoy the history she has with The Master and the hostility she holds. Other than that the other characters don't feel like they have much to do in this.

The Castle of Kurnos 5:
6/10
Verdict: Recommended

I should have seen that twist coming waaay sooner, I feel a bit dumb for not seeing it honestly. Nice setting but the general plot feels slow with most scenes focusing on The Doctor and an NPC walking through a forest. Didn't care about any of the side characters in this and only got interested at the very end, though the ending is pretty essential to this boxset.

The Cognition Shift:
7/10
Verdict: Recommended

This is the best War Master boxset so far. The characters in this are all solid, the plot is fun and the dialogue between Mcgann and Jacobi is amazing. I guess you could say they have quite the face off in this boxset. Insane and entertaining plot by the Master with an admittedly slightly cheap conclusion. The bridge section did feel a little out of place though, cool segment but feels shoehorned in.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last box set ended in a cliffhanger and this one starts as if none of that ever happened… usually Big Finish box sets have great continuity and link in wonderfully with each other, but this one just doesn’t, which is weird.


Episode 1 - The Edge of Redemption - 3 stars
Wasn’t overly fond of this episode. It mostly just felt like set up again, and I didn’t come to care that much about the characters. One of them in particular annoyed me, to be honest.

Episode 2 - The Scaramancer - 3 stars
This episode was much like the first. I just didn’t much care about it. There was one thing, though, that intrigued me throughout.
Something felt “off” with the characters in this episode, and thankfully it was intentional, and there is an explanation. And I did guess it early on. Vindication feels good 😅

Episode 3 - The Castle of Kurnos 5 - 4 stars
Another episode that was more of a Doctor episode than a Master one, but it was so good. And after the ending of episode 2, this episode was very much needed (and appreciated) as explanation for the twist. Very enjoyable episode overall.

Episode 4 - The Cognition Shift - 4 stars
An enjoyable finale to the story.
It was really interesting to see both Paul McGann and Derek Jacobi play extra roles in this one as well. And the Master was delightfully evil in this episode; it was glorious.


Overall, this is another great box set in the War Master range, and I had fun listening to it. Looking forward to the next one!

[Nikolai · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great. Starts off in a “Scum and Villainy” style heist kind of sequence and then through multiple twists and turns, you end up in a castle ruin at the edge of the universe and a whole lot of hijinks with the Cognition Shift, which is a very fun macguffin. Loved the Doctor and the Master here, and how they interacted with each other.

[Alien_Dwarf · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first two stories didn't exactly work for me originally, but when the twist hits it makes everything make sense, and become better retroactively? Does this make any sense? Fantastic concept, very well-executed.

[Number Two · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh gosh, how boring this set was...

[Joseph S · Rating 4 out of 5]

In total, the length of the stories is only 200 minutes. So 3.34 hours. Truly an insanely short amount of time versus extras and what not.

Story = 5

Length = 2

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The doctor is in the mastets body and the master is in the doctors causing chaos. Trying to prove an idol Cardinals theories are correct.

[Gaz Galey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this story. And loved the twist at the end of the second story. A great Master story. Big finish made another great story.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn’t really surprised by the twist, funny enough.

[Daniel Cork · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Edge Of Redemption:
A fast paced but fun heist story that introduces us to a whole new series of War Master where he is on a mission for The Timelords to find The Doctor and if necessary to kill him as well. This introduces us to some really good characters who all feel really well thought out and all the voice actors really give it their all and do a wonderful job making this fun opening story come to life! 8.5/10

The Scaramancer:
A very exciting and fast paced adventure with pirates, the introduction of The Scaramancer and a reveal of her horiffic and depressing past but it's also a story filled with some really intriguing moments and a cliffhanger that finally makes some aspects of this grand story make sense but also completely take you off guard! 9/10

The Castle of Kurnos 5:
A brilliantly cold atmospheric story with some great Brain of Morbius vibes that explains a lot of stuff happening in this set. Paul McGann as The Doctor is brilliant as always and him with Derek Jacobi who's just as brilliant is amazing, it's great to hear hear their performances between one another bounce off so well! 9/10

The Cognition Shift:
A very exciting and brilliant way to end this set with a Doctor vs Master story that's very different from the usual with zombies, character arc's coming together and an incredible climax that will make your heart skip a beat! 10/10

Overall this set is arguably the most exciting and well produced set in The War Master series! I do prefer Master of Callous and Anti-Genesis for it's stronger scripts, but the story here by David Llewellyn and Lisa McMullin is still utterly brilliant and very well thought out but the production on this is incredible Scott Handcock has provided his best direction yet and all the characters were cast very well and every single one of the actors absolutely shines in this set! 36.5/40