Doctor Who: Warbringer

The War Doctor Begins #2

by Andrew Smith, Timothy X. Atack, Jonathan Morris

The Doctor is no more. In his place, a Warrior, finally joining the Time War between the Daleks and Gallifrey. But how far will he go to end the conflict? What lines will he cross? How much of himself will he sacrifice? The War Doctor is beginning to find out who he is.

2.1 Consequences by Timothy X Atack
The War Doctor and Veklin crash on a ravaged planet. On the fringes of the Time War, this world has its own battles raging. Elsewhere, a survivor works out how she came to be here. But these newcomers are harbingers of something terrible, following in their wake.

2.2 Destroyer by Andrew Smith
Trapped on a world that worships war, the War Doctor finds himself fulfilling an ancient prophecy - could he be the Warbringer of legend? His new ally Case is testing her abilities, too. And both will be called on to fight when the Daleks come.

2.3 Saviour by Jonathan Morris
The truth of how events on Tharius were set in motion is revealed. On a mission to destroy a Dalek Harvester vessel, the War Doctor discovers a new breed of Dalek. Whatever action he takes next, we have seen the consequences – and they are devastating for everyone.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction

Audiobook

First published December 1, 2021

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Andrew Smith wrote the Doctor Who television story Full Circle and its novelisation. At the time of initial broadcast, he was the youngest writer to contribute to the TV series.

Smith submitted his work to more than one Doctor Who script editor. They replied with "positive criticism". Finally he sent The Planet that Slept, which became Full Circle.
Shortly afterwards, he became a police officer, spending a long time in that career.

Smith was approached by Big Finish and displayed interest in writing for them. Because he had started the trilogy with Full Circle, they asked him to write a Companion Chronicles story set in E-Space. The Invasion of E-Space was released in October 2010.

Reviews

[Jamie Holland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly wasn't a huge fan of this?

The final story is the best of the three but it did not feel like a story that needed a 3 hour boxset.

I like case, they're interesting and this story is told from their perspective which is a nice change of pace.

The story however just really didn't interest me, couple that with the story structure and you get a not great set

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

5/10
Verdict: Optional

Very iffy story with a lot of emphasis on characters that never quite hit the mark. War is fine in this, though does play as a generic doctor archetype without anything distinctive. The main focus of this, the Cyborg, is a character that is pretty much defined by being a victim who has little agency with any of the sequences they are in. Things constantly happen to them and then they cry about it, it's a shame because there are good concepts with them but they are hardly touched upon. There are other concepts that rear their head at points that perked my ears, such as the villains who look at war as a game, but other than making a couple of exposition scenes less dull they don't serve any function. The pacing is also woeful, I don't know what they were doing putting the canonically first story in last place. Can't recommend this, I hope this run gets better stories in future.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Jonathan Carley does an incredible job conjuring John Hurt to the listener’s mind during his performance, the problem I’m having is with the story itself. This is one that felt purposefully and intentionally disjointed. For me, this was an example of just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something. I feel like the overall production suffered simply because the writers involved wanted to structure the story in as convoluted a way as possible. Oh well, it wasn’t terrible, I just had trouble getting involved with it.

[David Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second in the series The War Doctor Begins presents this Doctor still struggling with his new identity as warrior rather than doctor. In other words, he plays the warrior, or in this case the Warbringer, because he has to, but cannot stop himself from doing Doctor-like stuff, such as saving a planet from certain doom. Paired with the single- minded Veklin as a foil, The Doctor keeps straying and returning. The moral questions dominate the series. The premise for this series is interesting. Even though it is three parts with three different writers, the three really combine into one story. That story, the listener will find out, gets told in classical epic manner, with the narrative starting more than midway past the events of the plot. It circles back to the actual beginning only in part 3. The reason for this is to introduce a new character - Case, a failed Dalek conversion who might prove useful in the war against the Daleks. Without giving away too much, the plot involves a planet on which everyone grows up in and partakes in war. There are two sides who are not committed to annihilating each other, but are instead committing to perpetuating their war because it is their culture to do so. This planet is about to be annihilated by a crash from a Dalek "harvester" ship. Can The Doctor save these people and get them off the planet before the disaster? Do they want to be saved?

The flaws in the series for me come in two varieties. First, there is quite a bit of plot by convenience, particularly in part 3 (which, remember is part 1 chronologically). It has quite a bit of capture and escape, with our characters magically meeting each other when they have been previously separated to quite different parts of a giant spaceship in which they have never been before. There are other elements in other parts that equally seem to be there merely because they function to keep the plot moving rather than as logical developments from what has gone on before, secret tunnels and that sort of thing. Second, The series never properly explains just what these people are doing on this planet. They all seem human, and derive their personalities, accents, and so on from Earth history, and thus seem to have been transplanted at some time in the past. By whom (the Daleks? doesn't seem their style) and for what purpose are never explained. There are several other gaps in details about the hows and whys of things.

So, there is a consistency of theme and tone that works well. The chronologically twisted plot also works well. The setting and events work well in focusing us on the question of whether The Doctor who refuses that name now should take the name of Warbringer. The cast are all quite good. Jonathan Carley is brilliant in his interpretation of John Hurt's Doctor.

[Danny Welch · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having really enjoyed the start of The War Doctor Begins with Forged in Fire, I really wanted to start listening to the rest. So I did a massive order on Big Finish and purchased all of them including the upcoming Comrades-In-Arms!

Consequences:
On an unnamed world, The Doctor is desperate to end a war between the two populations. However, Veklin and their new friend Case, a cyborg who can't remember who she is, realize they have to stop him at all costs. For the people of this world love war and to stop that would be to risk not only their world but the victory of The Time War. The Doctor has to face up to the consequences of his actions before it's too late.

Timothy X Atack has written a story that took a while to get going and is a little curious and bizarre to get your head around, but ultimately when the plot twist comes into play, everything falls into place nicely. Case is a really interesting character to explore and I can't wait to see where her story goes. This is one of the few stories where we get to understand why The Doctor's after The Time War detested this incarnation and for good reason too. I will say though Angela Bruce whilst an amazing actress isn't great when it comes to American accents, it's very noticeable and put me off the story a little bit unfortunately. The story's still really solid with plenty of tension and action-packed scenes, however. 8/10

Destroyer:
With the truth slowly unfolding and the planet's name now revealed. The people of this world are about to learn the truth and The timelords must stop The Doctor from saving them because it could be the most catastrophic mistake of all his lives. Meanwhile, Case begins to find out who she is.

Andrew Smith has written a really thrilling adventure with some really solid twists and turns. It's probably the weakest story he's done for The Time War stuff Big Finish has been doing but it's still a fun adventure with some solid characterization and tension. The ending of this one is particularly shocking. 8/10

Saviour:
The Doctor has a story to tell Case of what happened to Tharius and why he saved her. It all goes back to when he, Veklin, and Albert found themselves on a desperate mission to stop a Dalek harvest ship. But despite all his efforts can The Doctor always win?

Jonathan Morris has written an engaging finale that neatly ties up the story of Warbringer really nicely, this set hasn't been anything too amazing overall but what makes it work is the character of Case, which this set has all been about, introducing her, developing her and establishing her in this of adventures. The ending of this one wasn't what I expected but really liked it. 8/10

Overall: 24/30

[Taksya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sempre sfruttando la voce di Jonathon Carley come un giovane War Doctor siamo al secondo boxset della serie The War Doctor Begins.

2.1 Consequences by Timothy X Atack
Il War Doctor e la Time Lady Veklin si ritrovano su un mondo devastato da una guerra perenne e prossimo ad essere travolto dalla Time War, mentre una grossa astronave sta precipitando sul pianeta, rallentata solo da una bolla temporale creata dal Dottore.
Con l'aiuto di una donna che non ricorda nulla di se stessa dovranno capire come sopravvivere alle varie battaglie.
2.2 Destroyer by Andrew Smith
Sembra che il Dottore sia il Portatore della Guerra che le leggende del pianeta raccontano e le due fazioni attendono.
Esplorando il pianeta, cercando di scoprire cosa si nasconda sotto l'eterna guerra, scopriranno chi veramente si cela dietro la battaglia... e la nave in fase di decadimento orbitale sarà il problema minore.
2.3 Saviour by Jonathan Morris
Con un flashback scopriamo come il Dottore ha incontrato Case e come sono arrivati sul pianeta e perché si sono impegnati a salvarlo.
Veniamo a scoprire un nuovo tipo di arma Dalek (che potrebbe essere il prototipo dei Dalek Puppet introdotti in Asylum of the Dakek) e un companion umano del War Doctor dalla vita breve (ma che nulla vieterà di recuperare).

Una storia unica, divisa in tre parti, che ci porta a scoprire un nuovo momento nella storia del War Doctor alle prese con la Guerra del Tempo.
Se non fosse per il terzo capitolo, che racconta eventi passati rispetto ai primi due, la storia raccontata risulta abbastanza lineare e classica.
I personaggi della serie compaiono tutti e mantengono le loro posizioni. Il War Doctor cerca di non essere il Dottore, fallendo sempre miseramente.
Il solo appunto è per la voce, ottima nell'interpretazione di quella di John Hurt, ma troppo anziana rispetto all'età relativamente giovane che dovrebbe avere l'incarnazione.
Ma, visto l'ottimo lavoro, sopporteremo l'incongruenza.

[Ellen Schoener · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad.
I liked the characters, especially the Cyborg-lady and the idea of having all stories being connected and happing on and around a pretty crazy eternal war planet was quite good.
The performances again are outstanding.
Plenty of action, and also a bit of humor.
I am just tired of the Time War, and this probably will never become my favroite range.

[Jamieson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second set in the War Doctor Begins series, Warbringer is a set of three parts to one continuous story. The first two flow one into the next while the third is a flashback story telling how the Doctor ended up in the position we find him at the start. These were enjoyable and easy to follow. Jonathon Carley sounds uncannily like the late john Hurt in this which helps with immersion. An enjoyable release that wasn't overly complicated or confusing like some Time War stories can be.

[Debra Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s the time war and the doctor is the war doctor. He tries to same a planet from the daleks and a girl who was turned into a human dalek.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

We can add Warbringer to the names the War Doctor goes by. Very interesting ideas here. And of course the question of whether or not he’s a good man.