The War Master: Beneath the Viscoid
Starring: Derek Jacobi as the Master
Format: As I listened to it, one full-cast CD-length download; also sold as the first part of The War Master: Only the Good
Silly? Only as a misdirect on the Master's part.
Standalone? More than you'd expect for the free-teaser first episode of a set; the ending leads into subsequent events, but there is a definite ending to this story and not really a cliffhanger.
Recommended? Yes, especially if an evil William Hartnell impersonation sounds fun.
My reactions to this story may contain spoilers for it.
Before listening
This came out recently. I didn't purchase The War Master: Only the Good, but I did notice that the first episode from that boxset was released as a promotional freebie and so I added it to my list of randomly selectable items.As the title implies, this takes place during the Time War and follows the Master rather than the Doctor. This is the incarnation of the Master who preceded John Simm in the TV series, showing up just for one TV episode to regenerate into John Simm's version. This isn't the first time a one-off Master has gotten a larger role with Big Finish; Geoffrey Beevers was only on TV for a single story in which he took over Anthony Ainsley's body, but has been a major Master in Big Finish audios.
I haven't heard this story and I don't remember reading anything specific about it. I am looking forward to finding out what it's like. The cast list on the Big Finish website makes it look like it might not be quite a full-cast production.
After listening
I was wondering whether it was full-cast or not; it is. A couple guards have no voiced lines, but they wouldn't necessarily have had voiced lines on TV either. Oddly, the free version is a single long MP3 file, not broken into separate tracks.The Daleks are in the process of conquering an ocean world, but undersea combat seems not to be a strength of theirs and the natives in their undersea bases are putting up a relatively effective fight. The rebels take possession of an escape capsule containing a Time Lord who claims to be the Doctor, a name the rebels remember from their planet's history. Derek Jacobi's "Doctor" is based heavily on the William Hartnell version, an elderly man filled with scientific and cultural curiosity. It isn't until about 20 minutes into the story that the mask slips and it's made clear that the Master is as sinister as ever, and even after the audience knows this he mostly keeps up the pretense. Jacobi doing evil Hartnell is the main experience I got out of this episode, and whether you like or dislike it is likely to depend on your opinion of that element.
The story is almost, but not entirely, a traditional sort of Doctor Who story in which the Master has been secretly substituted for the Doctor. It is taking place during the Time War, and the natives of the ocean planet are aware of Time Lords as legendary enemies of the Daleks independently of their awareness of the Doctor. The Master has become separated from his TARDIS in an unusually dramatic way, and the way he ended up in the escape capsule is definitely something the Master would do and not something the Doctor would do. It is of course clear to the listener that there are going to be betrayals, and the question of who betrays who in which order is a source of dramatic tension.
I enjoyed Beneath the Viscoid a lot. I don't think The War Master: Only the Good will fit my personal budget any time soon while I have such a backlog of Big Finish audios to go through, but this free episode is definitely worth a listen if the Master-as-Doctor premise interests you at all.
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