Palindrome

The Time War #4.1 and 4.2

Released: 16 September 2020

Listened: 1/31/22

This boxed set starts with a two-parter from John Dorney that’s really one long story. As you’d probably expect from him, there’s some timey-wimey going on, but also some universe-hopping. One thing that got glossed over quickly in the last story is that the Valeyard’s actions apparently ended the Time War, with the Time Lords winning. In fact, they’ve enjoyed peace for quite a while. But the Dalek Time Strategist managed to escape through a portal to another universe, with the Doctor and Bliss following, but the timing has gotten screwed up. In this other universe, the Daleks never existed, and Davros is a genial scientist married to a Thal named Charn, and together they’re building a dimensional portal. However, because of the timey-wimey, this Davros is living the five days since the Doctor’s arrival in reverse order, complicating his relationship with the Doctor and Bliss, and requiring a lot of info-dumping. It’s somewhat fun to see a “good” Davros, and it’s nice to hear Terry Malloy play a kind character, without the screechy modified voice. In fact, it’s almost hard to tell it’s the same actor. The first part is fairly tight, with everyone trying to figure out what’s going on, and in fact, all three characters get killed multiple times, so even knowing that it doesn’t stick, it’s still alarming. As you can imagine, part one ends when Davros reaches the end of “day one,” and then part two goes forward from there. Sadly, that part isn’t as interesting as the setup. The Time Strategist tries to win Davros over, and honestly, if you’re counting on a Dalek’s charm and charisma over the Doctor’s, that’s a slim hope. Eventually we start to get multiple parallel universes converging into one, which gets us more Daleks, and the kind Davros slowly metamorphosing into the one we know. Malloy does an awfully good job portraying the sudden personality shifts, and it would be fairly tragic, except that we already know Davros’ destiny and just how evil he actually is. Good setup; not too sure about the payoff.