Restoration of the Daleks

The Time War #4.4

Released: 16 September 2020

Listened: 2/3/22

Having reached the end of the boxed set, it falls to Matt Fitton to provide the slam-bang ending. That’s been hit-and-miss in the past, but this time, it is fairly big while still keeping the personal interaction that Fitton’s known for. It also ties together quite a lot of story, going back to the previous boxed set. The Daleks are back now, and the war is back on, but the Strategist is the one pulling the strings, and Davros is mostly forgotten…except he isn’t, really. Because he’s Davros – a combination of many possible Davroses from across the multiverse – he’s taking advantage of that status to create something that’s even worse than Daleks. And that threatens every living thing in the universe, because Davros never thinks small. However, by bringing back every possible Dalek, the Strategist has also resurrected the Emperor, particularly the delusions-of-godhood one from “The Parting of the Ways.” Of course, Davros has no patience for that, or for being usurped, and you know where this is going. The only real weak point is the worse-than-Dalek warriors, who we never really get a description of, except that they’re really bad. So that’s kind of a shame. The Doctor is still in the mode of “I won’t fight, I just want to help people,” which gets him in trouble as usual. Bliss is rather a bit more pragmatic, but she’s also seen her people destroyed by the Daleks. She’s quite willing to pull a gun on Davros, and to go behind the Doctor’s back to contact Rasmus for help. Even though the Doctor has been depressed and darkened by events going back to his series with Lucie, that’s all pointing him toward “The Night of the Doctor,” whereas these Time War boxes seem to be taking a line of “but he’s not there yet,” meaning he’s actually more up-beat here, toward the end of his tenure. But you could think of it as a reprieve, something Bliss inspires in him that will come crashing down eventually. Right now, we don’t know, but this story has a fairly big surprise at the end, so it’s clear Big Finish want to continue.