Mutually Assured Destruction

Time Lord Victorious #3

Released: 9 December 2020

Listened: 1/11/22

The big battle of Time Lord Victorious is over, the Daleks are fleeing in their wrecked ship, containing the TARDIS. The Doctor is hiding out on board, believed to be dead, so yeah, it’s Die Hard on a Dalek Time-Ship. The Doctor continues with his lighter attitude from the previous story, mocking the Daleks’ ineptitude, and even waltzing with one in zero-G, admittedly to stay out of the way of its gun, but still. The Daleks with separate personas are all still around, and the Executioner in particular really gets to shine here. He’s a psychotic who just wants to kill everything, but he’s finally had enough and not listening to orders anymore, which is cool. The Commander and the Strategist are no longer operating from the same playbook, which means we have the unusual sight of Daleks undercutting each other, but that also makes things easier for the Doctor, since he can play them off each other. There are a couple of last-of-their-race beings being held in cryo-sleep on board, but they don’t really have a connection to the larger plot; they just seem to be there to give the Doctor someone to talk to. Which is a shame, because this event has been so full of small links otherwise, like the heat shield the Doctor picked up in “He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not.” The three stories are pretty successful as standalones, which is good, but if you didn’t know about the event, you’d have a distinct sense of missing something between the second and third stories.