The Cognition Shift

War Master #5.4

Released: 28 October 2020

Listened: 1/15/22

After quite a bit of time getting to the where the plot is happening, we’ve got the climax here. The Master (played by Paul McGann) is building a “Cognition Shift,” which will do something horrible, universal, and mind-swappy, giving the Master control of the universe, as usual. The Doctor (still played by Sir Derek Jacobi) is trying to get there with his motley companions to stop it. McGann is using the same tactics as Jacobi: They’re not trying to mimic the other’s inflections or line readings; they’re just doing the dialog as they would in their normal voices. Which really makes everything kinda spookier, because Paul McGann playing the Master impersonating the Doctor sounds like the Doctor we know, but with just a little bit of an edge to him to throw everything off. But that doesn’t really leave a lot of time for plot twistiness, nor for getting the story on this planet and its inhabitants. It’s just rush to the conflict, then resolve it. There is, as you might expect, a “that’s not me, I’m me!” scene, but it’s not belabored, which is good. A lot of the other stories in this set have been equally fun on a re-listen, but I’m not so sure about this one.