God of War

Forty #1.2

Released: 4 January 2022

Listened: 1/7/22

This is a shorter two-part story by playwright Sarah Grochala, who’s only recently started working with Big Finish. This is still the younger Doctor, having bounced here from “Secrets of Telos,” but for Tegan, Nyssa, and Adric, it’s shortly after “Kinda,” possibly after “The Visitation,” because the sonic screwdriver is mentioned, but not used. The story takes place in ninth-century Iceland, and deals with a group of outcast Vikings, all women, who’ve gone off to make their own settlement. Unfortunately, they come across some Ice Warriors and mistake them for gods, which goes poorly. The Ice Warriors have a tendency to be written as misunderstood, or at least partly sympathetic, but there’s very little of that here. The Doctor seems to be trying to juggle his relationships with his companions based on what he learned in the last story, giving Adric more leeway, being more patient with Tegan, and taking advantage of Nyssa’s scientific expertise. However, the overall effect is to make the characters seem a bit out of sync with how they should be at this point. The resolution is also a bit farfetched. I’d like to hear more from this author, but this story doesn’t quite seem to click.