The Final Beginning

Second Doctor Adventures #1.1

Released: 6 July 2022

Listened: 7/31/22

Kicking off the boxed set entitled "Beyond War Games," this somewhat odd story gets the ball rolling. It’s short, barely over an hour, but still consists of four parts. It’s written by series producer Mark Wright along with Nick Briggs, who also directs. The Doctor is snatched from the very end of “The War Games” by the CIA, which the Doctor has never heard of at this point. We’re told that the Third Doctor’s adventures are in fact happening, and even get snippets of “Spearhead from Space” reproduced by Tim Treloar and John Culshaw. Treloar is also present as a different character in the story, using his own accent, but that’s close enough to his Doctor to be just a bit strange. As for the story itself, it’s rather mysterious. Something has gone awry with the Web of Time. The Doctor apparently destroyed the Daleks for good in “Evil of the Daleks,” except we know full well they come back again, so what’s going on? It also provides an opportunity to tie in to the Doctor’s guilt in “The Death of the Daleks,” released around the same time. But there’s not really much “story” here. There’s some plot, but it pretty much just stops, rather than resolving. It feels like it accomplishes its goal of setting up the Doctor working with the CIA, drops a bunch of hints, and then quits.