A Genius for War

Once and Future #3

Released: 20 July 2023

Listened: 7/25/23

This instance features the Seventh Doctor, and frankly a sidestep from the main plot, if we even know what that is. The unstable Seventh Doctor is snatched out of time, and taken to that nasty courtroom space station again, because he’s particularly needed. Seems the Daleks found Davros tucked away in a cupboard somewhere, but when they didn’t immediately start worshipping him as their creator, he got ticked off, so they dropped him on the prison moon of Falkus and left him there. Of course, being Davros, he’s taken control of the prison computer, genetically engineered a whole bunch of Kaleds to serve him, and then sent a message to the Time Lords offering to betray the Daleks…if the Doctor comes to rescue him. It’s pretty obviously a trap, so why not grab the chessmaster Doctor to resolve it? There’s plenty of Davros-y double- and triple-crossing, because of course there is. There’s also a reference to the legend of the hybrid from Series 9 of the new series, one that actually makes a lot more sense than the answer we eventually got. And we get the General and Veklin participating, the two most reasonable characters in the Time War (which isn’t saying a ton, really). On the whole, it’s a serviceable story, but Davros is unfortunately predictable, and nothing happens to advance the greater overall plot. I get that they’re trying to keep the stories self-contained, but this feels like a bit too far.