Eye of Harmony

The War Doctor #3.3

Released: 6 October 2016

Listened: 9/2/22

This last story is written by Ken Bentley, who’s an extremely prolific Big Finish director, but rarely writes. It’s a tight story with a small cast that takes place entirely aboard a battle TARDIS. It turns out that Heleyna was the traitor all along, not because she’s pro-Dalek, but because her grandfather was a pacifist who got killed very early in the war. Her plan is to give the Daleks access to the TARDIS’s link to the Eye of Harmony, which will wipe the Time Lords from existence. That results in a chase through the interior of the TARDIS, which takes a lot of inspiration from “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS” more than any other story where we’ve seen a TARDIS interior. Helenya’s rage-driven grief is almost overwhelming, and a lesser actor would just be a screaming annoyance, but Honeysuckle Weeks sells it perfectly. Bentley’s writing is a little too heavy on the exposition, but it kind of has to be, since only the most dedicated fans will know how the Eye of Harmony works without some explanation. The Doctor is also more aggressive in this one, being rather quick to grab some guns. He also cites having “no choice” several times, and whether he really doesn’t, or just believes he doesn’t, is really what makes the War Doctor. Overall, this boxed set is better than the second one, but there’s still that overall feeling of “ordinary adventures” rather than war-specific ones.