The Heart of the Battle

The War Doctor #1.3

Released: 14 December 2015

Listened: 8/29/22

This story is a direct continuation of the previous, and plans come unraveled fairly quickly. Seretrix is revealed to be a sincere peace advocate, trying to reach a deal with the Daleks. He was sent by Ollistra, who clearly never wanted him to succeed. And of course the Daleks don’t want to make peace; they’re just buying time and space to put together a new assault on Gallifrey. Seretrix is portrayed as quite idealistic and foolish for thinking his plan could work, but the Doctor has been on the side of hope a few times in the past, even when Daleks are involved. Nick Briggs’ goal seems to be to put the Doctor in another situation where there are no good choices, just less-bad ones. Which is kind of unfair, because “there’s always another way” is the rule the Doctor lives by, and he almost always gets away with it…except for the War Doctor. I’ve complained before that we don’t really see the Doctor commit atrocities in this series, but what he does here is pretty bad, and he doesn’t dodge it, although he does pile on the guilt. Ollistra is the real monster here, and she’s either unaware of it, or simply doesn’t care. Her cold calculation is enough to shake Veklin, who shows the first glimmers of who she’ll later become (and already was, in this project, but whatever). I recall being a bit dissatisfied with this set when it came out, but now I see it as quite strong.