The Keeper of Light

The War Doctor Begins #3.1

Released: 10 May 2022

Listened: 8/27/22

This third set is called “Battlegrounds.” After a couple of boxed sets, we had to have a story set on Earth, and we had to have a story where the Doctor is doing non-Time-War things. The Doctor is up in Scotland, with his companion Layla, investigating strange goings-on at a lighthouse that’s supposed to be long abandoned. Except the Doctor is responding to his name, acting quite Doctory, and generally in a good mood, so something must be wrong here. Layla is played by Emma Campbell-Jones, who played Cass in “The Night of the Doctor,” and if you know that going in (which I didn’t), it makes everything more poignant. Because Layla is a pretty excellent companion, saying and doing all the right things at the right times and generally serving as his human interface. Because this Doctor is very much a modern-series Doctor, a lot like Eleven if he were less goofy, or Twelve if he were nicer. The story itself is fairly plain, but that’s to be expected. We also have Adele Anderson (normally Tamasan) and Ken Bones (normally the General) playing secondary parts, but they're using such different accents that you’ll never know it’s them, which reduces the effectiveness. As always when there’s a larger plot thread, any “breather” story can feel like a waste of time, but this one is also a nice break.