Doctor of War: Genesis

Doctor of War #1

Released 13 April 2022

Listened: 4/24/22

This 2022 release is the start of a new direction for Unbound. It’s a boxed set, for one thing, and possibly the start of an ongoing story.

Dust Devil

The gist is that the Doctor made a different decision in “Genesis of the Daleks,” played wonderfully by an older Tom Baker, Sadie Miller, and Christopher Naylor, in a performance so tight I almost couldn’t tell the difference. However, the outcome isn’t what the Doctor expected, resulting in Colin Baker being the next regeneration, known as “The Warrior.” What happens from that point is so temporally convoluted, and full of surprises, that only John Dorney could have written it, and even then, it’s terribly confusing. I admit, I was expecting “The War Doctor, but with Colin Baker,” and that’s definitely not what’s going on here. It’s rather more unexpected, and in that way, quite satisfying. It’s fun to go into a story with no idea what’s going to happen.

Aftershocks

This story is impressive in that Lou Morgan has managed to craft a story even more timey-wimey than a standard John Dorney story, and one that’s awfully tough to follow. Apparently that’s by design, as the Time War has messed up the timelines to such a degree that cause and effect don’t work as expected. Even better, the story starts with the Doctor imprisoned and amnesiac, accused of a genocide he doesn’t remember committing. For at least half the story, nobody will tell him what he’s done, leading the Doctor to believe they mean his destruction of the Daleks, but that’s not it. The dancing around and “he who must not be named”-ism of it becomes a little much after a while. Worse, the Master seems to be involved as an entity existing inside the Doctor’s mind. He’s played by Geoffrey Beevers, but nobody seems to be repelled at the sight of him, so it’s probably intended to be a variant non-decayed Master. Naturally, the Doctor ends up on trial, because this is the (kinda) Sixth Doctor, and he just can’t avoid it. The idea that the Doctor’s actions on Skaro caused the Kaleds and Thals to unify against a common enemy makes common sense. What happened after that…really doesn’t. Unfortunately, because of the trial, this episode is really talky, perhaps too much so. I’m not completely sure where we ended up after all that.

The Difference Office

It’s hard to say which of the three stories in this set is the strangest, because this one is bizarre as well. The Doctor/Warrior is now President of Gallifrey, and has been for some time. How that happened isn’t explained. There’s a different version of Borusa as his advisor, and Borusa’s girlfriend Zorcha works in the “Difference Office,” assisted by a new Romana who’s never met the Doctor (since the timelines diverged at “Genesis of the Daleks”). The purpose of the Difference Office is to identify paradoxes, but that’s morphed into finding Time Lords trying to erase their own histories, and executing them before they can, which is grim. In fact, a lot of the story is grim, except for another version of the Doctor hanging out with the Shobogans, trying to spark a bloodless rebellion. Which is frankly a disappointing plotline. The Kraals are also involved, for no adequately explained reason. I really don’t know what this Time War is about, or who the participants are. I can’t tell if these stories are connected, or if they’re even taking place in the same reality. I know that’s part of the Unbound remit, but I think some sense of progression is necessary for good storytelling. I normally trust John Dorney, but this set left me unimpressed.