WHAT I EXPECT FROM THE WAR DOCTOR ADVENTURES

 

Here's my wishlist for Big Finish and Sir John Hurt! 

So a couple of weeks ago, fans all across the world jumped and slapped the ceiling at the news that Big Finish finally got the license for the new series of Doctor Who, specifically all elements up until The Time of the Doctor, though Clara is still up in the air.

They went on to announce that River Song was getting her own spin-off, that she’d be mixing it up with the Eighth Doctor, UNIT is back with Kate and Osgood. We even got the Tenth Doctor and Donna coming back next year, but the announcement I am most excited for is The War Doctor Adventures. I believe it was Russell T Davies who said that the Time War is something you couldn’t accurately capture and show fans on TV. I agree in part, but thankfully this isn’t television. So what do I expect from the new four box sets featuring the War Doctor?

Well first off, no calling this incarnation Doctor! I’m serious! This is a pet peeve I picked up in the engines of War novel. I hate that they call him the Doctor, despite him not calling himself that. The War Doctor is not the Doctor. He is the renegade, the warrior, the man who broke the promise. Write the script to account for that. The Doctor did not call himself that so you don’t either. He is not the Doctor.

Secondly, it has to be dark. I wasn’t too sure how dark I wanted these stories to be, but after hearing that speech from Capaldi about what the non-Doctor did in the Time War, I want these stories to be dark. I want mass slaughter, sacrifice. I want to believe that the Doctor would lie to himself about the War Doctor. I want him to sacrifice the innocent for the greater good. I want him to hurt all the way through. His actions should break him and lead him to turn into that tired old soldier we see in The Day of the Doctor. In short, most stories should either end badly or be bittersweet. After ten years hearing about how awful this war was, happy endings should be in very short supply.

Remember that this incarnation hated his life and his actions, so I don’t want any eccentricities and jokes and witticisms. This is war and this incarnation should treat it as such. He isn’t having fun. I want to listen to these stories and think to myself: “This doesn’t feel like Doctor Who.” That might come across as strange since this is Doctor Who, but these adventures have to be Doctor Who without having all the wit and charm that all the other Eras encompasses.

I want some recognizable Time Lords to feature in this. Where was Romana when the Time War started? How did Rassilon come to power? Where is Leela, K9 and Ace? While I don’t expect concrete answers to all of these questions, some throwaway dialogue to explain their absence wouldn’t go unappreciated.

Lastly, while I understand that the Time War was mainly Daleks vs Time lords, I don’t want every story to feature “exterminate” and “seek, locate, destroy”. According to New Who, so much happened in the Time War. So many races fought (on either side) and died and came back and repeated the cycle. Show us how the Nestene lost their home world, or the Gelth. Show us the effect the War Doctor’s actions had on the lesser species of the cosmos.

Tell me, what do you want to “see” from Big Finish’s take on the most infamous incarnation of our favorite Time Lord?