Unbound 8: Masters of War

[Anthony Williams]

Masters of War
Starring David Warner and Nicholas Courtney

What if... the Daleks weren't all that bad?

Okay, so I made that one up. This story doesn't have an "official" what if scenario.

Before I start, let me get something straight. I honestly believe that Sympathy for the Devil was one of the finest Doctor Who stories of all time. I loved David Warner's alternate third Doctor, I loved Nicholas Courtney's bitter and resentful Brigadier. I loved the setting, and I loved the writing. Which might explain why I was so disappointed with this, which I really felt was a case of diminishing returns.

To be honest, I found there to be three major problems with it:

1. This was way, way too long. I already made this point in my review of A Storm of Angels, but here it really was the case. With A Storm of Angels, there was enough rich dialogue to really fill up the time effectively. Here, there's just a huge amount of padding. The second disk is more or less taken up by a huge space battle that has all the tension of an arm-wrestling match between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ghandi.

2. I felt that this was a total waste of the Unbound concept. Rather than reusing Warner and Courtney in a truly ground-breaking adventure, they were used in an adventure that may as well have featured Davison, Colin, Sylv or McGann. The whole point of the Unbound concept was to do things that they couldn't have done in the real Who universe. Here, there's nothing that shakes the ideals of Doctor Who to the core, and nothing that truly made me think about what makes Doctor Who into the programme that we all love.

3. The supporting cast were really very poor. They were supposed to be playing poor oppressed Thals, virtually in slavery. What we have instead is a cast of people who sound no more disgruntled and unhappy than I was at the time that I handed in my notice at Waterstone's. Honestly, we have a better cast in the PS audios, and we're not a professional production, where people are paid to do it. And don't even get me started on the Quatch - a race of aliens who sound more pathetic than etheral, and about as threatening as the Cryons. I can't see them enslaving the Thals, let alone that Daleks. Yawn.

Despite these three major misgivings, the play wasn't all bad. The core team of Warner and Courtney absolutely shone, and the Brig's decision to stay and maintain the new alliance between the Thals and the Daleks. As usual, Terry Molloy was an absolute delight to listen to - ranting and raving. It was lovely to hear his deliberation on the Daleks, where in this reality, he knows that if he had made them more ambitious, they would've turned on him, but since he didn't they didn't amount to much.

Likewise, the more benevolent Daleks of this universe are a good idea (although I still don't think that it was a strong enough concept to support an entire play), and it was the revelation that they were protecting the Thals in their heavy-handed way was an unexpected surprise.

Ultimately, this could have been so much better - if I were responsible, I would have truly turned the tables, and had the Thals as the oppressors, and the Daleks as the oppressed.

Basically, I really think that this could have been SO much better. They could've done something that really shook the Doctor Who Universe. It wasn't bad, per se. Just... disappointing. I give this 6/10.

[Rob McCow]

I really rather enjoyed Masters of War - it felt like the first adventure in a long, new series for David Warner's Doctor. I remember it had some interesting things to say about propaganda too.

Was this Courtney's last audio play?

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I really rather enjoyed Masters of War - it felt like the first adventure in a long, new series for David Warner's Doctor. I remember it had some interesting things to say about propaganda too.

Was this Courtney's last audio play?

It was his last full cast production. I'm pretty sure his last Doctor Who play was The Three Companions.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I'm listening to this at the moment. The Quatch do sound rather pony and some of the Thals are a bit jolly hockey sticks for a resistance cell.
However, Warner, Courtney and Molloy are all fantastic!

Also a certain music cue which I'm sure I've heard somewhere else recently is adding a layer of surreality to the proceedings

[SiHart]

I remember liking this one more than most of the regular range at the time, but I haven't been back to it since we first heard it heading tinto London for Steve's work Christmas do a few years back.

There. That was useful wasn't it?

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I remember liking this one more than most of the regular range at the time, but I haven't been back to it since we first heard it heading tinto London for Steve's work Christmas do a few years back.

There. That was useful wasn't it?

I'm pretty sure that when this play first came out I was listening to it on Christmas Eve whilst wrapping presents.
Having listened back I think the abiding memories of this one were based on the scene where the Doctor and Davros meet, Davros' subsequent fate and the Brigadier's leaving scene (which Nick played so brilliantly) so any failings on the part of the other actors and again the play being a bit on the long side would have been easy to overlook.

[Junkyard]

My opinions on Masters of War match most of those given above. It is somewhat too long and the Quatch are very difficult to visualise. To me, they sound too much like the Ice Warriors. But Warner, Courtney and Molloy are all superb. 7/10.