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 | Reviews for The War Master: Rage of the Time Lords |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 23 January 2022 |
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| Rating: |   8 |
This edition of The War Master pits The Master against Doctor 8 in the last two episodes. Therefore, it is no spoiler to say that The Doctor gets his memory wiped (yet again) so that continuity can be preserved. What we get in this series is two very different halves. The Master seems to be on the hunt for beings with extraordinary abilities that he can use as weapons or as templates for weapons in the Time War. Parts 1 and 2 show The Master at work collecting such specimens. Parts 3 and 4 show what The Master is actually doing with them. The first two parts are historical, taking place in 1940s England and 1890s United States. In "The Survivor," The Master poses as a country priest so that he can convince a young woman working as a Land Girl who has extraordinary mental powers that she must go with him. We see how The Master undermines the social structure and turns people against each other. In "The Coney Island Chameleon," The Master is doing something of the same, trying to corrupt the strong-man owner of a freak show to give up his star attraction, an orphaned alien who can change her skin to blend with her surroundings. This one has a delicious surprise twist at the end that I won't give away. It makes this my favorite episode of this set. These two stories are surprisingly low-key, filled with intimate moments and concentrated on personal relationships. The next two parts are entirely different matters, full-on high-tech, high-paranoia science fiction. The Master has built for himself a secret laboratory from the ruins of a hospital, and employs experts to help in the project of extracting the genetic secrets of all the specimens he has collected so he can create the ultimate bio-weapon. But, of course, this is The Master, so we know he is planning to double-cross the Time Lords and use the weapon for his own purposes. These two parts lack the intimacy and subtlety of the first two parts. The whole highlights The Master. It's his show, and we see him, for once, really get the better of The Doctor, even if, in the end The Master does not get the outcome he wants. The whole set is quite entertaining and hangs together well.
