Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
It was perhaps arguably one of the greatest twists in the long history of the much loved television series Doctor Who, the appearance of John Hurt as The Doctor who went to war. The Time War, talked about since the return of the man from Gallifrey, perhaps a throw-away line to get round why the programme had been shamefully off air in its original format, one film aside, since 1989. An off the cuff comment which came to be the dystopian nadir in which tantalised the show’s legion of fans like a hungry wolf being offered a free slap up meal with a herd of caribou and then getting to have the dinner guests for deserts.
What was not looked at was the days before the rebelling Doctor took the events unfolding between The Daleks and The Time Lords and what finally tipped John Hurt’s character over the edge of the abyss, a chasm so wide it would have consumed him for all time.
In the latest B.B.C. tie-in book, The Doctor’s life is looked at in Engines Of War, written by George Mann. With only one episode under his belt, admittedly a storming 50th anniversary special in which John Hurt was as tremendous as he was morosely captivating in the role, it may be difficult to really put together the voice, the actions of the man, into the heart of the fans who consider the related books to be just as much cannon as the audio plays by Big Finish as well as the television series itself.
However, George Mann, manages to weave together a story in which not only manages to show the slow disintegration of a man worn down by a war he had no original intention of being involved in, but also the animosity of a being so disgusted by the lack of care for the universe by his own, admittedly aloof and always pompous people that he finally concedes to himself that the only way to end the war is to take out both players, billions of lives taken to save untold trillions.
George Mann’s Doctor is one that is very well drawn upon, he shows the fondness, albeit tempered and ravaged, that he has for Humanity whilst never straying into the realms of utmost affection for Earth that any of his previous incarnations up to Tom Baker’s time held dear.
Where it falls down arguably is with the way the ending is dictated by the television appearance. There is no room to show the lead up to the final cycle, there is no time in which to explain the preceding years. It is as if the reader is taking stock of the penultimate chapter without having access to the brutal beginnings of this particular Doctor’s incarnation.
The Doctor may be in, but it is one that has no time for comforting bedside manner, no time to really grieve and ponder. The Darkness has arrived, it’s just a shame readers never got to see it gather strength.
Doctor Who: Engines of War is available now.
Ian D. Hall