Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Jonathon Carley, Ken Bones, Nicholas Briggs, Richie Daysh, Indigo Griffiths, Louise Jameson, Harry Kershaw, Nicholas Le Provost, Emily-Jane-McNeill, Jason Merrells, Paksie Vernon.
Should we stare into the abyss knowing that the monster that looks back with sorrow is on the side we have taken in the battle, or do we face the war on our own knowing we strode the high line between two opposing monstrous factions, that He Who Fights With Monsters is divided by fate and the fury of a future as yet unknown.
The monsters we like to paint with ugly colours of fear, treachery, those who address us with contempt, who induce distress and terror, are often just the magnification of our own displays of excess, and these mirror images, distorted perhaps, are a truth of war when you have been a pacifist, a healer, a person of wise thoughts and good deeds….for war is where we fight with monsters to defeat fiends, brutes, and monstrosities.
In the fourth series of adventures for the War Doctor, Jonathan Carley reprises his role and adds further insight into the beginnings of the mad man from Gallifrey made famous by the much-missed John Hurt in the 50th Anniversary special of Doctor Who.
We are our own monsters…how many times in our past have we travelled down the road of least resistance in an effort to stay out of the realm of conflict, to preserve our integrity whilst denying truth and maybe our friends, a hand in defeating an enemy in whatever form it should take.
Spread across three distinct tales, The Mission, The Abyss, and The Horror, the man once introduced as The Doctor, a name which bring hope to countless worlds and bring fear to those who would subdue, assimilate, and exterminate, starts to understand that in truth though he may deny his name, he cannot outrun his nature.
This glimpse behind the assumed veil has always been there, across every incarnation of the Timelord’s existence, and perhaps notably in the hands of Peter Capaldi’s era, but it is an insight brought home by the production team of Big Finish, the writer Robert Valentine, and of the superb cast, including Nicholas Le Provost, Jason Merrells, and Jonathon Carley as the recently regenerated War Doctor.
The ambiguity of the title, of the fight itself, is the crux of the drama, and as a new Timelord appears in the form of the Barber-Surgeon, the question is of consequence, the road of least pain is no longer possible, for by not allying yourself with one monster, you allow a greater threat to announce itself to the universe. This a terrifying prospect for a person filled with courage and mystery, but when the fate of all is at stake, then what other course of action is available, but to become a monster in someone’s else tale, in their memory and fight alongside devils and gods
He Who Fights With Monsters is engaging, superbly written, and directed with solemn pride, a classic of audio drama.
Ian D. Hall