I remember when going into this when it first came out not sure what to expect. I never really thought they’d ever revisit the War Doctor after John Hurt’s passing and frankly his run of adventures was hardly the most exciting and it ended on a disappointing note. So, I wasn’t really that enthusiastic about relaunching the series as I felt we’d be in for more of the same issues. Today I look back on this and the other War Doctor releases that we’ve had since and I’d say I was both right and wrong, this series does still have its massive flaws with the War Doctor’s characterisation, but I have enjoyed this new run of adventure more than the previous iteration, and Light the Flame is where it starts.

The story picks up literally from where Night of the Doctor ended with the new Doctor getting used to his new form, working out who he is and preparing to march off into the Time War to do what none of his other selves would ever conceive of doing. And that’s it really, there’s some conflict thrown in about halfway but it’s very minimal, the focus is predominantly on the War Doctor preparing to go to war.

Jonathan Carley in his first outing hits the ground running as he won me over instantly with his voicework, we even get a great stand-in for Ohilla from Veronica Roberts who sounds indistinguishable from Clare Higgins. There is a bit of a casting mistake made though with two characters who get paired off with each other for a significant portion of the story, the issue is that the two actresses sound so similar that at times I couldn't tell which one was speaking. And I do mean it's a significant part of the story as their scenes reveal one of them to be the villain and the other is killed, but again, it's tricky to tell which one's which

As I said earlier The War Doctor Begins doesn’t really learn the mistakes with the War Doctor’s character from last time, we don’t see a more ruthless incarnation but they sure do tell us how much darker he is, which in a way is stupider in this story considering how he’s only been alive for an hour. We do get a hint of the War Doctor’s darker side where he threatens to destroy Karn to prevent it from falling into the Daleks hands (or suckers), but they make it very clear it was done to goad the Time Lords into taking a more peaceful solution. So yes, this story does fall into the same pitfalls as just about every other War Doctor story. Maybe I just need to accept that this is the War Doctor’s character and how it will always be portrayed and that I was wrong for hoping we would get a Doctor who truly goes against his moral principles, someone who’s more inclined to take the easy option because that’s what war turns good people into. I dunno, but like I said, this story is more focused on the War Doctor finding his feet and readying himself for the difficult road ahead and I really liked that, it’s a good reflection on how those who head off to war leave behind the person they were.