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“THE DEAD SEA – TIME, LIES AND MURDER MOST WARPED”

Fallen Heroes, the latest instalment in The War Doctor Rises, opens with The Dead Sea, which boldly reinvents the tone of the series with a noir-inflected sci-fi mystery. Trading Dalek battlefields and Time Lord skirmishes for investigative trench coats and ticking clocks, this story sends the War Doctor undercover with the Galactic Investigation Bureau to solve a murder in a remote human colony. But of course, this being the Time War, nothing is as linear as it seems.

The result? A story that openly nods to everything from NCIS and The X-Files to Men in Black, offering a refreshingly grounded, character-driven take on the War Doctor’s mythos. With unexplained temporal distortions, faceless clocks, and a town simmering with secrets, the story blends procedural intrigue with classic Doctor Who weirdness – and it mostly works.

LOUIS TICKSON: PARTNER IN TIME

Daisy Ashford (usually Liz Shaw in The Third Doctor Adventures) shines in a standout turn as Agent Louisa Tickson, a grounded, sharp-witted investigator who acts as War’s no-nonsense partner. She brings a dry sarcasm and emotional warmth that contrast beautifully with the War Doctor’s gruff cynicism. Their relationship, full of guarded camaraderie and hard-won trust, forms the emotional core of the story.

The scenes where Tickson opens up about her husband – juxtaposed with the Doctor’s unspoken grief over leaving Susan – offer welcome emotional texture, reminding us of the human cost of the Doctor’s eternal wandering. It’s rare for the War Doctor to have a companion who pushes him emotionally without challenging his morality, and Tickson fits that bill beautifully.

THE DOCTOR WHO CRIED ‘UNIT’

Christopher Naylor (currently voicing Harry Sullivan in Fourth and Seventh Doctor audios) plays Alistair Donovan, and while his voice is a little too close to Harry for comfort, it might not be a coincidence. The story teasingly threads UNIT into the wider narrative, laying the groundwork for a bigger mystery and hinting at why Donovan might be so familiar to long-time listeners.

Adding further intrigue is Beatrice, the dead mayor’s enigmatic wife. With cryptic remarks about Gallifrey, the Doctor allegedly killing her son, and a clear knowledge of Time Lords, she injects the story with moral ambiguity and a creeping sense of doom. Her interactions with Tickson and the Doctor subtly question the nature of memory, identity, and culpability in a time-warped universe.

WHEN THE CLOCK STRIKES WEIRD

Much of the mystery centres on the bizarre temporal distortions affecting the town – clocks without faces, memory blackouts, and the unsettling sense that time itself has gone rogue. These elements evoke a kind of dreamlike surrealism, though the narrative does start to drag in the third act as the murder mystery itself becomes less focused.

The story does well to build tension between War and Tickson, as her suspicions about her partner’s true nature slowly mount. With the Doctor claiming never to have heard of Gallifrey, and hints that Beatrice’s accusations may hold water, the episode flirts with paranoia and deception in compelling ways.

THE CASE ISN’T CLOSED YET

As the first in a three-story box set, The Dead Sea deliberately leaves its biggest questions unanswered. The murder plot seemingly resolves with minimal fanfare, and the real hook lies in the shadowy hints of a deeper conspiracy – one possibly linked to UNIT, Beatrice’s past, and the true nature of the Doctor’s mission.

This setup-heavy structure does mean the ending lands a bit flat in isolation, but it’s clear that the real revelations are still to come.

📝 VERDICT: 75/100

The Dead Sea  is a bold genre pivot for The War Doctor Rises, trading guns for magnifying glasses in a story that fuses detective drama with warped time-travel mystery. Strong performances – especially from Daisy Ashford – and a rich atmosphere elevate the narrative, even if the actual murder plot stumbles in its final third. With UNIT creeping into the picture and moral ambiguities rising, this is a promising start to a deeper arc. The clock is ticking – and something’s clearly wrong with the mechanism.