The Great War also introduces new companion, Molly O’Sullivan. Doctor Who often shies away from historical companions. This is partly to do with the need for companions to be identification figures for the audience leading to the majority of them being ‘contemporary’ and partly a result of the ‘Katarina problem’. With my marathon working through history, we’ve seen various ‘historical’ companions introduced and, on the whole, they’ve actually been fairly successful – Erimem, Jamie, Victoria and Mary Shelley have all had their debuts. Chronologically, Molly is our next companion although, unfortunately, she’s not as successful as most of those other examples. She’s on a par with Mary Shelley; in my opinion, a companion who is defined more by a gimmick (ooh look, it’s Mary Shelley) than an actual character. Molly starts well enough (I’m not as bothered as others by her little idiosyncratic mannerisms such as called the Doctor ‘the Doctor’ or referring to his ‘tardy box’) but pretty soon after this opening episode she becomes more of a plot device (certainly by the time of Dark Eyes 3 she is little more than a piece of scientific equipment for the Master).

Molly is a VAD – voluntary aid detachment. She is someone who helps the nurses on the frontline of the war. She is quick to point out to many of the other characters that she is not a nurse and that calling her so will raise the ire of the actual nurses. She is there to change bandages, mop up sick and excrement and fetch and carry. VADs were often women from the upper classes wanting to be seen to do their bit. Molly, however, was in domestic service but has accompanied her employer, Kitty, to the trenches. Unfortunately, Kitty has fallen ill and, in the process of the story, dies horribly as the result of Time Winds encroaching on the area.

The Doctor pitches up in the warzone, desperately trying to come to terms with the events involving the Daleks, Susan, Alex, his grandson, Tamsin Drew and Lucie Miller. The Time Lords catch up with him and send him to 1916 where he is immediately caught in a gas attack. Miraculously he survives and meets Molly. It soon becomes clear that all is not as it seems with Daleks and their agents working behind the scenes for some unknown purpose.

The Great War mainly concerns itself with introducing Molly and the Doctor to each other and establishing the seeds of a mystery involving Molly’s eyes, the Time Lords and the Daleks. Aside from this, there isn’t much else. There’s a couple of set pieces: one involving the Doctor helping to repair train tracks to get injured soldiers away from the frontline and to the field hospital and another where the Doctor is captured by and American doctor who is actually a Dalek agent (reference here is made to America not yet having joined the war, allowing the Doctor to pinpoint a 1916 date. There’s also a comment about how it is too early for tanks and a fair amount of detail about mustard gas attacks and how it affects the poor soldiers subjected to them).

What’s good about this audio is that we get more than just a prose description of trench warfare. The sound design for this story is excellent with listeners brought right into the middle of a horrific situation. As great as the visuals were in The Weeping Angels of Mons, they still fail to communicate the intensity of a warzone in the same was as audio. And even the visuals of Twice Upon a Time cannot match with this as they focussed on the Christmas Truce and the purposeful lack of conflict.

Paul McGann continues to be excellent as the 8th Doctor (one of my favourite incarnations) and Ruth Bradley immediately makes her mark as Molly. Her accent is striking but always puts me in mind of an older woman than Molly is supposed to be. The rest of the cast are fine, if a bit non descript (although Peter Egan is great as the manipulative Straxus) and Beth Chalmers in on doubling-up duty as both the ‘sister’ in charge of the nurse and VADs and Molly’s friend and employer, Kitty. Unfortunately, it’s fairly obvious she’s playing both of them.

As a standalone story, The Great War, doesn’t really function, but then it isn’t supposed to. As a depiction of World War One, though, is it pretty effective and I’m glad I came back to revisit it in isolation from the rest of the Dark Eyes saga.