Steven Taylor was left behind to change the world, but now that the world has changed, it does not want him anymore. Welcome… to the “Reign of Taylor” trilogy.

We meet back up with Steven, long after the events of “The Savages”. He’s an old man now. A grandfather even. His granddaughter Sida comes over to visit him. We learn he has been a king to this world for many years. But now, he has been dethroned, and is being kept in a cell. Content to live out his days.

Yet Sida is not done with him yet. She wants to know why he let it all tumble down. Why did Steven Taylor give up the throne? How did it all come to pass? And will he change his mind about his imprisonment when he learns the people are ready to use a mind copy of the Doctor as his replacement? Like many old people, Steven decides to answer these questions with a story from his past.

So, similar to the Sara Kingdom trilogy, Guerrier goes for a “story in story” approach. After the initial king Steven setup, we move over to a separate story, with the connection (hopefully) becoming clear later.

The past story is about Steven, the Doctor and Dodo visiting a planet called Comfort. When arriving, the Doctor quickly gets taken away to be shot. Steven and Dodo, meanwhile, get tested on their physical prowess. Afterwards, they too get separated. That leaves us with Steven alone.

Steven soon finds himself drafted into the army. The planet is at war with an unknown, monstrous enemy. Steven quickly gets assimilated into a squadron, where the main objective is to survive.

And I have to admit, the presentation of the war scenario is incredible. The assimilation and accustomization of Steven into this war scenario is quick, efficient and unquestioned by him. It’s a picture of how war turns individuals into simple parts of a larger machine. And that picture is wonderfully painted and spares not a single detail. It’s absolutely chilling. It’s not presented as a big evil, or as unjust. It is just presented as normal. This is how it goes and it is not questioned. Absolutely phenomenally presented.

Honestly, this story is worth listening to for just this part. Steven is not Steven here. He is a soldier, and he doesn’t question that. He’s not hypnotized or controlled. His individuality just isn’t important. And it is written so fantastically that we almost don’t question it either.

It’s only when most of his platoon is wiped out, that the control is broken. Steven gains a bit of his overall perspective back. An outsider’s perspective, where the idea that the war should end is central. Yet to the people who’ve grown up in this system, that viewpoint is unreasonable. Their loyalty is unquestioned.

But Steven can’t bear it, and when sent back into action, he escapes. In the dark of the night, he tries to reach the enemy lines, but when sneaking past, he discovers Dodo in their trenches.

And this is where the excellent storytelling starts to dip. Steven and Dodo decide to tackle the current scenario from a political perspective, and Steven start campaigning, while trying to lure out the mastermind behind the two-sided war. This never happens and an eventual small scandal sends Steven back to the front lines.

I can’t figure out what part of this political section didn’t click for me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of intrigue, but I think it just went too fast. The first part spent a lot of time on creating this vivid, war-like scenery where you’re either part of society, or you don’t exist. Yet this political chapter seems to rush through the highlights. I think it would’ve worked better if the political side of this society was just as explored. What attitudes do the leaders have? What problems arise during campaigning?

It could be argued that it is this brushed aside because it doesn’t matter. Because war is not about politics, but about people. And that’s a fair point to make, but from a plot perspective, the political side is eventually used to resolve both the war story and the “King Steven” story. So it really should’ve been a bit more expansive and deeper, otherwise you rush past the key you created for your own story.

And that leads to the eventual conclusion where the day is not saved by Steven and his campaigning, but when the Doctor decides to randomly chime in and end the war. On top of that, it also turned out the mastermind behind the two-sided war was just a computer that assigned everyone roles automatically. All the people on this planet are former prisoners and the computer does it all to keep them busy.

And this feels very, very cheap. Both the Doctor showing up and the computer bit. I get the message, we get so stuck in our systems that we lose perspective. But I don’t agree with the idea that the only thing that helps is an outside perspective.

Maybe it’s blind optimism on my side, but I believe human resilience can overcome tough situations. Still, I can’t really fault the story for taking a different moral viewpoint for me. That’s actually really interesting to explore.

But there is no real moral exploration. After the initial, incredible world that Guerrier has built, we barely focus on the politics that are ultimately the solution. It just feels too barebones.

What I would’ve liked, is a third part in this two-part story. Present the warzone reality in the first one, the politics in the second one and then round it out with a deeper, more moral look in the third part. Because with such a reliance on both politics and morals around perspective, it really should have more room to expand on these essential concepts. Otherwise, they feel half-hearted and don’t land as hard. Which is the case here.

Still, even then, the message carries over to the “king Steven” plotline. Because Steven wanted to make sure people made their own choices and he wasn’t stuck in another societal perspective, he made sure that his throne would be overtaken by the people. He let democracy bloom and did away with the supreme leader status he held, deciding instead to live out his days in this cell. With the given context, it’s an understandable conclusion. He wanted people to think for themselves, so he made sure they got rid of him. This leaves us with a nice bit of perspective to end on, just before the cliffhanger: The people have created a mind copy of the Doctor and he’s put himself up for collection. Time for Steven to get out of hiding…..

“The War to End All Wars” is a story of layers. There’s the king Steven Layer, the war layer, the political layer and the moral layer. Sadly, not all layers are created equally. The war layer on its own is one of the strongest settings I’ve heard in a Big Finish story, but the other layers don’t get nearly the same amount of attention, while being just as important to the overall narrative. Maybe even more important. Still, the overall plot lands, so it does succeed as a story. But I can’t help but wonder what could’ve been. When you’re presented with moments of such high quality in one layer, you can’t help but wonder what the other layers would look like with the same amount of attention.

That brings an end to my 100th review. I’ve now written 100 of these. But don’t worry, I’m still having a blast. Even though they somehow keep getting longer and longer. I try to keep myself in check, but sometimes I just have more to say than other times. Still, live and learn. I try to stay critical of my approach and my writing. So who knows what the future will bring. For now, I’m gonna celebrate this milestone. At least it was a good story this time.