Doctor Who – Doctor of War: Destiny

#2.01. Who Am I? ~ 2/10

◆ An Introduction

I was adamant that I wouldn’t purchase this set. ‘Doctor of War’ had already proven itself to be a failed experiment, and I didn’t really fancy torturing myself with yet more dreadful writing.

Then I saw that Terry Molloy would be in the finale, which would be based around one of my favourite story arcs – ‘The Key to Time’ – and I suddenly felt compelled to purchase ‘Destiny’.

Let’s hope this was a wise decision. But first, an episode focused entirely on the alternate version of the Master.

◆ Publisher’s Summary

The Tesh and the Sevateem are at war, obeying the orders of their God Xoanon. But they cannot know their battle has a higher purpose, one led by the Time Lord responsible for Xoanon's condition. A Time Lord called... the Master.

◆ The Master & Leela (The Warrior’s Universe)

Geoffrey Beevers delivers a fantastic performance in this episode. Unfortunately, he’s been let down by the atrocious writing. The same thing can be said about Louise Jameson.

They get to perform a distorted re-enactment of the meeting between the Fourth Doctor and Leela from our universe, which is genuinely very entertaining, but everything else is garbage.

◆ Story Recap

This one basically boils down to ‘The Face of Evil’, but the Master is on the planet attempting to create a race of super soldiers, by merging the tribes of the Tesh and the Sevateem. Then the Seva-Tesh can be used to take out Gallifrey and the Time Lords, and he’s apparently working with the Warrior too.

◆ Just Awful, Honestly

‘Who Am I?’ is the episode I was least worried about from this set, which probably explains why my jaw hit the floor when I realised how lifeless it was. The Seva-Tesh are basically just the Master Race from ‘The End of Time’!

Geoffrey Beevers deserves his own spin-off range. This episode was awash with dire acting, but he took the lead and really managed to rise above the dreadful script.

◆ Sound Design

Jack Townley does a decent job with the sound design in ‘Who Am I?’

An immense Dalek skirmish rages in the skies as a colony ship gets caught in the crossfire; alarms and screaming become more chaotic, mixing with the sparking of loose electrics. Birds chirp in the jungles of Leela’s home world. As is expected from this series, you’ve got time throwing a complete fit at various points in the episode; repeating and distorting. The screaming of Leela’s new born babies.

◆ Conclusion

“I am not the computer you speak of. I am Xoanon.”

Nigel Fairs and Louise Jameson are really good friends – they even penned a Fourth Doctor story with each other called ‘The Abandoned’ – so I was deeply saddened to hear him create a pretty soulless retelling of Leela’s debut outing.

There is a new plot involving the Master in his attempts to create the Seva-Tesh: his own army of super-soldiers poised to eliminate Gallifrey, the Time Lords, and even the Warrior. Sadly… this plot genuinely bored me to sleep.

If there is one thing I can happily praise this story for, then it’s the chance to hear Geoffrey Beevers take the lead: if there was ever a time to launch a Decayed Master spin-off, it would be now.