Mission Report by UNIT Agent Bill Filer to Trap One - Subject matter: "Once and Future – A Genius for War”.

This is probably the most standalone story of the set due to the nature of the reset when the Doctor is returned to his own time stream at the end, and as such it has little impact on the larger story arc. But the way the degeneration is key to the resolution to the problem with the Dalek/Time Lord hybrid creatures still places it solidly as a part of the larger narrative. And I find it very “Doctorish” to use a personal affliction to battle an enemy – to find strength in weakness if you will.

I rather like the plot of this story, how the Time Lords scooped the Doctor out of their timestream back into the Time War at Davros’ wish. The General and Commander Veklin are the perfect duo to team up with the Doctor to break Davros out of Dalek jail. And I really like how the prophecy of “The Hybrid” from series 9 of the TV show plays a significant part of the decision to have Davros create Daleks with “The Time Lord Factor” (regenerative abilities), in that sense this story really feels like a celebration of 60 years of Doctor Who where it references bits and pieces from both Classic and “New” eras alike.

And I rather like how the Doctor and Veklin hide inside Dalek casings to survive an exploding moon, with the General rescuing them while complaining about the Doctor’s outdated TARDIS. For some reason the visuals I have in my mind while listening to that scene just makes me smile – and honestly, that’s something that can elevate my perception of a story immensely.

End of report. Logged and filed at The Black Archive.

Addendum: On a personal note, I am getting rather tired of Sergeant Osgood's repeated joke about how my last name is Filer when I file my reports. But that's British humour for you I guess...

Now this is gonna be controversial.
This one is a paradox.
On one hand, it is an ok story with Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor and Terry Molloy's Davros Lacking much of the shared audio-time with them, having useless Thals, yet sort of enyoable.
But on the other hand - it is even more useless to the plot. The Doctor gets his memory erased instantly after the mission and we get ZERO answers to the arc. BUT - if the previous one could be done outside of the main plot, this one cannot be done this way, because the way the Doctor beats Davros is directly connected to his retro-regeneration.
If not the positive moments of this story, like Davros himself or how the General works on his own, I would've rated this story lower. But now it gets what it deserves.

A really strong entry in Once And Future. This one places the Seventh Doctor in a situation where Davros is the Daleks' prisoner and appears willing to work with the Time Lords, which is an interesting idea. It leads to a very exciting prison break sequence, and we also get to see the Seventh Doctor get up to his usual manipulative ways.

I particularly appreciated how this one incorporates the Hybrid arc from Series 9. Davros's proposition of Time Lord/Dalek hybrids is very evocative of Evolution Of The Daleks' conclusion, but it's neat that the Hybrid prophecy is brought up here.

A Genius For War is one of those in-one-ear-out-the-other tales, concerning The Seventh Doctor knee-deep in the Time War, having received a message that Davros is about to defect. Take a guess whether it's a trick or not. It's not HORRID, but traditional stories need new ideas or character work to make them stand out, and this has neither: It hardly qualifies as a Time War story and does so even less by an "anniversary" metric. Big waste of potential.

Davros has become senile and does Daleks in Manhattan lmfao.

There are some much appreciated incredibly cheesy references, and I like that the de-generation is finally used in a story.
It might not be much, but I still find it enjoyable.