The Master, tasked with a mission from the CIA, gets together a crack team of talented individuals on a backwater planet to help him get to Dalek-infested space and capture or kill his deadliest adversary: the Doctor.

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The Edge of Redemption was written by David Llewellyn, directed and produced by Scott Handcock, and stars Derek Jacobi as the War Master, Sam Hallion as Kriket, Colin McFarlane as Captain Morski and Julia Sandiford as Ilya. It was released in October 2020 as the first part of The War Master: Hearts of Darkness box set, which is the fifth volume of the War Master series.

This is a very promising start, as it lands the Master in a desperate situation, with no TARDIS or ship, in a grim and gritty city full of equally desperate people. With over a million credits at his disposal, he’s ready to grease as many palms as need be to get on with his mission, which leads to his band of mercenaries brought together by him who are eager to leave the planet Redemption, in form of Kriket, a street-wise juvenile refugee, Captain Morski, a toughnut pilot who is the only person in the city willing to take Mr Seta (the Master’s latest pseudonym!) where he needs to go, and Ilya, a gelatinous woman who seems to recognise the Master, but can’t quite place his face. They need Captain Morski’s ship to escape Redemption, which has been detained by the authorities, and so our band of thieves hatch a plan to steal back the ship, courtesy of the Master, and be on their way.

Derek Jacobi aside, who you can always rely upon to give a deceptive yet manipulative performance as the Master, the standout for me in this story was Colin McFarlane’s Morski, whose gruff American accent put me right into the frame of mind of imagining this world as one that could have been straight out of Star Wars or Ratchet and Clank, full of diverse alien species, in the style of the Mos Eisley Cantina, giving me this image of a large, muscly green brute of an alien with jagged teeth and a sly grin accompanying every word he says. McFarlane has a lot of fun with it, and really does succeed in giving Morski a personality where he is smug and loves to mess about with others, a highlight being when asked about bringing the detonator to the heist, he claims he left it at home just to wind the Master up, which Jacobi plays well into, while also being cautious and prepared to do what he must to protect himself and his ship.

It gives Julia Sandiford more time to bring depth to her character, whose reasons for being wary of the Master thread well into the narrative of desperation. They are all characters willing to do anything they must to get off of the planet, even if it means allying themselves with people they don’t necessarily trust. She shares some lovely scenes with Kriket, the comic relief of the group, who brings out the humanity of the others and becomes in essence the heart and soul of the group. He looks up to Morski and wants to be like him, while also trying to get close to Ilya (they were on the same refugee ship) and tries to break her shell that she uses to hide her feelings from others. Remember Zoofy bars? I loved Zoofy bars!

The music suite is also on point, bringing the isolation of being in backwater space, on a planet where only the way to survive is to lookout for yourself, something the Master is an expert of at this point, with undertones of his theme infiltrating the score at times, reminding the audience that although he’s being helpful to these people, he’s still the same untrustworthy monster who has killed billions. It also has a sort cyberpunky tang to it, which gave me clear images of a rainy, neon city, while also being decrepit and rundown. The composer certainly did some fantastic work here!

I don’t have much to criticise at the moment, as this is mainly the introduction getting the ball rolling and it does a splendid job at building the world it presents within the play. I suppose we could have seen Ilya at the circus more (her new job) just to emphasise just how much she detests working there compared to her occupation before the disaster, or maybe have had a passing mention of it before she is introduced, but there a lot of things to set up in only an hour so it isn’t that big of a deal.

Overall, The Edge of Redemption is a solid start to Hearts of Darkness, and I look forward to seeing where it leads. The cast of characters introduced are all interesting and promising, so it just remains to be seen what is done with them! I look forward to discussing the next story, The Scaramancer.

This was a really fun start to the box set. The characters were great and played by an excellent cast, Derek Jacobi is incredible as the Master.

The story is fun with plenty of humour, but also the darkness that the War Master series is known for, and the balance between them is very good.