📝6-/10

Time Lording through time and space, one victory at a time!

VICTORY XIII

This audio focuses on the topic: the Daleks seize the Doctor's TARDIS to coerce him into forming a peaceful alliance with the Wraxians, an improbable alien race. This is something of a political drama. We slowly learn about the Wraxians, their secret technologies (the Devovler), and the planned alliance between them and the Daleks. We follow the Doctor, who is very suspicious between the two races.

We eventually learn that the Dalek race is threatened, which is the reason they require the Doctor’s help, and that the Doctor knows why there have been loads of alterations in the timeline lately. This is when the story finally begins picking up speed, but even then, it mostly trudges long with very little excitement.

Paul McGann still sounds bored, while Nick Briggs has loads of fun with various Dalek voices. The guest cast is much less interesting in this audio compared to He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not (Victory XII).

The story delves slightly deeper into the wider repercussions of the Tenth Doctor’s messing around in the Dark Times: it has caused changes in the established timeline, creating new planets and races and changing established ones. We also learn that the Devolver is technology from the Dark Times, where the Doctor takes the Daleks.

At the end of He Kills me, He Kills Me Not, the Daleks had turned up. The Doctor and the Daleks have a common desire - to understand what it is that’s changing the universe.

Its a minor spoiler, but it comes early on and defines the audio. The Doctor has to work with the Daleks. It does remind me of the Five Doctors where the Master is asked to rescue the Doctor. So for me it doesn’t quite have the impact it should, not to mention we’ve had this kind of thing before, subverting the expected dynamic.

Wrax is the setting for this audio, and its people shouldn’t exist. There is more to Wrax than at first meets the eye, as, though they’ve conquered many others, they seem to have no evidence of the ability to - other than a device that’s older than they are.

Having listened to The Eighth Doctor time was series, this comes across as more of the same. The Eighth Doctor, the Daleks, the Dalek Strategist, issues with time etc. And with so much time war stuff its hard to remember this isn’t it.

The planet Wrax and its people are interesting, they have secrets and its intriguing. You want to find out what’s going on, what’s behind the face of it. The Daleks are their usual untrustworthy selves and the Doctor is somewhere in the middle, dealing with both sides.

With the previous audio in this range not really seemingly doing much in way of the ‘Timelord Victorious’ arc, or doing much in general. This does up the ante somewhat. Moments of peril for the Doctor, an interesting race of people with a background more thought out and developed than you may usually get, and just enough info to keep you interested. This really does move things forward, and leaves me wanting to get on with the next part. (Again in retrospect, taking in the TLV arc, the series arrives like a jigsaw. You slowly put things together, so its more interesting as part of the whole).

This story was great, the Daleks were absolutely ruthless. It explores the fall-out from the 10th Doctor's actions really well, as hinted in the previous story. I'm loving the BF side of TLV!!!

Thrilling story with so many haunting twists. Loved it!