The opening chapter of He Who Fights with Monsters is probably the weakest of the three, it's certainly the slowest but it's done so deliberately to set the Doctor on his journey to seek out and assassinate the Barber Surgeon. It's still a powerful opener, showing just how much damage the Barber Surgeon has wrought on the universe, not just to the Time Lords but Daleks as well and we see how his carnage has affected the Doctor, we also get some evolution of the War Doctor's character showing how weary he's starting to become of all the fighting and how the last remnants of the old Doctor is slipping away. As I said, altogether He Who Fights with Monsters is one of the War Doctor's all time best and I highly recommend it.

So this was pretty interesting.  It was my first taste of Jonathon Carley as the young War Doctor and I have to say, he was nothing short of exceptional.  He truly sounds like a young John Hurt.  It is uncanny.  Not only that, but he delivers a full range of emotional weight in He Who Fights With Monsters.  We hear him shed a tear, weep, grieve, fear, hate, and reminisce all throughout the box set.  I'm talking about the larger set of three audios because they are very closely linked.  It's the biggest flaw of the Mission, really.  It is largely only a beginning, and I would have preferred it exist better on its own.  It's is largely set up.  We learn a lot about the Butcher-Surgeon, but won't be meeting him here or for a good long while.  The Mission doesn't do a lot in terms of the larger plot or having a plot itself, there's mostly just story.

And it's good story.  I really liked where the Doctor's character is at the start of the story.  He's already broken by this war so badly he's basically willing to accept a mission of assassination.  It's of a terrible, villainous character, but it is the Doctor fully accepting the task of killing someone.  Both the Doctor and the General (played impeccably by a returning Ken Bones) remark on this and it's one of my favourite parts in the whole box set.  It says a lot about his character at the start of this journey and is very important set-up for the larger narrative going forward.

Then the Doctor joins up with a lady, a whole bunch of people die, and he gets some important information to track down the Butcher-Surgeon while various Daleks rampage about.  The Daleks are pretty cool - we get a few fun appearances including the Time Strategist or whatever he is called.  The Spider-Daleks that were a bit part of the promotion for this story feel barely relevant, though.  I'm not sure how they would really matter in an audio story to begin with.  I really like the set-up with the Doctor and the General but the rest of the stuff, while it did a good job of showing how devastating and terrible the Time War was, largely felt like a distraction.