The Third Wise Man is a good and solid Time War story, Rudden infused the prose with some of the lyrical mystery that Davies always managed to drop about the Time War, making it sound so beyond our understanding. However I still found the exploration of the Nightmare Child in this a bit simplistic, but few things could live up to the imagination of what it could be after so many years. The War Doctor is nicely characterised in this, and Davros' appearance is brief but good too. For a short story I think this is a nice piece of Time War media, it creates a nice sense of what it is, but it's events could definitely have been explored and fleshed out in a longer piece of work.

Set just before the Time War, this story focuses on the General in a big confrontation with the Doctor, Davros and the Nightmare Child. While the writing style is solid, I feel like it could have used a little work thematically. In this story, the Nightmare child is basically a Dalek that does not hold any reverence for the Dalek race. This makes it manifest as a giant, computerized octopus. I don’t feel like those 2 parts necessarily fit together. Aside from that, both the Doctor and Davros have very abstract motivations that don’t really feel natural. Still, the story is fantastic in scope and it paints a great picture as we see the universe through the eyes of a Time Lord.  It is far from irredeemable. Just not as special as you’d hope.