"What can you offer me?" "Something you deserve. Your own historical..."

YAY!!!! More waiting!!!! Although to be fair, these circumstances were different; due to a huge disc pressing error (at least that's what I remember hearing) this had to be pushed back from September and swapped with the recently released Doom Coalition 3. So unlike the last delay we had, we got something else instead (and boy was it good!), but now the time has finally come to allow the dulcet gravelly tones of Sir John FREAKIN Hurt enter our ears once again...

DOCTOR WHO NEW SERIES REVIEW

THE WAR DOCTOR: VOLUME 3: AGENTS OF CHAOS

By Jack Ryan

BEWARE: THIS POST CONTAINS  SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

As I said last time, the third boxset is more often than not the trickiest one to pull off with what it's required to do. And the extra time waiting probably sent up a warning signal for some with regard to this set. But then you stop and realise, this is something with Sir John FREAKIN Hurt in it. He can't be in anything bad, can he? (I know that yes, he can, but that's beside the point.) But this had another problem; what new could you do for a Doctor who's only purpose is to fight in the Time War? Well, Messrs Llewellyn, Smith and Bentley found something.....

On. And on. And on, the Time War rages, piercing it's destruction and devistation into nearly every corner of the universe. Only a minute handful of areas remain untouched, and one such place, thanks to the efforts of Cardinal Ollistra and the Time Lord previously named The Doctor, is Earth. But that might change, for a Dalek agent is loose in 1960's East Berlin, with a way of bypassing the protection of the Time Lords. And as if that wasn't enough, the Sontarans have arrived and want to join the war, and they have the means to make sure they do. And after all that, The Doctor will have to face a deadly betrayal, and a plot that could destroy every last Time Lord in history...

This set serves to gives us a couple of notable firsts for the enigmatic War Doctor. Firstly, we have his first solo, trip to Earth, plus combine that with his first mainly historical story. Then throw in a new classic monster for him to face, and finally, the first appearance of the Time Controller's replacement, the Dalek-Time-Strategist, who sounds even more creepy that the Controller (Thanks, Nick!). But of course, mixed in with the new stuff is some of the ingredients we've come to expect, not least of all, the quality of writing. David Llewellyn takes the writer's mantle for the first story, The Shadow Vortex, which sees the War Doctor's first trip into Earth History as he prevents a Dalek Agent from getting her masters to invade Earth once again. Following from that is Andrew Smith's The Eternity Cage, where a group of impressively prepared Sontarans want to join the Time War, and have the ultimate proposition for both sides; let them join and the victors get the Cardinal. Finishing is Ken Bentley's The Eye Of Harmony, where, after a deadly betrayal by one of their own, The Doctor, Ollistra and new recruit Kalan, must stop a devastating Dalek strategy that very much can and would destroy every Time Lord that ever existed. The style of the narrative across this box seems to be a mix between the styles of the first two sets; we've three unique, standalone stories, but the three weave into each other very well. It's not so much the three-hour movie style that we got from Briggs' first box but it's more than the themed anthology we got in the second. As such it's hard to pick a favourite single episode as all are phenomenally brilliant, as should something directed by Nicholas Briggs and written by these three geniuses should be. But I will give special kudos to David Llewellyn for finally giving John Hurt an Earth historical story.

But writing wasn't the only thing where the ante had to be upped. The casting for the last two sets were star-studdingly-spectacular. Put it this way, topping David Warner is a hard task to do. So joining our regulars of Hurt and Jacqueline Pearce are the legends known as Madame Vastra herself, Neve McIntosh, Death In Paradise's Honeysuckle Weeks, the RSC's Timothy Speyer, The Prisoner's Helen Goldwyn, The Demon Headmaster's Gunnar Cauthery, Chaplin's Matthew Cottle, the irreplacable Dan Starkey, Last Tango In Halifax's Josh Bolt, The Bill's Andrew French, and the glorious Barnaby Edwards and, of course, Nicholas Briggs! Quite simply the star quality across this set is something to be utterly admired, with the standouts being Bolt, McIntosh and especially Weeks. You'll know what I mean when you listen to it. And of course, the great Howard Carter, and his bombastically epic theme tune, returns once again for the duties of sound design and music. And, akin to Jamie Robertson in DC3, Carter's efforts here have knocked it straight out of the park, especially, his work in the final episode, which I can only describe as climatically beautiful.

Oh, this was worth the (slightly extended) wait. Whilst some actors may have a curse, Sir John FREAKING Hurt has an aura of awesomeness in just about anything he's in, good or bad. What makes this excellent is everything else; the quality of the writing, Briggs' excellent direction, the talent of the actors, the exquisiteness of Carter's compositions, topped off with the dulcet tones of an acting legend that does not know how to be bad, and in that, ladies and gentlemen, you have a bloody amazing penultimate boxset.  So we won't mind this next long wait. We've nine hours of gloriousness to keep us occupied.

VERDI--**%&$*#'#[]]#: AH DAMN IT!! Why does John Hurt always break my verdict counter thingy? Oh, verdict, um Full Marks all round! ;D