In Name Only

All Gallifreyans must die.

Captain

Synopsis

In the depths of the Time War, a Rutan attack on a Time Lord facility leads to Gallifrey declaring a vicious reprisal. But not all Time Lords support the action. One thinks there’s more to the situation than meets the eye. And this Time Lord… was once called the Doctor.

Review

In Name Only brings Sontarans vs. Rutans the fiftieth anniversary celebration of both the Sontarans’ first appearance in The Time Warrior and the Rutans’ first mention in that same story. Whilst we have only got a glimpse of the ongoing war between the two species, it has left me hungry for more. As I’ve stated in previous reviews of this mini-series, I’ve been intrigued as to the nature of this war and how it is conducted and I would love to see more.

John Dorney concludes this mini-series by bringing the Sontarans and Rutans into the Time War. Due to the nature of how this series of stories has been released, it has to strike the difference between tying up the threads of the arc, whilst also making it welcoming to new listeners. He does do a good job – and he is certainly one of the logical choices to write this installment given his experience – in not making this story too dependent from the three that preceded it, but a satisfying conclusion for those who have listened to all of the parts. I think that listeners to this series are more likely to have listened to all four stories than a range like Dark Gallifrey, and this story does have a lot of exposition to cover in order to make it work for new listeners, which does count against it. In Name Only is a story that feels like it has a foot in the camp of political thrillers, where characters are killed for knowing too much or standing in the way of progress, which Blaxill very much maintains. Dorney depicts the initial attack by the Rutans as being at a point where the Time Lords are stretched to breaking point fighting to , but feel that they have to respond to save face, something that Blaxill is able to get past the Time Lords with little to no difficulties. I thought that Debbie Korley has quite a lot of fun as Blaxill, who is another Time Lord who has little time for the Doctor’s nonsense.

Ultimately though, all these stories turn out to be a grandfather paradox combined with a bootstrap paradox, which have set these events in motion. The Time Lords attempting to attack Ruta III, and the impact of these attacks sends the Sontaran and Rutan hybrids back to the events of The Battle of Giant’s Causeway, with the shape-shifting nature of these hybrids leading to the Sonturions’ confusion on meeting the Eighth Doctor and Charley. It feels like a rather complicated way to tie a nice bow on things, but I cannot deny that I found it narratively satisfying.

Ever since the Sontarans were brought back into the new series, we were told that they wanted to be a part of the Time War, and Big Finish have shown in other stories how the Sontarans have tried to get involved in the fringes of the Time War. They are now driven to try and implicate the Rutans, staging an attack on the Time Lords, in order to widen the scope of the Time War to form an alliance to wipe them out. It is revealed that the technology we saw used against the Sontarans in Born to Die was actually made by them and is used to stage the attack on the Gallifreyans.

Jonathon Carley continues to embody the War Doctor and continues to be excellent even if the script does call for him to deliver a great deal of exposition as stated above. The War Doctor is very much a reluctant participant in the Time War in this story, but is intrigued when he realises that this links into his previous incarnations’ meetings with the Sontarans. He is again teamed up with Skole, who accompanied him during his investigations in Born Again, which is useful as he knows what went happened on Taxodon. Skole is played by Dan Starkey, who plays off Jonathon Carley just as well as he did with Colin Baker”s Sixth Doctor, and he meets a notably heroic end. Whilst Skole is not going to break the mould and fully defect from the Sontarans, he is enough of a threat for the other Sontarans to try to kill him. Both of these characters see visions of the disruption that the destruction of the Rutans’ home world will cause to time and the universe and are suitably haunted by the consequences of this.

Verdict: In Name Only brings the Sontarans vs Rutans storyline to an effective and satisfying conclusion. Carley continues to excel as the War Doctor, whilst this whole arc has provided an interesting insight into the Sontaran-Rutan conflict. 9/10

Cast: Jonathon Carley (The War Doctor), Debbie Korley (Blaxill), Dan Starkey (Skole/Captain), Christopher Ryan (Vrell/Technician) & John Banks (Grix/Cadet/Cardinal/Skrine).

Writer: John Dorney

Director: Ken Bentley

Music: Joe Kraemer

Sound Design: David Roocroft

Release Date: 17th April 2024

Cast Notes

• Debbie Korley played Castine in Deception (Gallifrey: Time War) and Prism (The Eight of March: Protectors of Time).
• Dan Starkey has played Sontarans on television and audio for Big Finish, most frequently Strax.
• Christopher Ryan played Sontarans in The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky, along with in multiple Big Finish Productions stories.
• John Banks has also played Sontarans in a number of previous stories, including Terror of the Sontarans and The King of Sontar.

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