Rewind

Every bone in my body says he’s not against us, I just can’t work out what he’s for.

Ignis

Synopsis

Lacuna is on the brink of destruction, attacked by a new breed of Dalek. But every day, it is pulled back from that brink, and everyone prepares to live through the end of their world once again.

One strange man, alone in his castle, holds the key to Lacuna’s ultimate salvation – or its annihilation.

Review

The Time War is almost a touchy subject within Doctor Who fandom. For all those who would love to see a series set within the war that occured between the events of The TV Movie and Rose, whilst others would rather it was left to the imagination. Big Finish have utilised it to experiment and the audio element allows the audience leeway to do both.

Rewind takes the concept of a time loop and applies that to living on a planet that repeatedly goes through it’s destruction. This is Groundhog Day but horror. We have characters like Regis, who receives a phone call every morning informing him not only that due to the Daleks wiping out the western hemisphere he has become President, but also that his wife and children have been killed, is a horrible concept. Regis, perhaps unsurprisingly, leaves the call unanswered most mornings. Then you’ve got Potemic, who slowly marches his troops towards the Daleks repeatedly, leading to their repeated deaths. It is a bleak and hopeless situation, and having the citizens of Lacuna and the Doctor remember each loop is another horrifying move. There is a creeping sense of inevitability about proceedings, as Regis and Potemic repeat the actions that have been attempted and failed on previous loops. If this is Groundhog Day, this is the bit where Bill Murray repeatedly kills himself to see if he can escape the loop.

The citizens of Lacuna have largely settled into a sense of docility and accepting their fates. The three that we get the most focus on, Regis, Potemic and Ignis, are all each developed nicely. Regis, played by Homer Todiwala, has a sense of quiet resignation, accepting his fate and the hopelessness of the situation. Potemic, as stated above, is someone comfortable constantly sending his men to death. Both Regis and Ignis are characters who have been promoted beyond their greatest expectations due to the assault by the Daleks. It is Ignis’ arc that is the most interesting one. She, of all the characters, retains hope that each loop will be the last one. Ignis is also our introduction to the War Doctor in this story as she goes off to find out what the wizard in the castle is doing. It’s a fantastic image of the War Doctor, and one that could almost fit any incarnation of the Doctor, if not in such horrific circumstances. There’s a delightful sense of a fairy tale story, albeit one that cannot possibly have a fairy tale ending. Ignis is brought to life by Sarah Moss, who does a great job as this pseudo-companion.

Yes, they’ve come a long way. But then, haven’t we all?

The War Doctor

I say this every time I review a War Doctor story, but Jonathon Carley’s performance is genuinely uncanny. He has got to the stage where I forget that I’m not actually just listening to John Hurt, and there’s no higher compliment that I can pay him. We don’t meet the War Doctor until around halfway through the story, and we meet him through Ignis. This is a good way of introducing him to the narrative, and her perspective allows us to see the way that views of the Time Lords have permeated even through to Lacuna, an unimportant planet. Potemic even tells us that the Time Lords aren’t interested in Lacuna, but they are still pulling the strings. This all harks back to Cass telling the Eighth Doctor that the Time Lords are as bad as the Daleks. The War Doctor, whilst still not using the name, is desperately trying to cling any vestiges left of himself. He is convinced that, if he is able to find a solution and save everyone, he can perhaps accept that he is still a force for good. The fact that this story ends on a (to date) unresolved cliffhanger, with the Doctor abandoning Lacuna to a deteriorating time loop until he can find a solution, is a really interesting choice as well. It is a clearly hopeless situation, and whilst the Doctor’s intentions in setting up the time loop are ultimately heroic, they are also horrific. In his pursuit to stop the Daleks from committing genocide once, he ultimately leads to them committing it over four hundred times as he hopes that he can find a solution. It’s difficult to imagine another incarnation of the Doctor doing this in any other situation.

Verdict: Rewind is possibly one of the most horrifying glimpses of the Time War and the War Doctor that Big Finish has given us to date. The true horror of this story and Lacuna will stick with me for quite a while. Carley and Moss put in performances in this spin on Groundhog Day. 8/10

Cast: Jonathon Carley (The War Doctor), Julian Forsyth (Grei Potemic), Sarah Moss (Ignis Abel), Homer Todiwala (Regis Parenthis), Louise Jameson (Jeneca Abel) & Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks).

Writer: Timothy X Atack

Director: Louise Jameson

Producer: David Richardson

Music and Sound Design: Howard Carter

Original Release Date: 10 May 2022

Cast Notes

• Homer Todiwala has appeared in a number of Big Finish audio stories including The Auton Infinity, Reverse Engineering and
• Louise Jameson is best known for playing Leela, companion to the Fourth Doctor, in both televised and audio Doctor Who, including spin-off range Gallifrey.

Best Quote

I can’t just leave. That would be the final betrayal.

What, to Lacuna?

And to an idea I once had, something I was.

The War Doctor and Ignis Abel

Previous War Doctor story: Temmosus

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