Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions
Written By: Simon Guerrier
RRP: £8.99 (CD) / £7.99 (Download)
Release Date: April 2014
Reviewed by: Matthew Davis for Doctor Who Online
Review Posted: 23rd April 2014
Years after he gave up travelling in the TARDIS, Steven Taylor is the deposed king of a distant world.
From the confines of his cell, he shares his story with a young girl called Sida.
And one story in particular – a visit to a whole world at war, which will mark Steven for life…
* * *
Steven Taylor’s life after leaving The Doctor in The Savages has been explored very little in Doctor Who spin-off media. In this newest release of The Companion Chronicles, we not only get to see what has become of Steven but how a certain adventure in his past helped him to get there.
The War To End All Wars is an interesting story of a damaged society trapped in constant battle and though the twist of what is actually happening is not exactly original it is how it relates to the framing story of the older Steven that gives it more power.
Things haven’t gone too well for Steven. Now a deposed ruler, he sits in his prison cell with his books pondering over the society that he stayed behind to help many years ago.
This older Steven is much wiser than his younger counterpart and his reflections on power and the use and abuse on it really do make up the heart of this story.
Simon Guerrier’s script is very good and is given vivid life by the brilliance of Peter Purves. The Companion Chronicles have been a excellent showcase for this very talented actor who has over the course of many stories breathed new life into a character he first played in 1965. The Doctor appears very little in this release so it allows us to see more of Steven when not guided by him.
The main story despite some predictable elements is a cracking little yarn but I found myself being attracted much more to the framing narrative between Steven and his young companion Sida played very well by Alice Haig. As Steven tells us about what happened to him on Comfort, we get little hints from Sida that things are much worse in Steven’s present than they ever were in his past.
There is a new story just beginning as this one closes and knowing that The Companion Chronicles are soon to be at an end this is rather sad. I would certainly like to see where the threads started here would lead to as I am very much interested in hearing about the future of Steven Taylor.
