Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor - Time War, Volume 2

A second collection of stories about the Eighth Doctor's interactions with the Time War, trying to save innocent victims from its consequences – not always successfully. The second to fourth stories form a single arc, and also tie in to the regular Eighth Doctor audios by bringing back a key character, here played by Julia McKenzie (known, among other things, for playing the title role in the 2009 TV version of Miss Marple).

• The Lords of Terror – The first story is comparatively standalone and serves partly as an explanation for why Bliss choses to become the Doctor's companion long-term, rather than returning home when she has the chance. Other than that, it's a story about resistance against dictatorial rule, and more importantly, about the lengths some Time Lords will go to to win the Time War. While Bliss is quite significant here, her struggles to deal with the implications of events in the story are, if not entirely glossed over, a relatively minor element – something that surely wouldn't have been the case had she been from Earth. But as a Doctor versus tyrannical regime story, it works well. 4 stars.

• Planet of the Ogrons – The Doctor encounters an enemy from his past in a story that has a number of links to the classic TV series. Especially, of course, Frontier in Space, which is also partly set on the titular unnamed planet. It begins with the Doctor meeting a very strange Ogron and following him back to his homeworld to deal with the modified Dalek scientist responsible for enslaving his people. The resulting plot is timey-wimey in places, but not enough to make it difficult to follow. Indeed, it's relatively straightforward, with much of the fun coming from the unusual Ogron and the references to past TV stories. True, there's no more exploration of Ogron society and culture than we've already seen elsewhere, but then, there probably isn't very much of it to explore – there's no attempt here to reinvent the race as more sophisticated than they initially appear. The prominence of the other characters means that there's not so much for Bliss to do here except react to events, but things move along rapidly enough that this isn't as noticeable as it might be, and she isn't left out of things as she often was in the first box set. 4.5 stars.

• In the Garden of Death – The third story is set on a prison camp in which the Daleks are, for not very clear reasons, keeping the Doctor and Bliss alive, but without their memories. The story is primarily told from Bliss's perspective, as she and the Doctor try to work out what's going on. The relatively small cast makes it seem for a while that the camp only has four inmates, and, while there do turn out to be more, what the others are doing there, or even who they are, is even less clear than for our heroes. With the Doctor largely out of the action, it's left to another supporting character to take on his usual role, and the conclusion of the story feels very sudden, relying more on a sudden piece of technobabble than on a natural progression. On the plus side, it's a nice setting, even if the story isn't the strongest. 3.5 stars.

• Jonah –The final instalment features an aspect of military operations that we haven't seen much of in the previous Time War stories: submarine warfare. It works quite well on audio, since the characters can't see out directly, although when moments of more direct interpersonal conflict occur, it's as difficult to work out what's going on as usual. The story concerns the Daleks and Time Lords racing to yet another superweapon that will end the War for good – at times one wonders how much of the War consisted of anything else, until the War Doctor found one that actually worked as intended. There is some good characterisation here, some of it explicitly contrasting with Eight's next incarnation as well as a different twist on wartime tales. It's also notable as the last performance of Jacqueline Pearce (better known from Blake's Seven) here playing Cardinal Ollistra in a story released a few months before her death. 4 stars.