No, you’re not dreaming. Colin Baker has just been cast as the War Doctor in a brand new box set from Big Finish.
The War Doctor, for those of you who don’t know, is a ‘forgotten’ incarnation of the Time Lord who fought during the Time War, following on from the Eighth Doctor after he was killed on the planet Karn.
This new version, however, has the face of the Sixth Doctor Colin Baker – something made possible by Big Finish’s Unbound series, which dives into the Doctor Who multiverse to ask the ultimate “what if…?” questions.
In this instance, the “what if…?” de jour concerns ‘Genesis of the Daleks.’ If you remember, in this classic 1975 story the Doctor had the opportunity to wipe out the Daleks before they were created, but ultimately decided against it, as he wasn’t convinced he had the right.
But what if he had chosen differently? What if he had killed the Daleks before their inception and changed the course of history? That is the plot point that the latest box set – Doctor of War – Genesis – picks up on, with the Doctor’s actions triggering an early Time War and an earlier version of the War Doctor. This is the one that Colin Baker will be portraying, otherwise known as the Warrior.
And in the box set, this new War Doctor will be facing “challenges never seen before” alongside a slew of familiar faces, including the Master (played by Geoffrey Beavers) and Peri (played by Nicola Bryant.) There will also be an alternative version of the Time Lady Romana, this time played by Rebecca Night.
“Times have changed,” says the official synopsis. “A choice was made and the universe diverged. And now all of history is at war.
“One man stands at the centre of it all. But whose side is he on? Is he with the angels? Or the demons? And does anyone even know which is which?
“He was a Doctor once, but now he is Doctor no more. He is the Warrior. The Doctor of War.”
These new adventures for the War Doctor will be told across three stories – ‘Dust Devils,’ ‘Aftershocks’ and ‘The Difference Office’ – with the box set releasing in April 2022. And Colin Baker will be returning as the War Doctor in September 2022, in Unbound‘s follow-up collection Doctor of War – Destiny.
“Doctor Who Unbound remains a very popular range in our back catalogue,” says producer David Richardson. “It’s been almost 15 years since the last release in the series – in fact Masters of War was just being finished off when I joined Big Finish.
“So here we are in 2022, and Doctor Who Unbound not only gets its own relaunch but as a miniseries too – stepping through the multiverse to a different timeline where the Time War started earlier in the Doctor’s life, and a different incarnation of the War Doctor was triggered. Here the Doctor’s life changes forever during ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ – and his future takes a very different track.”
Are you looking forward to hearing the new War Doctor in action? And which is your favourite story from the Doctor Who Unbound range? Let me know in the comments below.
Seventh Doctor jumper – order now from the Lovarzi shop!
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