The War To End All Wars (2014)

The War to End All Wars is the final First Doctor story in the Companion Chronicles range and this sees Steven Taylor tell a story after he has been dethroned. The idea of King Steven is a fun one and one that I wish had been explored in previous companion chronicles. Anyway, the story that Steven tells explains how he has ended up in a cell.

What the story does well is not pretend that war is a fun or glamorous. It tells the horrors of warfare in a way that seems but its not done in a particularly morbid way. Just downbeat enough to get the message across. Another thing that I think is done well is the idea that both sides of the war are given the same sort of treatment so no one really has an advantage which on the one hand is a very fair idea but on the other hand means that no one is likely to win.

I thought that Peter Purves performance was very good and he has consistently good in all his stories since he first appeared in ‘Mother Russia’ back in 2007. His Hartnell impression is always one of the delights and it doesn’t disappoint here. Also Alice Haig was good as Sida although I thought that the character could have done with being a bit more animated but that’s perhaps me being slightly cruel.

I cant say that this is my favourite Simon Guerrier adventure as I maintain that Home Truths is his best but I think that this story has some good plus points, most notably Peter Purves who performs in the story really well and it’s a weary Steven that we get in this adventure. The setting was a good one for this story and Simon Robinson did a great job in creating this world for Peter Purves, Alice Haig and Simon Guerrier to do their stuff.