‘Hearts of Darkness’ (WM) (Audio)

‘HEARTS OF DARKNESS’ (WM)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The War Master vs. the Eighth Doctor with Captain Morski and the Scaramancer

Can the Doctor really have turned bad? Is the Master a good guy after all? 😀

It’s funny looking back on the previous four ‘War Master’ box sets I’ve reviewed. The primary reason for checking out ‘The War Master’ audio series by Big Finish was so that I can get to the sixth box set ‘Killing Time’ which would star Derek Jacobi’s Master, Katy Manning’s Jo and Sarah Sutton’s Nyssa. 🙂

Now I’ve come to the fifth box set of ‘The War Master’ series called ‘Hearts of Darkness’ after checking out ‘Only the Good’, ‘The Master of Callous’, ‘Rage of the Time Lords’ and ‘Anti-Genesis’ as downloads. This time with ‘Hearts of Darkness’, I listened to the four-part adventure as a CD box set.

It was fun to hear ‘Hearts of Darkness’ in CD form, and it seems that Derek Jacobi’s War Master is joined again by Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor. Clearly the Derek Jacobi/Paul McGann combination in ‘Rage of the Time Lords’ was very popular with the ‘Doctor Who’ fans, so Big Finish did it again here.

The story also features Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo as the Scaramancer and Colin McFarlane as Captain Morski. Luyanda previously did a ‘Doctor Who’ story with Peter Davison called ‘Thin Time’. Colin McFarlane has done ‘Doctor Who’ productions in both TV and audio and also did ‘Torchwood’.

I was intrigued about how ‘Hearts of Darkness’ fitted in between ‘Rage of the Time Lords’ and ‘Anti-Genesis’ for the Master. The end of ‘Anti-Genesis’ led directly into ‘Only the Good’. Very often, a lot of these ‘Doctor Who’ spin-off audios by Big Finish aren’t so straight-forward in terms of a linear chronology.

There’s also a sense of mystery going in the story as the War Master is sent to destroy the Eighth Doctor by Narvin of Gallifrey. I’ll explain more about how that happens to be the case later in the review. I was looking forward to what David Llewellyn and Lisa McMullin would deliver in this tale. 🙂

Would things be clear to me when I listened to each of the four episodes of ‘Hearts of Darkness’? I would have to pay close attention in hearing every detail that was going on in the episodes and how the characters were performed by the actors, especially in Derek Jacobi and Paul McGann’s cases. 😀

‘Hearts of Darkness’ was released in October 2020. I’m sure a lot of ‘Doctor Who’ fans were happy to have ‘Hearts of Darkness’ either as a CD box set or as a download from Big Finish during turbulent times. It’s a big relief that some of these Big Finish audios were made before the Covid-19 pandemic.

I purchased ‘Hearts of Darkness’ in a bundle with ‘Killing Time’ as CD box sets. The four episodes of ‘Hearts of Darkness’ include ‘The Edge of Redemption’, ‘The Scaramancer’, ‘The Castle of Kurnos 5’ and ‘The Cognition Shift’. There does seem to be a saga feel to these ‘War Master’ box sets so far. 😀

Surprisingly, unlike the first four ‘War Master’ box sets, ‘Hearts of Darkness’ is released as a 4-disc CD set instead of a 5-disc CD set. There are behind-the-scenes interviews and music suites contained at the end of each episode of ‘Hearts of Darkness’. This makes the spacing in the box set a lot easier.

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1. ‘THE EDGE OF REDEMPTION’

Sam Hallion, George Fletcher, Julia Sandiford, Colin McFarlane and Sir Derek Jacobi in ‘Hearts of Darkness’.

In the first episode of ‘Hearts of Darkness’ by David Llewellyn called ‘The Edge of Redemption’, it seems that Derek Jacobi’s Master is tasked by Seán Carlsen’s Narvin to travel to the Lehar system. 😐

Little does Narvin know that the War Master will cause trouble in trying to change the history of the Daleks on Skaro in ‘Anti-Genesis’. It’s surreal to hear Narvin in this tale after he was in ‘Anti-Genesis’.

Incidentally, David Llewellyn has contributed to ‘The War Master’ series before since he wrote two episodes of ‘Rage of the Time Lords’. It’s nice David Llewellyn was invited back for ‘The War Master’.

The Master and Narvin are on Edge City where Narvin instructs the Master to find the Doctor. Apparently the Doctor has been causing trouble lately. It’s the Master’s job to destroy the Doctor. 😐

I was curious about what was going on and why the Master had to destroy the Doctor on Narvin’s (and possibly the Time Lords’) behalf. Derek Jacobi’s Master also seems less ‘masterly’ in this certain story.

The Master has to look for a pilot in order to take him to the Lehar system. He’s given a credit card by Narvin with a million credits to cover his expenses. Thankfully it isn’t a Master Credit Card here. 🙂

Nor a Bat Credit Card! 😀 The Master soon bumps into a pickpocket called Kriket, played by Sam Hallion. I can’t help but think of ‘Krikkitmen’ in Douglas Adams‘ story whenever I hear Kriket’s name.

The Master also adopts the alias of ‘Mr. Seta’ in the episode. Apparently, ‘Mr. Seta’ was the alias used by the Master as played by Geoffrey Beevers for ‘Dust Breeding’. Is there a connection here? 😀

Mr. Seta asks Kriket to help him find a pilot that will take him to the Lehar system. They soon enter a tavern where Mr. Seta is introduced to Colin McFarlane as Han Solo, I mean…Captain Jovern Morski.

Actually, it was funny to hear Colin McFarlane make comparisons with Morski to Han Solo in the behind-the-scenes interviews of this episode. I was thinking of ‘Solo’ when I listened to this episode.

Mr. Seta offers to pay Morski to take him to the Lehar system. Morski however needs to retrieve his ship the Domdaniel which has been impounded for non-payment. There is soon a plan being formed.

At a circus; Mr. Seta, Morski and Kriket manage to find a shape-changing Medusan with a tragic past – Julia Sandiford as Ilya. They ask her to help them out with getting the Domdaniel back for Morski. 🙂

Ilya seems to recognise Derek Jacobi’s Master from somewhere. Despite not being able to recognise him immediately, she agrees to help. The foursome team up to get involved in a heist to steal a ship!

For a while, Mr. Seta, Morski, Kriket and Illya seem to work well as a team and they manage to get the Domdaniel out of impoundment and into space. The Master also doesn’t seem to kill anybody. 😐

Things go downhill however when the four are in the Domdaniel ship. In the attempt to escape, Mr. Seta gets shot and is knocked out unconscious. Ilya takes Mr. Seta to the medical bay upon take-off.

As Illya attends to the Master in the medical bay, she discovers he has a double heartbeat and that he’s a Time Lord. Becoming enraged, Illya soon goes to get some weapons in order to kill Mr. Seta. 😮

Bumping into Morski, she demands the weapons from the cargo hold. Morski wants his payment and refuses to give in to Ilya’s demands. Ilya knocks Morski out, steals his key and goes to get a gun.

Once she has a gun, Ilya is about to kill Mr. Seta as she blames him for destroying her home Hydrosa as well as her family. Mr. Seta tries to reason with Ilya, but Ilya is so enraged to even listen to him. 😐

Kriket tries to stop Ilya from killing Mr. Seta and soon gets shot in the process. Just as Ilya is about to kill Mr. Seta again, she’s soon shot and killed by Captain Morski! I was so relieved Morski saved Seta.

At this point, I’m curious about what’s going to happen next as Mr. Seta and Morski head for the Lehar system and they eject Ilya and Kriket’s bodies into outer space. What lies ahead for these two?

‘The Edge of Redemption’ is a good opening episode to ‘Hearts of Darkness’. I’m curious about Derek Jacobi’s Master’s behaviour. He doesn’t seem as sinister as he used to. Is there a clue going on here?

The CD extras are as follows. At the end of ‘The Edge of Redemption’, there are behind-the-scenes interviews conducted by producer/director Scott Handcock with Sir Derek Jacobi, Colin McFarlane, Sam Hallion, Julia Sandiford and George Fletcher who voiced Grondak in the episode. There’s also a suite of incidental music to enjoy at the end of the episode.

‘The Edge of Redemption’ rating – 8/10

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2. ‘THE SCARAMANCER’

Sir Derek Jacobi, Sandra Huggett, Colin McFarlane, Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo and Alex Jordan in ‘Hearts of Darkness’.

The second episode of ‘Hearts of Darkness’ called ‘The Scaramancer’ is by Lisa McMullin. I’ve come across Lisa McMullin before as a writer as she did an episode of ‘Rose Tyler: The Dimension Cannon’.

I enjoyed the tension and atmosphere featured in this episode, especially in terms of how the Master and Morski worked together and confronted a new adversary who is the titular Scaramancer.

Derek Jacobi continues to deliver an amazing performance as the Master in the episode. It’s also intriguing how hints and revelations are made of the Master turning out what he isn’t seems to be. 🙂

In the episode, Derek Jacobi as Mr. Seta and Colin McFarlane as Captain Morski are on their way to the Lehar system. Morski has also worked out that Mr. Seta is in actual fact the Master in the tale. 😐

I’m curious about how Morski deduced that Mr. Seta is in fact the Master in the story. Is there something about Morski we don’t know about? Can he be an agent like one of the other characters?

Very soon, the Master and Morski come across pirates in outer space, led by Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo as the Scaramancer. She happens to be a cut-throat with a tragic past and vicious vengeance.

The Scaramancer seems to know the War Master from long ago as he took her away from her home planet and she became separated from her sister. There’s even a flashback sequence featuring that.

The Master has no memory of this ever happening to him. Maybe this is something that is yet to happen in his future. But as the episode progresses towards it climax, the truth is more complicated.

It was intriguing to hear the Scaramancer’s character as she leads her pirates on a vengeful quest. The Scaramancer also doesn’t like doubters among her group. She instantly kills them in cold blood.

The Scaramancer also has her trusty sabre weapon in the episode. I think the Scaramancer also likes to give motivational speeches to her pirates as she tells them to let their rage come to the forefront.

When journeying through perils aboard Morski’s spaceship called the Domdaniel, it turns out the Master and Morski have a stowaway in their midst. This happens to be Sandra Huggett as Dorada. 😐

How the Master and Morski were unaware of Dorada boarding their ship as a stowaway, I have no idea. This is especially when she seemed to be following them in the events of the previous episode.

The Master rescues Dorada from a ship’s deck that happens to be in flames. At first, it seems that Dorada has come for the Master. She later tells him of the Scaramancer meeting him from long ago.

I like how the Master appears behind the Scaramancer unawares when she’s alone without her pirates to protect her. He’s able to capture the Scaramancer before taking her aboard Morski’s ship.

When the Master and Morski have the Scaramancer in custody aboard their ship, Dorada helps the Scaramancer to escape as she turns out to be an agent of the Doctor. It’s a big mistake for Dorada. 😦

The Scaramancer gets her trusty sabre weapon back and she uses it to threaten Dorada. Dorada manages to escape however when the Domdaniel ship comes to the ‘planet of corpses’ called Nastrum.

By ‘planet of corpses’, I mean the planet has actual living zombies walking about. Dorada manages to shoot her way through the zombies with her gun when she’s on her way to search for the Doctor. 😐

The episode also features Alex Jordan as the voice of the Domdaniel computer. There’s also Amanda Shodeko who plays a scavenger in the episode before she gets killed too quickly by the Scaramancer.

I’ve heard Amanda Shodeko before as she plays Jade Okafor in the ‘Timeslip’ audios. There’s also Henry Nott as the Scaramancer’s first mate in the episode. I believe he gets killed by her quickly too.

The episode concludes with the Master and Morski confronting the Scaramancer aboard the Domdaniel. The Master reveals to Morski and the Scaramancer that he’s in actual fact the Doctor. 😮

I enjoyed ‘The Scaramancer’ when I heard it. It’s an intriguing instalment in ‘Hearts of Darkness’ in how it introduces the Scaramancer and how the Master is revealed to be the Doctor inside his body.

The CD extras are as follows. At the end of ‘The Scaramancer’, there are behind-the-scenes interviews conducted by producer/director Scott Handcock with Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo and Sandra Huggett. There’s also a suite of incidental music to enjoy at the end of the episode.

‘The Scaramancer’ rating – 8/10

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3. ‘THE CASTLE OF KURNOS 5’

Sir Derek Jacobi and Paul McGann in ‘Hearts of Darkness’.

The third episode of ‘Hearts of Darkness’ by David Llewellyn called ‘The Castle of Kurnos 5’ is a story that takes place before ‘The Edge of Redemption’ and ‘The Scaramancer’. It’s an intriguing diversion.

Essentially, the Eighth Doctor in the War Master’s body recalls the story of how he ended up in the Master’s body in the first place. I assume that he is telling this story to Morski and the Scaramancer.

The idea of the Doctor and the Master switching bodies has been done before in the Short Trip by Simon Guerrier called ‘The Switching’. I’d like to think ‘Hearts of Darkness’ is a better tale doing that.

In the episode, Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor comes to a planet called Kurnos 5 where he’s looking for Derek Jacobi as the War Master. This turns out to be a pretty dangerous mission for him.

For the Eighth Doctor, I believe that ‘Hearts of Darkness’ takes place before ‘Rage of the Time Lords’. This is taking into account the Doctor forgets what the Master looks like in Derek Jacobi for ‘Utopia’.

The Eighth Doctor is soon captured by Tanya Moodie as Kilda, who is the elder leader of a village on the planet Kurnos 5, I believe. Kilda demands to know the whereabouts of her daughter called Meri.

Having just arrived on Kurnos 5, the Doctor has no idea what Kilda is talking about. He soon offers to help Kilda find her daughter Meri. It’s later transpired that she has been kidnapped by the Master. 😐

The Doctor and Kilda soon come across the Master’s TARDIS. The Doctor goes inside to investigate and comes out with a map that leads to a castle on the planet Kurnos 5 – hence the episode’s title. 🙂

Very soon, the Doctor and Kilda make their way over to the castle of Kurnos 5 as they ride on horses to get there. Kilda gradually grows to trust the Doctor who’s very sincere in his good intentions here.

It’s amusing that the Doctor makes the point to Kilda that he can speak horse. This is something that the Doctor would later do as David Tennant and as Matt Smith when portrayed in the new TV series.

Meanwhile at the castle, Derek Jacobi’s Master has Henry Nott as Dieter working for him as a servant in the episode. Dieter used to be a stable boy, I believe, and he is willing to serve the Master.

Amanda Shodeko, who played a scavenger in the previous episode, plays Meri in the episode. Meri is frightened when she’s about to be experimented upon by the Master for some grand scheme of his.

It seems the Master wants Meri’s soul to be implanted into the corpse of a dead Time Lord from great legend in order to seek the location of the Lehar system. It does seem a really grim endeavour.

Eventually, the Doctor and Kilda get into the castle and find a way to rescue Meri without causing damage to her body. The Doctor shuts the power down in order for Kilda to free Meri out of harm. 🙂

Getting Meri back into the open and on horseback, she and Kilda flee from the castle to be pursued by Dieter. Thankfully, Kilda and Meri escape unscathed whilst Dieter likely got killed chasing them. 😀

It turns out however that the Master set all this up in order to trap the Doctor in his grand plan. It seems he wants to switch bodies with the Doctor before he can make a journey to the Lehar system.

Eventually, the Master switches bodies with the Doctor. Very soon, the Eighth Doctor finds himself inside the War Master’s body whilst the War Master in the Eighth Doctor’s body has already gone. 😐

I was disappointed we didn’t get to have a scene where the War Master was inside the Eighth Doctor’s body and played by Paul McGann in the episode. Hopefully it’s to be made up for next time. 😀

Once the Doctor in the Master’s body wakes up; he finds himself caught by Seán Carlsen as Narvin of the CIA. Golly; the CIA are very quick off the mark whenever the Master and the Doctor are involved.

The episode ends with Narvin realising that the Eighth Doctor is inside the War Master’s body which leads into ‘The Edge of Redemption’. The Doctor is very determined to stop the Master in his body. 🙂

‘The Castle of Kurnos 5’ is a very good instalment in ‘Hearts of Darkness’. I’m looking forward to how things conclude in this great ‘War Master’ story and how the Master and the Doctor face each other.

The CD extras are as follows. At the end of ‘The Castle of Kurnos 5’, there are behind-the-scenes interviews conducted by producer/director Scott Handcock. The first is with Tanya Moodie and the second is with Amanda Shodeko and Henry Nott. There’s also a suite of incidental music to enjoy at the end of the episode.

‘The Castle of Kurnos 5’ rating – 8/10

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4. ‘THE COGNITION SHIFT’

Paul McGann, Amanda Shodeko, Colin McFarlane, Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo, Henry Nott and Sir Derek Jacobi in ‘Hearts of Darkness’.

The fourth and final episode of ‘Hearts of Darkness’ by Lisa McMullin called ‘The Cognition Shift’ returns us to where we left Derek Jacobi’s Doctor in the Master’s body with Morski and the Scaramancer.

Colin McFarlane as Captain Morski and Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo as the Scaramancer are sceptical about Derek Jacobi’s Doctor claiming what he says in the story. Gradually, the two grow to trust him.

Meanwhile, Sandra Duggett as Dorada meets up with Paul McGann as the Master in the Eighth Doctor’s body where he has the Cognition Shift weapon ready. She gives him a key component to it.

The episode’s title is what we’ve building up to in ‘Hearts of Darkness’. The Cognition Shift weapon is designed to switch people’s minds from each other, much like how the Doctor and the Master did it.

Except, as far as Paul McGann’s Master in Doctor’s body is concerned, he has in mind to shift people’s minds into the birds (like he does to Dorada) or multiply his mind into other people’s minds.

I’m reminded of a ‘Looney Toones’ cartoon called ‘Hot Cross Bunny’ where Bugs Bunny was about to have his mind switched around with a chicken’s. That’s what I think of when Dorada becomes a bird.

I’m also reminded of the Master in ‘The End of Time’ turning the whole of humanity into him compared to here where he multiplies his mind into the living corpses on the planet Nastrum. Anyone else notice similarities?

Incidentally, the planet Nastrum has people dumped on there once they’ve been afflicted by Lazarus Disease. Lazarus Disease; Lazar’s Disease? Am I sensing a strong connection to Nyssa in this story? 😀

Paul McGann is excellent playing the War Master in the Eighth Doctor’s body. It was fun to hear Paul McGann playing somebody so evil as opposed to somebody so good when he’s playing the Doctor. 🙂

As well as ‘The Switching’ Short Trip story, I’m also reminded of ‘The Curse of Davros’ where the Sixth Doctor and Davros had their minds switched around. Intriguing parallels to discover in this tale!

I also liked how Derek Jacobi’s Doctor in the Master’s body confronts Paul McGann’s Master in the Eighth Doctor’s body. Derek Jacobi sounds so moralistic whilst Paul McGann sounds pretty malicious.

Paul McGann is very good as the Master in the Doctor’s body when he says the famous line, “I am the Master and you will obey me!” Hearing Paul McGann say them words is utterly surreal for me. 😀

Thankfully the Eighth Doctor gets to switch his mind back into Paul McGann’s body whilst the War Master is switched back into Derek Jacobi’s body. Imagine if the two just stayed as they were. 😀

It was nice to hear more about the Scaramancer’s backstory, especially when we cut to flashbacks of her being separated from her sister Peeler (played by Amanda Shodeko) since the Master steals her.

The Master, as played by Derek Jacobi, is cruel to the Scaramancer (whose real name is Lyric) as he replays the moment he stole her from her sister. It builds up on why Lyric became the Scaramancer.

I liked the scenes where Derek Jacobi’s Doctor encourages the Scaramancer to keep going when they trudge through watery vapours. The Scaramancer feels a sense of guilt when trudging through them.

Captain Morski seems to be easily susceptible to the Master’s hypnotic effect, both in Paul McGann’s form and Derek Jacobi’s form. It seems Morksi isn’t as tough as he makes out to be in this.

I wonder how the Master is able to hypnotise people when in the Doctor’s body. I thought that wouldn’t work as he’s not in his own body. Perhaps the spirit of the Master endures in other bodies.

Once Paul McGann’s Doctor outwits and defeats Derek Jacobi’s Master, he and the Scaramancer soon escape the planet Nastrum in his own TARDIS. The Cognition Shift is also destroyed, I believe. 🙂

Meanwhile, Derek Jacobi’s Master manages to persuade Captain Morski through hypnotism to take him back to where he wants to go to return to his TARDIS. The Master plans to kill Morski later on. 😐

‘The Cognition Shift’ is a very satisfying conclusion to ‘Hearts of Darkness’. I enjoyed it when Derek Jacobi and Paul McGann switched their characters and got to do enjoyable confrontations together.

The CD extras are as follows. At the end of ‘The Cognition Shift’, there’s a ‘coming soon’ trailer for the sixth ‘War Master’ box set by Big Finish called ‘Killing Time’, starring Sir Derek Jacobi as the War Master, Alexandria Riley as Calantha, Katy Manning as Jo Jones and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa. There are also behind-the-scenes interviews conducted by producer/director Scott Handcock. The first is with writer Lisa McMullin and the second is with Sir Derek Jacobi and Paul McGann. There’s also a suite of incidental music to enjoy at the end of the episode.

‘Hearts of Darkness’ is a grand epic four-part audio drama featuring Derek Jacobi’s War Master and Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor. I’m glad I’ve been able to hear the first five box sets of ‘The War Master’ series so far. They’ve been very impressive and compelling in terms of story and characters.

I’m definitely looking forward to hearing ‘Killing Time’, the sixth ‘War Master’ box set, where Derek Jacobi’s War Master meets Katy Manning’s Jo and Sarah Sutton’s Nyssa. I wonder what’s going to happen in that particular box set. The ‘coming soon’ trailer for it has got me really excited about it. 🙂

‘The Cognition Shift’ rating – 8/10

‘Hearts of Darkness’ (WM) box set rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Master was ‘Ravenous 4’ (Audio) For the Eighth Doctor was ‘Natural Regression’ (SS)	The next story For the Master is ‘Anti-Genesis’ (WM) (Audio) For the Eighth Doctor is ‘Rage of the Time Lords’ (WM) (Audio)
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