Unbound #8 - Masters of War

I loved this release, although it's very much a style over substance one for me. The premise is interesting and I liked hearing the battle sequences where the Daleks are kind of the good guys (similar to Dalek Empire II). The Quatch, unfortunately, are saddled with the most ridiculous voices I've heard in years of BF listening. I applaud the effort to try something different, but their "ghostly" style of speaking meant that they never felt as menacing as they should have been - they sounded too much like the peaceful aliens from Galaxy Quest to my ears. ;-)

Nick Courtney is great, although his voice has a slight impediment here, which I found a bit sad in context. I found it noticeable but not detrimental - I don't know if it was simply age or illness or perhaps a bit of both. But his performance was fantastic and I was thrilled to have him return for one last hurrah. The Brig really shines as a character here. He gets to be a leader (and a damned good one) and more than makes up for the failures revealed in Sympathy For The Devil.

Warner delivers a solid performance as ever, but as strange as it sounds, I never buy into him as The Doctor here. His general annoyed demeanor has its own weird charm, but he never quite seems heroic to me. I like him enough that I'm curious about the upcoming Benny box set, though.

I liked the Daleks experiencing the Davros identity confusion. That whole sequence is so weird and out there that I was mesmerized, although I can see how it flirted with overstaying its welcome. Same with Dalek Storytime. ;-)

The cinematic sound design is stunning and for me was the star. Martin Johnson did a *fascinating* podcast on how he created the sounds from scratch (!) instead of using a library and talked through his composing process. Worth a listen:

archive.org/details/StoriesFromTheVortex-Episode10AlternativeThree