Doctoring Towards War

The War Doctor (John Hurt) still hasn't earned his warrior cred in the second audio play in which he features, The Thousand Worlds. Written, like the first, by Nicholas Briggs, it's pretty much the default Dalek story ever since the First Doctor's Dalek Invasion of Earth--the Daleks occupy a planet, they've enslaved a people, some people are complicit, the Doctor is repeatedly captured and escapes and sabotages things, etc. It is fun having John Hurt going through these motions but a little less exciting than the first audio. Mostly I just want to get through these so I can hear what he's like with material not written by Briggs. They could at least make him as warlike as the Third Doctor--give him the martial arts and let him use a gun now and then. Yes, he's not even done as much as we've seen him do at the beginning of Day of the Doctor.

I wonder if John Hurt is up to doing audio martial arts. Hopefully it'd be more than "Hi-YAH!"

I do think Briggs is great as the voice of the Daleks. He gets their panicked peevishness perfect. Just like Mark Gatiss, I guess, I don't mind him as an actor, I just wish they'd stop letting him write. At least Briggs hasn't graduated to the television series.

I heard Muhammad Ali died yesterday. I never had any opinion about him one way or another but his death does contribute to the general feeling of this being a year of high profile death.