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A review by colossal
Doctor Who: Arrangements for War by Paul Sutton, Gabriel Woolf, Colin Baker, Maggie Stables
5.0
This is a sixth Doctor story with Evelyn Smythe as the companion, and is #57 in the Big Finish main range.
Evelyn, traumatized from the events of [b:Doctor Who: Project: Lazarus|152047|Doctor Who Project Lazarus|Cavan Scott|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1327498433s/152047.jpg|146759] needs some time away from the TARDIS and the Doctor. The Doctor takes her to a world with one large continent split into three countries, two of which have been at war for a long time. But the war has just ended with the arranged marriage of the princess of one country to the prince of the other. Evelyn becomes friendly with the ruler of the third neutral country and the Doctor becomes close with the princess, but unfortunately changing the history of this world as the Doctor and Evelyn understand it.
The sixth Doctor and Evelyn are the best of the Big Finish main range and this story underlines it. One of the best Doctor Who audios I've listened to and maybe one of the better Who stories in any medium. It does everything refreshingly differently, with the TARDIS team spending weeks in place, developing quite deep relationships with the people they're interacting with and altering the timeline inadvertently and deliberately from their foreknowledge of events. It also addresses Evelyn's trauma and issues with her own mortality directly as well as putting a strong light on the Doctor's own ability to pick up and move to his next adventure.
Just brilliant.
Evelyn, traumatized from the events of [b:Doctor Who: Project: Lazarus|152047|Doctor Who Project Lazarus|Cavan Scott|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1327498433s/152047.jpg|146759] needs some time away from the TARDIS and the Doctor. The Doctor takes her to a world with one large continent split into three countries, two of which have been at war for a long time. But the war has just ended with the arranged marriage of the princess of one country to the prince of the other. Evelyn becomes friendly with the ruler of the third neutral country and the Doctor becomes close with the princess, but unfortunately changing the history of this world as the Doctor and Evelyn understand it.
The sixth Doctor and Evelyn are the best of the Big Finish main range and this story underlines it. One of the best Doctor Who audios I've listened to and maybe one of the better Who stories in any medium. It does everything refreshingly differently, with the TARDIS team spending weeks in place, developing quite deep relationships with the people they're interacting with and altering the timeline inadvertently and deliberately from their foreknowledge of events. It also addresses Evelyn's trauma and issues with her own mortality directly as well as putting a strong light on the Doctor's own ability to pick up and move to his next adventure.
Just brilliant.