Big Finish, November 2009
This is the story of Kalendorf in his later years, meeting the Doctor for a second time. I believe he meets David Tennant’s Doctor as he has this enormous decision to make though what it is is not revealed in the story. This story is an amazing study in how one little scenario can reveal a lot about the characters involved. Kalendorf is a product of the war with the Daleks, a relic in an old body. He has outlived all of his old friends and battle-mates and is visiting the Dalek war museum on earth. I really began to feel for him and how he wants the children to learn from the war, remember it for the good that came from it and the bad that was done to save the human race. But he also felt remote and alien in his thinking as I’m not a military person or strategist by nature. That is as it should be, however.
He fascinates one of the students visiting the museum and gets a visitor that he’s met before in a different guise, the Doctor. Kalendorf wants to go back to destroy the Daleks before they could be created. The Doctor knows but cannot do it as he’s already had the chance and didn’t take it. But it’s also about the philosophy of taking retribution, preventing the horror and loss of war by taking pre-emptive actions. Should you do it? Can you? Kalendorf definitely sounds like he would!
But the Doctor is there to discover if he can make that decision himself, the one not revealed to us but I suspect it has to do with The Waters of Mars and his regeneration. We shall see! But the only one who pays the price is a small boy. Unnamed and unwanted but he saves the heroes at the same time. Kalendorf’s reaction at the end is a bit mystifying to me but perhaps it’s all about making sure that people remember the price that was paid and always will be paid to have their freedom. Good stuff!
read by: Nicholas Briggs
written by: James Swallow