The War Master: Anti-Genesis

Although the individual episodes are titled, this is very much one complete story featuring another of the Master's villainous schemes and the various efforts of different factions to stop him. The first half is relatively traditional, as we see the Master set his plan in motion and then carry it through as an assassin tries to hunt him down. As will probably be apparent from the title (and, to some extent, the cover image) much of this ties into the events of Genesis of the Daleks with plenty of grim scenes and a high body count.

The second half, though, gets much stranger as the Master's interference with the very event that sparked the Time War starts to unravel reality. We see glimpses of alternate universes, some of which come in rapid succession, the characters embedded within them unaware of the changes in continuity happening around them. There's also the introduction of an interesting character played by Mark Gatiss, whose role is key to the story but who remains enigmatic due to the limited constraints of the situation he finds himself in. The Master himself is often in the background here, although he does get a larger part as we approach the conclusion.

As with most of the Master-focussed stories, this is often dark and, despite the presence of the Daleks, there's little doubt that he's the main villain here. The second half is also not one for those who don't want crossing timestreams and shifting realities in their stories, and things can get rather complex. Neither of those are negatives for me, although it is disappointing that, especially in the second half, the Master is mostly just being megalomaniacal and evil, rather than giving Jacobi the chance to play the more nuanced character he does so well. But it does give the opportunity for a particularly grandiose plot that plays with time travel themes, and I think it's worth 4.5 stars.