The second episode of Masters of War is a full 90-minutes long, and you’d think that was too long for the second half of a story.  However, that’s not the case here.  The duration helps to ensure that each key character – the Doctor (David Warner), the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney), and Davros (Terry Molloy) – get sufficient time without having to race through things.

MASTERS OF WAR

In this “unbound” story, we learn that it was the Quatch that had orchestrated the original war between the initially warlike Thals and initially peaceful Kaleds.  The intention was that they’d wipe each other out, and leave Skaro for the Quatch to claim and use.  Skaro, we learn, is positioned in such a way that there’s a portal to an alternative dimension within and it’s this that the Quatch need, in order to reach their home.

It was as a result of this that Kaled’s top scientist was hideously disfigured and deformed, as Davros.  Afraid that Davros was in the process of creating an unbeatable race – the Daleks – the Quatch came up with the ruse to get Davros to work for them, thus preventing him from perfecting the Daleks.  Without him, the Daleks were split – some “protecting” the Thals from the Quatch, whilst others were off-world fulfilling their purpose for which Davros had created them.

By causing the Thals to rise up against the Daleks, the Doctor has sufficiently weakened them for the Quatch to seize their opportunity to strike.  With Davros on their side, they can predict what the Daleks will do and their victory is assured.

The trouble is that the Quatch are master-tacticians and they prepare for all likely scenarios before launching an attack.  The near-logical Daleks that act in a way that Davros can predict don’t stand a chance.

However, no scenario the Quatch plan for takes into account the Daleks working together with the Thals.  No scenario could have planned for tactics of heroism by a human retired-Brigadier.

The Quatch have taken over the Dalek city, and have access to all the Dalek ships there, but their first exploratory strike is curtailed by the Brigadier commanding three Dalek ships, under the Doctor’s guidance.  The Brigadier infiltrates the Dalek city and liberates more ships.  Now the battle is really on!

Although Masters of War deserves sufficient time to listen to the full duration, you never feel like it’s dragging its heels.  The two episodes gives us a build up, and traditional adventure of the Doctor helping the underdog Thals, followed by the final, extended, episode which does what the title says it will do – it gives us a lot of action.  All key characters are played to the strengths of the story, and this ending gives us a proper farewell to the Brigader (at least, the “unbound” Brigadier).

Definitely one to be recommended.