Review: Time Lord Victorious: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead [Science Fiction]

 

Rating: 5/5 stars

The Waters of Mars is my all time favourite Doctor Who episode, partly because of the overall plot, but especially because of these two quotes by the Doctor:

"There are laws of time. Once upon a time there were people in charge of those laws but they died. They all died. Do you know who that leaves? Me! It's taken me all these years to realize that the laws of time are mine and they will obey me!"

and

"For a long time now, I thought I was just a survivor, but I'm not. I'm the winner. That's who I am. The Time Lord victorious."

I've been obsessed with those three words ever since. Time Lord Victorious. There's something so dark, so Master-esque about them, and you bet your arse I've written countless fanfiction where the words Time Lord Victorious features promiently. I've been super annoyed that the words Time Lord Victorious never appeared again in canon since that episode, because god - imagine all that potential!

So when this book was announced - a whole multi-media series based off the concept of the Time Lord Victorious, something that I'd believed was a throwaway line from an episode ten years ago - the concept of this vainglorious Doctor who has the best possible goals and goes about them in the worst possible ways; a white knight with a god complex? Not to mention that this is the Tenth Doctor?

I thought I'd dreamt it.

Seriously. My brain's pretty fucked at the best of times; this wouldn't be the first time. So I Googled it, one hundred percent certain that I must have dreamt this because there is no way that my obsession that I've been hankering after for AN ENTIRE DECADE has actually happened. No way.

Well, way.

Of course, that meant that The Knight, the Fool and the Dead had a lot to live up to. Could it ever reach my expectations, which are somewhere in the vicinity of the stratosphere? Would the Doctor be insane enough, would he be arrogant enough, or would be just be a bit wishy-washy like all the Doctor Who content over the past couple of years? (Jodie, I love you, but Chibnall can't fucking write your character.)

Yes, is the answer. This is the Doctor at his worst from a personality point of view, and therefore the best from a narrative point of view. He goes back to the Dark Times, when Gallifrey was just a speck in the universe's eye, which is ambitious enough as it is.

And then he tries to eliminate Death. From the universe. Forever.

So yes, the Doctor was narcissistic enough for my hungry dark tastes. And against all odds, this definitely lived up to my expectations.