Line #47 Recap/NewSeriesAdventuresEnginesofWar


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11	[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/engines_of_war_cover_5970.jpg]]
12	[[caption-width-right:349:[[Recap/EighthDoctorAdventuresAlienBodies The Time War epic]] [[Franchise/FactionParadox you've all been waiting for.]]]]
13
14	The first story entirely featuring the [[Creator/JohnHurt War Doctor]]. It is set during the Time War, and leads into the events of [[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheLastDay "The Last Day"]] and then [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]].
15	----
16	!!Tropes:
17	%% * ActionGirl: Cinder.
18	%% * AndIMustScream: Borusa [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors again]], who has been turned into a "possibility engine", seeing all of space-time.
19	%% * AlienInvasion: What the Daleks are trying to do to all space-time.
20	%% * ApologeticAttacker: The Doctor to one of Patheus' pilots before knocking him out.
21	%% * AssholeVictim: Karlax.
22	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Averted in the case of the Time Lords. While the High Council have fallen prey to HeWhoFightsMonsters, the ordinary people are explicitly described as being innocent and worth fighting for.
23	* BackFromTheDead: The Doctor alludes that Rassilon rose from the grave in order to lead the Time Lords in the Time War.
24	* BatmanGambit:
25	** The Doctor at one point surrenders to the Daleks, knowing fully well they aren't going to straight up exterminate him, but rather bring him exactly where he wanted to go.
26	** The Doctor pulls one on Karlax as well. Saving his dying body from space, leaving him in an unlocked Zero room, and then putting in a failsafe that made sure that if someone else operated the TARDIS it'd centre in around him.
27	* BeleagueredBureaucrat: The Castellan.
28	* BewareTheNiceOnes: The Doctor is, generally, a nice guy. What happens when you piss off the incarnation solely created to be a warrior? Well... When Cinder dies, the Doctor leaves her killer to ''the Daleks''... just because he ''can.'' The Daleks, for their part, do ''exactly what they normally do.''
29	* BigDamnHeroes: The Doctor (crash)lands on top of several Daleks and Degradations, saving Cinder's life.
30	* BiggerOnTheInside: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] at first. The TARDIS is on its side, and the Doctor ushers Cinder in, and he expects her to to say this but instead she remarks everything is "The right way up" (despite being on its side), it takes a bit for her to get to the size issue.
31	* BittersweetEnding: The Doctor and Cinder save people from destruction by Time Lords, Borusa makes a HeroicSacrifice and destroys all the Daleks in the system... but Cinder is killed, Time Lords have become villains, and the Doctor decides to finish the war by destruction of both sides.
32	* BoundAndGagged: What happens to Cinder when she is being interrogated using a MindProbe. ([[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors No, not the mind probe!]])
33	* BuryYourGays: Cinder, a lesbian, gets killed in this story.
34	* CallBack:
35	** The Doctor recalls the events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks "Genesis of the Daleks"]] and says if he had been the man he is now, he could have prevented the course of events of the Time War.
36	** Rassilon points out the Doctor had seen [[RetGone Demat]] guns before [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E6TheInvasionOfTime even though he doesn't prompt him where they came from]].
37	** The Doctor and Cinder at one point help Karlax into a [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E1Castrovalva Zero room]].
38	** Cinder is interrogated with a [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors mind probe]].
39	* CallForward:
40	** Borusa as the "possibility engine" gains omniscience and omnipotence by absorbing the Time Vortex, just like [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays Rose as the Bad Wolf]]. He also uses his power to wipe an army of Daleks from existence.
41	** Rassilon inquires if "the Doctor" has managed to track down [[TheMaster the Master]]. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia Which he won't, until due time]], assuming he's even bothering to track him down of course. Rassilon even points out he "Saw into [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E12TheSoundOfDrums the eye of the war]]."
42	** It's explicitly mentioned that Rassilon goes [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E12TheSoundOfDrums rat-tat-tat-tat]] with his gauntlet's fingers.
43	** There's a weapon the Time Lords think can stop the war. It's first thought to be [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Moment]] from the Omega arsenal.
44	--> '''Borusa''': [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor I see Gallifrey burning! I see ''the moment'' all things cease to be!]]
45	** The Daleks refer to the Doctor as the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks Predator]] repeatedly.
46	** It's implied that Borusa is an experiment on how to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, which was Rassilon's eventual plan for the Time Lords.
47	%% * ChewingTheScenery: Rassilon (the Timothy Dalton incarnation) even ''sprays spittle''.
48	* ClarkesThirdLaw: Cinder can't tell most Time Lord technology apart from magic.
49	* ContinuityNod:
50	** The Doctor once again visits the Death Zone, and the events of [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors "The Five Doctors"]] are briefly recapped.
51	** Partheus dislikes the Doctor putting his (the Doctor's) TARDIS inside ''his'' TARDIS, saying it could have caused a [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoSpecialsTheLightAtTheEnd Time]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E5TheTimeMonster Ram]].
52	** A version of the [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor War Doctor]] with a [[Creator/BilliePiper girl in rags]] in front of a red flower is shown, along with [[Creator/DavidTennant a thin figure with a blue suit]], a [[Creator/JonPertwee bouffant with a cape and silver hair]] [[ForeShadowing and a woman with red hair by the TARDIS console]].
53	* ContinuitySnarl: The Doctor doesn't seem to recognize the title "Predator of the Daleks" when it's used in "Asylum of the Daleks." Possibly justified due to how he'd locked away the memories of the War as much as possible.
54	* DerelictGraveyard: The Doctor finds his TARDIS abandoned in a field of TARDIS destroyed in the Time War.
55	* DespairEventHorizon: Cinder's death is what finally makes the Doctor willing to use the Moment to commit genocide, after risking everything to prevent the Time Lords from doing the same thing.
56	* DirtyCoward: Karlax. After he gleefully forces the mind probe on Cinder, the Doctor attacks him, and he doesn't fight back at all, instead begging Rassilon for help.
57	* DoomsdayDevice: The Tear of Isha can collapse anything into a single compressed gravitational singularity.
58	%% * TheDreaded: ''Nobody'' wants to approach the Time-Lord president, Rassilon, who has a HairTriggerTemper. For ''good'' reason if we take [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho064TheNextLife a good look]] [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors at his past]]. Even more meaningful seeing as we knew that in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime in his future he was planning the end of the universe]].
59	* DyingDream: As Cinder dies, her last visions are of the family, in perfect bliss, when she was just aged six.
60	* EldritchAbomination: Borusa and the other Time Lords Rassilon experimented on. Their timelines have been retro-engineered meaning they are in a constant state of flux between the past and possible future regenerations. They can see all possible timelines and when Borusa is in the Eye of Tantalus he is able to pull on threads of possibility to bring new timelines into being; similar to Bad Wolf he is able to wipe all traces of the Daleks from the Tantalus Eye.
61	* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Invoked when the Daleks reveal their intention to convert the Doctor into the 'Predator Dalek' in the hopes of harnessing his imagination and ingenuity; the Doctor observes that if they converted him into a Dalek, stripping him of his emotion would also deprive him of everything they're trying to harness in the first place.
62	* FieryRedhead: Cinder is presented as such.
63	* ForWantOfANail: [[Creator/RussellTDavies Russell T Davies]] once suggested that the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]] was the start of the Time War, the Doctor having been plucked out of his own timestream to stop the Daleks from being created. This book confirms it, as did the Big Finish ''AudioPlay/{{Gallifrey}}'' series a few years earlier.
64	%% * {{Foreshadowing}}:
65	%% ** Rassilon at first is seen plotting a lot of nasty things that involve the council.
66	%% ** Later on, Cinder discovers several "paintings" that show the Doctor's potential future. One of them is a redhead on the TARDIS floor.
67	* HairpinLockpick: The Time Lords created an intricate, sonic proof lock that someone might unlock via a different, cruder method. Cinder breaks out using her bracelet.
68	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: A major theme in the story. The Time Lords are shown becoming no different than their enemies the Daleks during the Time War, as they decide to wipe all the Daleks in the Moldox system, and arrogantly place themselves above billions of people, who also will die from the drop of the bomb.
69	* HeroicSacrifice:
70	** Cinder gets shot saving the Doctor from Karlax.
71	** The Castellan, who transmits the codes needed to escape Gallifrey to the Doctor, despite knowing he'll probably get executed for this. Karlax suspects he was responsible and tells Rassilon he'll find out who did this.
72	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Averted by the Daleks. They adapt their armour so the energies of their demat guns can be safely dispersed if they were to be used on them.
73	* IndyPloy: The Doctor says to Cinder he's not good with long term plans and prefers "winging it".
74	* JerkassHasAPoint: Despite how generally despicable Rassilon is, he's not wrong to point out that while the main character hates being called "the Doctor" (since he feels like he doesn't deserve it any more) he hasn't offered any other alternatives as to what he would prefer to be called. Granted, Rassilon calling him "Doctor" is a deliberate psychological jab.
75	* LivingShip: The Doctor describes a TARDIS graveyard as a home for old friends and points out to Cinder you can't run away with one without its permission.
76	* LuredIntoATrap: The Doctor does this to Dalek ships, enabling battle [=TARDISes=] to destroy them. Then it turns out to be a Dalek trap and the battle [=TARDISes=] are destroyed by Dalek Stealth Ships. The concept of traps and ambushes comes back into the narrative often.
77	* ManipulativeBastard: Karlax. The narration states that he has spent most of his lives manipulating others in order to achieve his own goals.
78	%% * MercyKill:
79	%% ** The Doctor performs one on several humans being converted into Kaled mutants.
80	%% ** Borusa asks the Doctor to perform this on him in exchange for his help. Ultimately he dies when he destroys the Daleks.
81	* MindProbe: The TropeNamer is used on Cinder to confirm the Doctor's tale to the Time Lords, and the results are shown to be quite unpleasant.
82	* TheNeedsOfTheMany: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. That's how the Time Lords try to justify closing the Eye of Tantalus, even though it will destroy twelve worlds and kill billions. The Doctor decides it would be better to destroy the Daleks than save Cinder, though the latter was due to her explicitly telling him that she's willing to make the trade.
83	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The Time Lords tried altering the course of Dalek history, which gave the Daleks the idea to try and alter the course of Dalek history, creating the various Skaro Degradations.
84	* TheNthDoctor: The Doctor, of course, gets a reference here and there about past lives, but Karlax regenerates from a somewhat wiry white man into a more tall, dark and muscular incarnation. Borusa is also shown shifting through various regenerations, including a middle-aged woman -- possibly a sneaky reference to an AlternateUniverse Borusa seen in the ''AudioPlay/{{Gallifrey}}'' series (on an alternate version of the planet), in which she was played by Creator/KatyManning.
85	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Cinder. The Doctor finds out her real name but the reader doesn't.
86	* PunchClockVillain:
87	** The Castellan, who helps use the mind probe on Cinder on Karlax's orders but is clearly very upset about doing so and shows the Doctor where Cinder is. Later he helps the Doctor escape Gallifrey, despite knowing he'll probably get executed for this.
88	** Partheus is implied to be this as well. He even lets the Doctor go after they stop him using the Tear on the Spiral.
89	* TheQuisling: Jocelyn Harris, who used to be the elected leader of Moldox but immediately surrendered to the Daleks, and despite contemplating acting as a double agent for the resistance was always too scared to actually do anything. She is RewardedAsATraitorDeserves when [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness no longer needed]].
90	* RaceLift: InUniverse, Karlax becomes "[[AmbiguouslyBrown dark skinned]]", different from his first seen incarnation.
91	* RealityWarper: Borusa briefly becomes this as he goes further into the Tantalus Spiral. Not only can he see possible timelines, he is able to pull possibilities into existence. At the Doctor's command he destroys all trace of the Daleks in the Tantalus Spiral.
92	%% * RedBaron: The Doctor, towards the Daleks, has collected a wide array of nicknames.
93	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Borusa, when he sacrifices himself to destroy Daleks in the Moldox system.
94	* RetGone: The Daleks have devised dematerialisation weapons that erase whoever they shoot from history. They even plan to do it to the whole planet of Gallifrey!
95	* RippleEffectProofMemory: When people are erased by the Daleks Temporal Weapons memories are retained but people can't put them together. However, the Doctor knows what has happened.
96	%% * RuleOfSymbolism: When the Doctor discovers what happened to Borusa, it's hard not to imagine religious symbolism.
97	* SaveTheVillain: Even though Karlax tried to kill him, when his TARDIS is wrecked by the Daleks the Doctor saves him. Subverted later. After Karlax kills Cinder the Doctor dematerialises the TARDIS around him, leaving Karlax surrounded by Daleks. He is quickly exterminated.
98	%% * SmugSnake: Karlax.
99	* SpannerInTheWorks: The Doctor, as per usual, disrupting both the Dalek plan to destroy Gallifrey and Gallifrey's plan to destroy the Tantulus Spiral.
100	%% * SwirlyEnergyThingy: The eye above Moldox is an opening to the Eye, which has all of history passing through it at once. It looks a bit like the Northern lights, and obstructs the light of the stars.
101	%% * TakeMeToYourLeader: The Doctor actually uses this on the Daleks.
102	* TakingTheBullet: Cinder jumps in between a shot fired by Karlax and the Doctor. "You said I'd only get in the way."
103	* TestedOnHumans: The Daleks conquer the people on Moldox and the other worlds of the Tantalus Spiral just so they can test their new cannons on them.
104	%% * VillainousRescue: Karlax manages to steer the Doctor's TARDIS around the Cinder and the Doctor so that the latter doesn't get converted into a new superweapon. Though not [[BatmanGambit entirely by choice]].
105	* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Time Lords High Council and Partheus, who are going to destroy the Moldox system with all its survivors to destroy Daleks's plan to RetGone Gallifrey.
106	* XanatosGambit: A large part of the mining of the Tantulus eye, thus provoking the Time Lords into action, was all to provoke the Doctor, hoping that the resulting path would lead him (with or without the Tear of Ishtar) into Dalek, erm, plungers? So that instead of employing their Gallifrey destroying weapon, (which would still net them their victory) they would have the Doctor in the Eternity Circle, where they could remove his emotions and encase him into their newly built [[MeaningfulName Predator Dalek]].

Context Recap / NewSeriesAdventuresEnginesofWar