God of War (audio story)

God of War
Doctor:	Fifth Doctor
Companion(s):	Adric, Nyssa, Tegan
Main enemy:	Xasslyr
Main setting:	Iceland, 9th century
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Sarah Grochala
Director:	Ken Bentley
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Howard Carter
Sound:	Lee Adams
Release details
Number of parts:	2
Part of:	Forty: Volume 1
Release date:	4 January 2022
Format:	1 CD Download 2nd of 2 stories
Production code:	BFPDW5DBOX003
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-83868-710-6 (physical); ISBN 978-1-83868-711-3 (digital)
The Fifth Doctor Adventures
← Previous	Secrets of Telos
Next →	The Auton Infinity

God of War was the second and final story in the audio anthology Forty: Volume 1, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Sarah Grochala and featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Matthew Waterhouse as Adric, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa and Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka.

Publisher's summary

The Doctor is still being jolted through his own timeline, and has now found himself with Nyssa, Tegan and Adric in ninth century Iceland near a Viking settlement on the edge of a volcano. A settlement whose leader has just found a god in the ice.

The TARDIS crew are soon in a battle with the fearsome Ice Warriors. There are a lot of lives to save…and not just those of their new friends.

The Doctor's about to find that his biggest battle may be with his own conscience.

Plot

Part one

The Doctor is temporally dislocated to 9th century Iceland, not long after he, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan left Deva Loka, and sees Viking women making a procession to an Ice Warrior. He sends Nyssa and Tegan to join the women to investigate and goes with Adric to speak with the Ice Warrior, apologising to his youngest companion on the way for being hard on him and telling him about the dislocation, which is to be kept secret from Nyssa and Tegan to maintain the timeline. They meet Grand Marshall Xasslyr, whose weapon short-circuits when he tries to use it on them, and they move him into the TARDIS.

Nyssa and Tegan are welcomed by Revna Ulfsdottir after Tegan plays along and pretends to be a beaten wife, sent here on a ship with her sister after being outed as an adulteress. In the night, they overhear Revna argue with her daughter, Inga, and Adric visits them to bring Nyssa back to the ship to give Xasslyr, who is missing a hand, medical care. Xasslyr explains that his spaceship crashed here and that his crew, for whom the women are digging on his orders, is beneath the ice. Upon learning that Mars is dead and that his people are elsewhere, he returns to the caves and orders his newly-located crew to kill the women as their first step in conquering Earth.

Part two

The Ice Warriors kill all of the women but Inga, whom Tegan gets to safety inside the Martian spaceship, and the Doctor, Adric and Nyssa arrive just before Revna succumbs to her wounds. Respecting Adric's choice, the Doctor allows him to go in search of Tegan and heads back to the TARDIS with Nyssa to boil a lake at the top of the volcano, raising the temperature and keeping the Ice Warriors from properly functioning. Adric finds Tegan and Inga in the ship and takes off as the Ice Warriors fire their weapons at it, leading the Doctor and Nyssa to hurry up the volcano as the ship crashes.

Xasslyr takes Nyssa hostage and forces her to hand over her tincture, the purpose of which the Doctor confesses before claiming that it would best be disposed of in an expanse of cold. Xasslyr pours it into the lake, disorientating all of the Ice Warriors and causing an eruption which encases everything in lava. The Doctor and Nyssa run to the TARDIS and are soon joined by Adric, Tegan and Inga, whom Adric wishes to remain on Earth with before accepting that he could not live without advanced technology. Using his torch, the Doctor attracts the attention of a ship to rescue Inga and slips through time once again as Adric and Nyssa build a fire.

Cast

• The Doctor - Peter Davison
• Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding
• Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
• Adric - Matthew Waterhouse
• Grand Marshall Xasslyr - Nicholas Briggs
• Revna Ulfsdottir - Belinda Lang
• Inga Kundsdottir / Gudrun - Matilda Tucker

Worldbuilding

• Nyssa uses a tincture to keep her and Tegan warm. The Doctor attempts to use it against the Ice Warriors.
• The Doctor refers to Ice Warrior cybernetics as bioelectronics.
• The Vikings mistake Xasslyr for the god Tyr as he bears the mark of Fenrir, his hand missing.
• The Doctor states there are Ice Warriors living far away from Earth.
• The Doctor refers to his condition as temporal slippage.

Notes

• As of 2022, this story depicts the Fifth Doctor's earliest encounter with the Ice Warriors, even though it was not his first to be released. Later in his personal timeline, he will encounter them in the audio stories Red Dawn, The Bride of Peladon and The Judgement of Isskar.
• A screenshot of the first page of the script was posted on the Big Finish Instagram, showing he scriptwriter's descriptions of the Doctor and companions.

Continuity

• Tegan mentions being unsettled by her recent experience on Deva Loka, indicating this adventure follows Kinda (at least so far as the companions' timeline is concerned). (TV: Kinda)
• The Doctor has encountered frozen Ice Warriors in a crashed ship before. (TV: The Ice Warriors)
• The Doctor is still being pulled along his timeline, and knows that Adric is going to die. (AUDIO: Secrets of Telos)
• The Doctor has encountered Vikings before. (TV: The Time Meddler, AUDIO: The Helm of Awe)
• The Twelfth Doctor would later encounter another alien posing as a Norse god, (TV: The Girl Who Died)
• Adric reminds the Doctor that he is trying to get Tegan to Heathrow Airport. (TV: Logopolis, et al.)
• Nyssa refers to a recent visit to Castrovalva. (TV: Castrovalva)

External links

• Official God of War page at bigfinish.com