The Light at the End Review

This story is a bit more timey-wimey than most classic series stories. There's a lot more jumping around in time and causal loops and paradoxes. I really don't have much comparison for other Big Finish stories, so I don't know if it's normal for them, but it's rather akin to something more Moffat-ish.

I was glad they found a way to incorporate the first three Doctors (who are, sadly, dead). I don't know whether it was through computers or clever voice acting, but they did have dialogue and were in the plot line. It would have been awesome if they included the new series Doctors as well, but they don't have the license rights for them. There has been talk of changing Big Finish's licensing to include the new series. Maybe they can do something for the 60th anniversary, or perhaps the 10th anniversary of the new series.

I'm not sure of the reasoning for having the Master in this story be the 13th regeneration one from The Deadly Assassin and The Keeper of Traken. I would have expected Ainley!Master or perhaps some other version from the 8th Doctor stories (if there is one). There doesn't seem to be much clear reason for the writers to establish that it's that particular Master if it's the wrong one. Perhaps for a multi-Doctor story such as this one, there is no "correct" Master and it doesn't matter which one they use.

This story does contain a certain ring of The Name of the Doctor in that all of the Doctor's victories are reversed. The difference is, instead of going and changing each victory individually, the Master went back and changed a singular moment. Why he chose to do that in this particular way is rather intriguing. The Master could simply have gone back in time to Gallifrey and stopped the Doctor from going to the museum where the TARDIS was. He could have suggested that the Doctor go somewhere else instead or get the Doctor interested in some other part of the museum. There's also the possibility that the Doctor could simply have found another TARDIS somewhere else and stolen that one. So there are a few plot holes in the Master's plan.

The inclusion of the other Time Lords was rather unnecessary. The 6th and 7th Doctors could simply have proceeded to do everything together and the plot would still have turned out the same. Had they eliminated the plot with the Celestial Intervention Agency, the Master would still have had the same plan and the Doctors would still have countered it in the same way.