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Call for the Dead


The war Master: Master of Callous


Callous - a mining colony, Elliot King trying his best to make it work, only being heavy levied by Teremon - the governor. Wild Odd in the forest and Mines that can’t be Mined.


From the opening narration by the war master, the brilliant music and a first scene where a woman lands a ship and cold-bloodedly kill and Ood, I thought that this would be an amazing War Master episode. How wrong I was!


Prior to this I’d heard Beneath the Viscoid, and was planning Anti Genesis next, with this coming on sale and being the second set, it felt better place to continue. Beneath The Viscoid didn’t wow me, it was ok but not outstanding. The start of this felt much more like it. However the Master only really appears briefly after 25 minutes, then its another 25 before another brief appearance only to turn up again at the end. A master lite episode it would seem.


The story itself centres around the leader of the colony. He’s in a despairate situation the mines are unworkable, and governor squeezes every penny out of him. His wife and daughter away on another planet, each year hoping that he’ll make the colony and mines successful and reunited with his family.


The Ood feature, wild ones and worker Ood. It carries on nicely from the setup in the Impossible planet. As before they act strangely; a disconnected phone which rings and stand there waiting for it to be answered. There’s the mention of IMC - another nice detail and continuity reference.


The second part deals with Elliots daughter who takes over the mine, like her father she believes she can succeed with the mining.


There are some great emotional aspect the family that’s separated, the father working away for years. The fact that he gets crushed every way by the governor, everything he tries fails.


Its not a bad audio, but it does wear on a bit on a bit. At just over an hour and a quarter, its a long story to sit through without knowing where its going. Its been rated quite highly and maybe the rest of the set makes this worth it. But for now I’ll sit on the fence.

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