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(4 70-MINUTE EPISODES)

somewhat altered set-up, but for similar returns. The structure here is very similar – there is a slight framing story, in this case a discourse between two characters living 2,500 years after the main events of the story, which becomes the focus for events in the final part. Once again we are witness to events on a galactic scale, in a war between the Galaxy’s humanoid inhabitants and its Dalek oppressors. We are still following the fortunes and misfortunes of previous protagonists Susan Mendes (Sarah Mowat), Alby Brook (Mark McDonnel), Mirana (Teresa Gallagher), and the warrior Kalendorf (Gareth Thomas). However, the surprising events at the end of the first series have left the backdrop rather different this time round…

At the close of the first series, the Dalek Emperor’s true plans became apparent, when the Dalek forces used the mysterious Project: Infinity device to open a rift to an alternative reality, bringing in a force of alternative Daleks to their own universe. To their surprise, these alt-Daleks declared war on them. We pick up the tale six years later. Alby, Mirana and Kalendorf have been rescued from impending Dalek-hood by the alt-Dalek forces, led by the mysterious Mentor. Now, the face of the Galaxy is very different to how we left it. In a peculiar reversal, the enemy Daleks have made their stronghold on Earth, while the Alliance of humans and alt-Daleks control the rest of explored space, and are bearing in their enemies. The enemy Daleks are completely cut off from their homeworld in the galaxy Seriphia, and are losing this war. It’s an intriguing backdrop to set the story against.

The alternative Daleks are probably the most interesting thing on offer here. Nick Briggs does his usual Stirling work with the main Dalek voices, but it’s the alt-Daleks who sound the most interesting. They sound far more human; less mechanical, yet somehow still unmistakably Dalek. Most interesting is the Mentor, voiced by Hannah Smith with a subtle electronic modulation. An intelligent, softly spoken female Dalek (have we ever had a female Dalek before?), the Mentor is the golden empress of the alternative Dalek species. In her universe, the Daleks were created to preserve peace and order. However, we soon learn that this isn’t quite as noble as it sounds.

Chapter 1 mostly concerns the efforts of Alby, Mirana and Kalendorf to rescue Suz, still held in cryogenic suspension by enemy Dalek forces. To do this, they lead a secretive mission behind the Mentor’s back. The problem is, once Suz is revived, that she spends too much of her time either asking what’s going on – leading to a good deal of exposition that’s largely unnecessary – or filling us in on the events of the first series. Sadly, this is none too interesting. As good as the regulars’ performances are, the plot of Chapter 1 just doesn’t provide a gripping tale. Still, it does at least provide an interesting set-up for the remaining instalments.

Chapter 2 really ups the pace. Mirana’s starship Defiant is infiltrated by enemy Daleks – with Alby and his young comp-anion Morli as prisoners. They use them as bargaining chips to prevent Suz from harming herself. It all becomes clear – the Emperor Dalek, believed dead by the Alliance forces, exists within Suz’s mind, uploaded into her subconscious for safe-keeping while his forces were decimated. We then leap back and forth between events on the Defiant and those on Karl’s command cruiser. Karl is commander of the Alliance fleet, and it has to said, it’s his performance that is the series’ true highlight. Gareth Thomas dominates any scene he’s in, particular those in which Kal faces the Mentor. It’s a joy to hear the two allies, clearly distrustful of one another, carefully giving away just enough information to keep the other sweet. Events in the Solar System are intriguing; the fleet arrives to find Jupiter, bizarrely, terraformed into a habitable, Earth-like planet. (I’m pretty sure this messes up the Whoniverse’s future history, but never mind). Kalendorf organises an offensive, but the Mentor is suspicious of his plans; much of the fleet has been damaged during his recent maneuveurs, and this latest offensive seems foolhardy. He’s clearly up to something. Meanwhile, events with Suz, Alby and Morli make it clear that the alt-Daleks are more malevolent than they seem. Information is being leaked about their sterilisation of ‘uncooperative’ planets who refuse to assist in the war effort, while Morli’s declining sanity make it clear that the alt-Daleks have been brainwashing prisoners and hospital patients. The chapter reaches a powerful finale when the enemy Daleks scan Suz’s brain – only to reactivate the Emperor’s consciousness, with the Emperor speaking ominously in Suz’s voice.

Chapter 3 keeps the pace up well, with a good dose of intrigue surrounding Kalendorf’s actions. When he orders half the fleet to put down on Jupiter, it becomes clear what the planet’s purpose is… the Daleks have turned into a huge Varga farm. Having the vicious Varga plants back is a great touch, and really gives this episode a sixties feel. It also has some harrowing consequences, as the human fleet members fall victim to the spreading of the Varga infection. The Mentor’s patience finally runs out, and she begins to make her moves to removing Kalendorf. However, events on the Defiant are less exciting – Mirana has fled in an escape pod, Morli is exter-minated, but overall, it’s a crushing letdown to learn that Suz is alright after all. Her takeover by the Emperor’s personality was only temporary. Although he’s still in there, biding his time, this does have the effect of leaching the urgency from the situation. Nonetheless, things get pretty hectic when Kalendorf defects from the Alliance to the enemy Daleks. Rendezvousing with the Defiant, with an Alliance fleet in pursuit on one side and a Dalek fleet on the other, we should be sharing Alby’s horror that he’s been used to aide a defector. Yet… we know Kalendorf hates the Daleks, and we know he is capable of complex, double-crossing plans. It’s clear he hasn’t switched sides, but that he’s trying to pit the Dalek forces against one another, and that he’ll just double cross the Dalek Supreme, and the Emperor once he is revived. Still, for now, he needs the Angel of Mercy, better known as Suz, to rejoin the Daleks as their collaborator.

Chapter 4 brings events to a close in a downbeat fashion. The framing story here comes to the fore, and we meet properly Tarkov and Hardew, two citizens of the galactic culture called the Union. Following a vast catastrophe 2500 years previously, the population of the Galaxy has been drastically reduced, and its technology and knowledge degraded. On the planet Velyshaa, Hardew believes she has found out the identity of the man responsible for this “Great Catastrophe” – the Knight of Velyshaa, Kalendorf. Meanwhile, Tarkov brings data from an intercepted transmission from beyond the borders of the Galaxy.

So, Hardew tells us the story so far, with another interminable catch-up, presumably for those odd few who have only purchased this one instalment. Still, once it gets going, it really gets going. With his faith shattered, Alby attempts to kill Kalendorf to prevent his helping the evil Daleks, only for Suz to gun him down first. Now, this is a pretty shocking moment, but it does make you wonder what the whole last series has been for, if the two characters supposedly in love finally meet up, only for one to callously kill the other, when she could just as easily disarmed him. It’s clear Suz’s trust in Kalendorf borders on the religious, as she follows his instructions to return to Earth with the Daleks and follow their orders.

Years of war follow, with both sides suffering terrible losses. Eventually, Karl is captured and taken through space-time to the Alliance Daleks’ home-world in their universe. There he faces the Mentor who, qui-te reasonably, asks why he refused her offer of peace and turned against her. Kalendorf’s response is that the complete loss of freedom to an ally is no better than extermination by an enemy. You can see his point, but you can also see the Mentor’s when she argues that her iron fist tactics were for the greater good. After her offer to renew their alliance is dismissed, the Mentor and her Daleks withdraw from our reality, sending Kalendorf back where he came from.

Finally, events catch up with him, and the victorious Daleks present their new Emperor – not removed from Suz’s mind as Kalendorf had planned, but existing within her, speaking through her, having totally subsumed her identity. Nonetheless, Kalendorf has no intention of giving up on his incredible long term plans, and psychically links with Suz/Emperor. It’s revealed that he planted a telepathic suggestion within her years ago in case of this eventuality, and triggers it, sending a shock through the Emperor into the Daleks’ com-munication network, causing a system wide self-destruction. A wave of devastation sweeps the universe, wiping out the Daleks but leaving utter chaos in its wake. This is the “Great Catastrophe”. Now, as interesting as it is to hear events unfold with such inevitability, wondering just how the end will come about, the fact that we’re told of it in advance does make the whole thing rather predictable. The upshot is that the final chapter, although effectively grim, lacks the punch it deserves to have. Our hero figures have just caused devastation on a scale that their Dalek enemies never matched – we should at least be allowed to feel surprised by this!

Overall, Dalek War is enjoyable enough, but it feels like a retread of the ground covered in Dalek Empire. For this reason, it never reaches the heights that first series did. In the accompanying notes, Briggs declares that this story is over. We know that this isn’t true, with a third and fourth series now available. Indeed, the ending to the final chapter makes the sequel obvious: with the extragalactic transmission decoded, we learn that a Dalek force is heading from Seriphia to the Milky Way, and we’re left to wonder how this poorer, less capable galactic civilisation will deal with them. It’s still a scenario with a great deal of promise – it just needs to be met with the verve that was present in Series 1.

Copyright © Daniel Tessier 2009

Daniel Tessier has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

pen to paper, if only to stop himself being drowned in fan mail demanding a sequel. Whilst the first series’ explosive finale brought the story that Briggs’ wanted to tell to an emphatic close, it also began a brand new one. The Daleks had used the eponymous Project: Infinity to locate a parallel universe in which Daleks reigned supreme, opened a portal to it, and then invited their opposite numbers to share their secrets of success. Unfortunately for the Daleks, their all-conquering counterparts had apparently conquered morality before they conquered the universe and thus, horrified at the evident evil of the Daleks, they launched a trans-temporal jihad against them. Dalek War is the story of what happened next...

Much like Dalek Empire, the four CDs that comprise Dalek War are beautifully clad in artwork that screams 1960s with every bit as much gusto as a Dalek screeches “Exter-minate!” This time around though, rather than continue with the comic book feel, Clayton Hickman and Tim Keable instead opted for a striking pop art design. Each CD cover depicts a lone white Dalek, silhouetted against a background of vibrant colour, constituting probably the most arresting set of CD covers that Big Finish have produced to date. Those who were besotted with the comic-inspired graphics of Dalek Empire needn’t fret though – each CD booklet’s reverse boasts a suitably stirring colour illustration depicting a defining moment in the story in glorious retro style.

The presentation differs in more subtle ways too. The haunting signature tune is rocked up and elongated. The Dalek battle cries are replaced with the charming slogan “a space adve-nture in four parts.” Such phraseology immediately paints a picture in the would-be listener’s mind - a picture of sprawling space operas and jet packs; of gloriously over the top villains and robots from outer-space. And, true to the style of Flash Gordon and its fellow Saturday morning cinema serials, Dalek War’s instalments bear only chapter numbers instead of names. No doubt this disharmony sent many listeners into a frothing rage, but I’m pleased that Dalek War has its own distinct identity. It may be a continuation of the story began in Dalek Empire, but it’s a completely different animal.

For starters, I don’t think that anyone could reasonably argue that Dalek War is anywhere near as seminal a series as Dalek Empire was. In the accompanying CD of bonus material (yep – Big Finish’s spin-offs had special features long before their Doctor Who ranges did, and they’re proper documentaries too) Robert Shearman poses the burning question “what does Dalek War do that Dalek Empire didn’t do better and cheaper?”, and the answer is very little. 

Of course, it’s impossible to compare the two on a like for like basis because Dalek War is so very different to its predece-ssor. The Daleks of the first series were ahead of their time, portrayed by Briggs with all the guile and sophistication of those that we’d later see on television in Doctor Who. They sat at the heart of the series and of the galaxy, an unstoppable and relentless terror. Here, however, the “enemy Daleks” that we came to know in Dalek Empire aren’t the stars of the show any more. The extra-dimensional Daleks may be the lesser evil, but they’re newer and greyer; a storytelling goldmine. Even-ts inevitably revolve around them and the dawning revelation that a Dalek is a Dal-ek, no matter how pious it first appears.

Oddly enough though, this shift of emphasis is what makes Dalek War such a cracking sequel. It’s not more of the same, or even the same ideas wearing a different coloured coat - it’s a brand new set-up and a brand new world. Hence when we pick up in Chapter 1 and chase the ride, all bets are off. In this sense, at least, it is true to the spirit of Dalek Empire.

The extra-dimensional Daleks are a fascinating breed. Unlike their cousins in our universe, they aren’t actually evil; indeed, for most of Dalek War they are allied with humanity in a war against the enemy Daleks, who are holed up on Earth. Particularly in the first three chapters, the real drama is borne not of the conflict that is tearing the galaxy apart but of Kalendorf’s investigations into the rumours of his new allies’ tyranny. The allied Daleks’ Mentor may be an inversion of the enemy Daleks’ Emperor in most ways (even in gender, remarkably) but it soon becomes clear to both Kalendorf and the listener that she shares her opponent’s need to dominate and control. If a few human planets can’t or won’t join the war against the enemy Daleks, then they must be punished. They must be “neutralised”.

Furthermore, as Briggs focuses less on enemy Dalek psychology, he is really able to bring his human characters to the fore. The hell that Suz, Alby and Kalendorf we-nt through in Dalek Em-pire pales in comparis-on to what destiny’s cruel hand has reserved for them here. Suz and Alby’s twisted love song is brought to the most unlikely and upsetting of conclusions, whilst Kalendorf’s lot is even crueller still. If Dalek Empire was Sarah Mowat’s time to shine, then Dalek War is most definitely Gareth Thomas’. Briggs’ clever framing device allows us to observe history demo-nising the noble Knight of Velyshaa from afar; to listen as a historian in the far future frets over his failings. Was Kalendorf a traitor, a villain, a realist, or just a damned fool?

Teresa Gallagher’s Mirana is given a much meatier role this time around as commander of the Alliance warship Defiant and the audience’s front-line anchor. Briggs also introduces a new important character, Morli, who steals just about every scene that she’s in. Played by Dannie Carr in her native Geordie brogue, Morli is a sweet, almost pitiable character who better than anything else in the story conveys the real horror of the allied Daleks.

This time around, Briggs is careful not to leave any threads hanging with his conclusion. Suz’s apparent fate is both brutal and stirring; I love that it is only in her ultimate surrender that she is able to free the galaxy from both sets of Daleks and that, better still, in destroying the Daleks she and Kalendorf have to effectively destroy the galaxy. This “Great Catast-rophe” leaves the listener in no doubt that the real evil of the Daleks isn’t what they do, but what they make you do, serving as a potent portent of the Doctor’s drastic actions in the Last Great Time War.

However, just when the listener thinks it’s over, Briggs cuts back to his framing story, and suddenly its relevance is pulled into sharp focus. Having been given a 249-minute history lesson on the Dalek War and the Great Catastrophe that it brought about, Galactic Union argent Siy Tarkov detects a transmission emanating from Seriphia. To his horror, the Daleks are returning. And they’re going to make every planet in the “Mighty Swirl” a Dalek world. Because it never ends. Whatever Briggs says, it never ends.

Of the four Dalek Empire series released to date, Dalek War is probably my least favourite, but that’s hardly a condemnation given the series’ standards. It may lack the impact of Dalek Empire, the originality of Dalek Empire III and the heart of The Fearless, but it does exactly what it says on its colourful tin: depicts a Dalek war, and does so magnificently.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2010

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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