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CONTEMPORANEOUS

CONTEMPORANEOUS

 (DOCTOR WHO)

JUNE 2001 - DECEMBER 2001

(4 70-MINUTE EPISODES)

  1. INVASION OF THE DALEKS      2. THE HUMAN FACTOR

3. "DEATH TO THE DALEKS!"      4. PROJECT INFINITY

back in 2001, but I’ve generally been a little reluctant to spend my money on Big Finish’s spin-off series, preferring to stick with their flagship Doctor Who range. Still, I’d heard good things about this mini-series, and the Big Finish Christmas sale convinced me to give it a whirl – after all, for twenty quid, ‘tis a bargain…

I’m happy to say that I was not disappointed. Dalek Empire is a bit of a tour de force. The story focuses on two principal characters, Susan Mendes and Albert McDonnell, better known as Suz and Alby (named after Nick Briggs’ late grandparents, fact fans). Both are likeable, engaging characters, played well by Sarah Mowatt and Mark McDonnell respectively. The setting is sometime in the fifth millennium, centuries after the Doctor Who main range’s own Dalek Empire quadrilogy (which is to say The Mutant Phase, The Apocalypse Element, The Genocide Machine and The Time of the Daleks). Suz and Alby inhabit a universe that is recognisably Big Finish’s own; familiar locations and peoples can noticed throughout. In a nutshell, the series deals with Suz and Alby’s life in a Dalek occupied galaxy. However, it’s considerably more involved than that.

Part 1, “Invasion of the Daleks” (why have we never had that title on telly?) begins with Suz and Alby on Vega VI. Suz is a mineralogist, looking for samples of the rare ore veganite. Alby is her driver, for want of a better word. There is a framing narration, apparently a memoir from an older Suz. The pair are happily enjoying each others company as friends, but it’s clear that something Very Bad is going to happen. And so it does. A vast Dalek war fleet arrives from the Seriphia Galaxy, attacking the Vega system. At first I wondered why Vega, thinking perhaps it was an easy entry point close to Earth – however, the reason becomes clear later. Alby tries to get Suz to flee, but the innocent Suz refuses to lose hope and elects to stay and find her friends and family in the chaos. Alby escapes without her.

This is the defining point for both characters. We discover that Alby is in fact a Space Security agent - slightly hard to credit at times, given his apparently bumbling, genial nature, but then we find that he’s one of the best space pilots in the Galaxy. Nursing a whisky in a space bar, he gets talking to Vegan newsreader Gordon Pellan (John Wadmore). Alby is racked with guilt for leaving Suz behind, and confesses that he is totally in love with her. He realises that she’s probably dead, but Pellan has links to the information service, and reveals that she’s still alive down on Vega VI. Not only that, but she’s been spotted with someone named Kalendorf – the very man Alby was sent undercover to find on Vega. Alby elects that he will find Suz, no matter what. Is he really that obsessed with a woman he hardly knows? Or is it all a ploy to get to Kalendorf? It’ll be a little while before we really know.

Suz and Kalendorf are just a small part of the vast Dalek slave operation on Vega, and, despite being thrown together by circumstance, form a strong bond. Kalendorf, played with class and poise by Gareth Thomas, is a Knight of Velyshaa, a member of the almost extinct warrior race we heard of back in Big Finish’s first Doctor Who release, The Sirens of Time. Suz’s passion for life lifts him from his depression somewhat, but it’s her desperate, exhausted bravery that really impresses him. Standard Dalek strategy is to work slaves to death and then get some more. Suz demands that the slaves are given food and medical care. Astonishingly, the Daleks agree. The Dalek Supreme sees the value of this, realising that it will produce a more efficient slave force. Yet, more than that, the canny Supreme realises that the slaves need hope. Suz is conscripted into Dalek service, becoming a spokesperson for the Daleks. Her speeches to the slaves gives them hope, making them a better workforce. In return, the Daleks treat them well enough that they can be expected to survive, and rebellions are kept to a minimum. Through her betrayal, Suz is saving lives – but she’s also increasing the pace of Dalek conquest. Kalendorf remains at her side by her request, a conscience on her shoulder. Yet there’s more to it than that – the Knights have psychic abilities, and Kalendorf is planting the seeds of revolution in the minds of slaves on worlds across the Galaxy. All they need to do is wait for the code phrase: “Death to the Daleks!”

Part 2, “The Human Factor” follows on six months later, with Alby and Pellan still searching for Suz. There’s less incidence in this instalment, with the story focussing more on Alby, Suz and Kalendorf’s gradual changes in character. Alby becomes ever more obsessed with his lost love. Suz, now known across the occupied worlds as “The Angel of Mercy”, becomes ever more efficient a Dalek agent. Kalendorf, although still racked with guilt over his collaboration with the Daleks, regains his nobility and purpose. The second episode ends with the storming of the occupied world of Guria, a furious escapade in which, after a series of unlikely events, Alby and Suz are linked over the comm-waves and can profess their love for each other. Then Alby and Pellan are fired upon by Earth forces!

Part 3, “Death to the Daleks!” racks up the pace. Pellan is a Dalek agent! He has been sabotaging events on Guria! It’s all pretty astonishing. Alby’s boss, the slimy Tanlee is responsible for exposing him and leading this attack. He reminds Alby of his responsibilities. Alby has a new mission now – find Suz and ascertain if she knows anything about the mysterious Project Infinity. It turns out that her employers were linked to this, and it is very, very sensitive. It’s vital that the Daleks discover nothing of the Project. If she does know anything, Alby is to kill her. Naturally, he refuses to do this, but as Tanlee says, if the Daleks know about Project Infinity, he might as well kill himself. It’s that serious.

Part 3 shoots along across the Galaxy. Alby is hounded by an absurdly determined space policewoman named Mirana (Teresa Galagher). She’s a pretty good character, but for flip’s sake, it’s a time of war here! Still, there is a reason for her doggedness (she’s a Dalek agent too, but doesn’t know it). Yaldos is his destination, as this is where Suz and Kalendorf are heading with their own Dalek squadron. Suz’s story is the most interesting here. She’s become so obsessed with being a believable Dalek agent that she’s become their perfect tool. She honestly believes that she has power over them, and that they trust her. But as Kalendorf rightly says, “the Daleks can’t trust.” Suz is so wrapped up in her role as the Angel of Mercy that she’s begun to think of herself as invulnerable. There’s a wonderful moment when she gives a low-ranking Dalek orders, and he confusedly mumbles “I… obey…” She even turns to the Dalek Supreme for emotional support. Still, it isn’t long before the Daleks disabuse her of this notion, the local Supreme Commander (he’s red you know, as if that matters on audio) threatens to kill Kalendorf to put her in her place.

Still, it’s the finale that packs the most punch here. As Alby reaches Yaldos after months of travel, Earth has fallen to the Daleks (Earth’s status on the periphery of the story makes this all the more effective a  moment), and Suz decides it’s finally time to give the word. In a broadcast in which she is intended to tell the conquered worlds across the Galaxy that they Daleks are their victorious masters, she screams “Death to the Daleks!” Across space, on a hundred worlds, slaves revolt and engulf the Dalek forces. Suz is immediately blasted down by her own Dalek guards.

The final part, “Project Infinity”, opens with a devastated Alby trying to deal with Suz’s death. Kalendorf is pretty torn up himself, desperate to have been the one to give up his life, but he’s still determined to continue the fight against the Daleks. The question remains though: if Suz is dead, then who was narrating her ‘memoirs’? It turns out that the last of the mystical Seers of Yaldos has bonded psychically with Suz, and has been experiencing her memories. All very odd and a little convenient, but it does give us all hope; if the bond is still there, Suz must be alive. The Seer reveals the Daleks plan, as much as Suz knew: the Daleks surely knew about the brewing rebellion, but they didn’t care. The whole is invasion is of little importance. It’s Project Infinity that they really want. That’s why they went after Vega VI – the veganite is crucial to the operation (which they learnt about from the Kar-Charrat Library, no less).

Mirana finally reveals herself as a Dalek agent as her actions are taken over by her Dalek brain implant. She has a direct thought-link to the Dalek Emperor himself! However, psychics Kalendorf and the Seer use this to penetrate the Emperor’s mind. They know where the Daleks are going: the Lopra system, on the other side of Earth Alliance space. It’s a year’s journey, but they must go. Eventually, we come to Lopra Minor, location of Project Infinity. There, Alby and Kalendorf find Tanlee. He’s been turned into a Dalek agent! Honestly, I was beginning to suspect that everyone was a Dalek agent or a replicant by this stage. Tanlee reveals all about the Project: it’s designed to open a window into alternative realities. By calculating the probability coordinates of a reality in which the Daleks have been defeated, the Earth Alliance can learn how to defeat them. However, now Tanlee has led the Daleks here, and their plan is more ambitious: by using the energy inherent in veganite (see, it was important) they can enhance the power of the Infinity device, and open a rift to a universe in which the Daleks are the undefeated masters of space and time. True victory over the Universe is assured. Not only that, they want some new troops. Alby and Kalendorf are to become Daleks, and guess what, so it Suz. Yes, she’s alive, because everyone’s forgotten something we learned right back in 1964: Dalek guns have a stun setting.

In the final few breathless moments, the Dalek Emperor opens the rift in time, and out pour Daleks who rule their own universe. Seeing the crimes our Daleks have committed, they immediately declare war on them, and set about blasting them to bits, amid cries of “Neutralise!” And there it ends!

It’s a stonking ending to a story with real scope. There’s a genuine sense of scale here; we cross the Galaxy from Garazone to Lopra, but it takes years of in-story time to do so. The fates of billions are in the balance. Yet, amongst this, Briggs’ writing has an emotional heart. We can believe that a man and woman who hardly knew each other can pine across the Galaxy for each other. We can listen to Daleks talk at each other for hours (Briggsy’s Dalek voice talents are clearly in a state of development here, not having reached the perfection they have in the television series). We can smile at the old comic strip nods and winks, to trans-solar discs and ranger-scopes. Briggs even gets his legendary love of pickled onions in there. And we are left begging for more.

And now I’m going to have to buy Series 2…

Copyright © Daniel Tessier 2009

Daniel Tessier has asserted his right under the Copyright, Design

 and Patents Act 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

Nicholas Briggs has somehow wound up with one of the most impressive curricula vitae in the known Whoniverse. He can claim to have written not only the first Doctor Who audio drama produced by Big Finish, but many of Big Finish’s finest since, and he just happens to the voice of modern Daleks too. More recently, he’s overseen Big Finish’s transformation from a relatively humble concern catering to a niche market into a multi-range, multi-platform behemoth capable of encompassing franchises as diverse as Stargate, Robin Hood and even Robert Shearman. But before all that, there was a little boy with a Dalek fixation; a little boy that would grow up to create one of the definitive Dalek masterpieces of our time: Dalek Empire.

And I choose my words carefully: create, as opposed to merely write. After each script was written, Briggs would direct the actors in the studio. And then he’d compose the score. And then he’d do the sound design. And then he’d piece it all together. A full cast audio drama Dalek Empire may be, but at heart it’s a man with a banjo and harmonica, howling his self-penned lyrics at anyone who’ll listen.

In many ways, it is Dalek Empire’s almost blinkered vision that sets it apart from most Doctor Who-related stories. Inevitably, as consumers, the finished products that we see, hear and read have been subject to such editorial scrutiny and interference that in many cases an author’s original intent will have been surrendered to commercial pressures, at least in part. By and large, this is a good thing, but particularly when dealing with a franchise like Doctor Who, there is always the risk that the bold will be neutered in favour of the anodyne. Much like a Dalek though, Dalek Empire is one man’s pure, untainted vision, and I dare say that without that man’s persistence of vision, the Daleks that we’ve come to know since 2005 wouldn’t have been half as imposing. The “burning intelligence” that Russell T Davies would later wax lyrical about first came to the fore here – the Daleks of this mini-series aren’t confounded by logical conundrums or held back by emotional ignorance. These Daleks understand the complex frailties of those that they seek to oppress; indeed, their whole damned master plan pivots upon them.

Another of Dalek Empire’s big selling points is its volatility. When it comes down to the Doctor versus the Daleks, there’s only ever going to be one winner. Yes, they can hurt him, and yes, they can hurt those around him, but when it comes down to it, the Doctor will defeat them every time. Dalek Empire, conversely, is the Daleks’ show. With no Doctor to put paid to their plans, they are able to spill out of their adopted home of Seriphia and conquer the galaxy within just a few years. And so when Briggs introduces us to the series’ humanoid protagonists, we genuinely fear for them in every scene and in every sense. The four episodes that comprise Dalek Empire are so very tense that they make for an exhausting listen.

Above: Tim Keable’s “Death to the Daleks!” CD booklet centrefold

But as well as pushing the envelope with fiercely clever Daleks and delectably portrayed humanoid anti-heroes, Dalek Empire also caters for the child in all of us. Each instalment is abounding with trans-solar discs, red Daleks and ranger-scopes, conjuring images of everything from the Daleks’ adventures in the TV Century 21 comic strips to the 1960s’ Aaru movies. Clayton Hickman’s packaging and Tim Keable’s illustrations really pick up on this vibe, the CD booklets each boasting a glorious, monochrome clip from the series in comic book form, and the covers each boasting not only bold colours and retro Dalek fonts but a multitude of Dalek slogans too. The artwork really sells it.

The production itself even sounds like an old Dalek annual, if such a thing is possible. Though Big Finish would probably take a writer to task if he weighed in with an audio script framed with lingering literary monologues and soliloquies, Briggs uses such devices to vest his epic space opera with a sense of scope and grandeur that eclipses anything else ever released under the auspices of Doctor Who. The events depicted in this series take place over years. They cover billions of light years, affect billions of lives. This is the story of the Daleks’ greatest known victory – the story of their subjugation of every planet in the Milky Way (or at least, every planet deemed worth conquering). And the frightening thing is that conquering the galaxy isn’t even the Daleks’ principal aim – it’s merely a prelude; a “distraction…”

The series’ opening instalment, “Invasion of the Daleks”, has a title so familiar that it beggars belief it hadn’t been used before, but it’s certainly apt. I’d have added the definite article at the start though, because this is The “Invasion of the Daleks”. Only with The Stolen Earth has the television series ever come close to matching this story for sheer spectacle, but even there the Daleks’ machinations were confined to a quorum of stolen planets. On audio, the Daleks have no such limitations, and Briggs clearly delights in realising all the sumptuous glory of a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, the like of which has existed inside many a mind’s eye for almost fifty years now. This, however, is only the canvas - upon it Briggs would paint the most unsettling and disturbing picture of a Dalek that we had ever seen at that point.

Indeed, for all its epic, blockbuster action, the key to Dalek Empire’s success lies in Briggs’ depiction of the Daleks themselves. What sets these Daleks apart from previous portrayals is the patent cunning that Briggs allows us to see at work, and the unsettling nature of its presentation. Through Susan Mendez, Dalek Empire’s leading lady, Briggs shows us the true evil of the Daleks. These aren’t a race of “outer-space robot people” content to work their slaves to death – these are a race that wants to improve conditions for workers in order to give them hope. Why? Ostensibly to give them a reason to survive their toil, and thus be more productive in the long-term, but as the series progresses, the realisation dawns on both the listener and poor Suz that their real motivation is even more Machiavellian still.

And Briggs’ Dalek characterisation is matched by the strength of his human protagonists. Though there is barely a gnat’s wing between them, Suz is the standout, Sarah Mowat imbuing the character with such texture and depth that at times she seems to encapsulate humanity, rather than merely represent it. Driven by noble intentions but crippled by instinctive fears, Suz unwittingly becomes the Daleks’ greatest weapon. The enslaved peoples of the galaxy affectionately dub her “The Angel of Mercy” in gratitude for the better conditions that she lobbied the Daleks to achieve, and even inside her own mind she knows that she’s playing a part in a stratagem that will ultimately see the Daleks’ overthrown, but in her soul, Suz feel that she’s a traitor, and she can’t even die to escape herself.

As Suz is of such importance to the Daleks, she is afforded many luxuries that most slaves aren’t, including a hand-picked consort to accompany to her on her tour of the conquered worlds, Kalendorf. Gareth Thomas’s (Blake’s 7) character is a Knight of Velyshaa, a powerful telepath with the ability to sow the seeds of rebellion on every world that he and Suz visit, conditioning the slaves to rebel when they hear the battle cry “Death to the Daleks!” (which, rather tellingly, also happens to be the title of the series’ third episode). Much like Suz, Karl is soaked in angst and self-loathing, yet throughout he exudes a composed, almost sanctimonious nobility that somehow belies his collaboration. What I like most about him though is that he’s a natural warrior; a natural hero, and as such all he wants to do is die in a blaze of glory that will herald the end of the Daleks’ rule. Fate, however, has other designs for him, and inevitably they’re far crueller.

The most charming character, however, is Mark McDonnell’s Alby Brook – soldier turned thief turned reticent government spy. Driven by love and hate in equal measure, the gruff northerner leglessly drinks and fights his way through the series, searching for his lost love Suz, and his lost quarry Kalendorf. Little does he know that he is just as critical component in the Daleks’ great plan as his unrequited love, and that it is the strength of his feelings that that could well pave the way for the Daleks’ ultimate triumph.

Inevitably, Briggs takes on a number of roles himself, voicing not only most of the Daleks and an assortment of extras but also Space Security supremo Tanleigh, who serves as Mr Exposition for much of the series, before really coming into his own in the concluding episode, “Project: Infinity”. Much to my surprise though, Dalek Empire also features a number of Daleks not voiced by Briggs – Alistair Lock, Robert Lock and Steven Allen each lend their modulated tones to the scores of Dalek grunts that this ambitious story boasts, and while they don’t have Briggs’ mechanised elegance, their efforts do a least make the canvas feel much broader than that we are used to.

Dalek Empire’s dénouement is perhaps not quite what most listeners were expecting, as it neither sees the Daleks defeated or triumphant – in fact, it blows the whole series wide open, resolving none of the lingering questions that existed prior to the final act and begging a hell of a lot of more pressing ones. Yet Briggs’ ending has a certain poetry to it, a fitting sense of futility that seems to sum up everything that Dalek Empire has to say whilst also ending the series with a great big exclamation mark, rather than a measly full stop. There’s always a bigger fish, see...

We’re now almost a decade on from Dalek Empire’s humble beginnings, and its influence is still there to be seen in every Dalek story that the television series proffers. It was the making of the modern Daleks, and very probably the making of Nicholas Briggs too, but at its core it remains a terrifying and tormenting exploration of the evil of the Daleks and how they bring out the worst in those that they seek to subjugate. The Daleks, just like the fascists that they were based on, destroy not only lives, but souls too.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2010

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Design

 and Patents Act 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

The events of this series follow on from the events of the Doctor Who audio drama The Apocalypse Element, which sees the Daleks obliterate all life in Galaxy 17A53 (‘Sepheria’ to you and me). Since the terrible events of that story, the Daleks have spent centuries amassing a force of unprecedented size and power...

The Doctor Who audio drama Return of the Daleks takes place during the second episode of this series, The Human Factor, and the Dalek Empire series The Fearless runs parallel to the whole series.

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