PREVIOUS

PREVIOUS (DOCTOR WHO)

MAY 2004 - OCTOBER 2004

  1. THE EXTERMINATORS      2. THE HEALERS

3. THE SURVIVORS      4. THE DEMONS

5. THE WARRIORS      6. THE FUTURE

form of an anthology, telling stories set within the timeframe of the first two Dalek Empire series. He even invited the likes of Clayton Hickman and Robert Shearman to pitch story ideas, only to be flummoxed when they told him that they didn’t really want to revisit the first two series; they wanted to find out what happened next. He was then even more astounded when they told him that they didn’t want to write Dalek Empire III – they wanted to hear it. So began Nicholas Briggs’ Dalek Empire III.

Comprised of six feature-length audio dramas, Dalek Empire III is almost three quarters as long as the first two Dalek Empire series put together. This extra length allows Briggs to focus on a wider group of characters and tell a much more intricate story. Instead of an ensemble core of three or four human protagonists, this behemoth boasts twice as many main characters. Instead of an outright offensive or a spectacular war, this tale is comprised of tortuous twists and turns, astounding revelations and shotgun diplomacy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still bursting at the seams with high-octane Dalek action, but it’s Dalek action much more akin to that which one generally finds in Doctor Who.

Much like the first series, Dalek Empire III is the story of a Dalek invasion of the Milky Way. However, whereas the Daleks of Dalek Empire overwhelmed our galaxy with great numbers and unstoppable might, the Daleks of this series are still depleted from their near-extinction in the Great Catastrophe, and as such are forced to insidiously infect the Galactic Union rather than just roll straight over it. Borrowing heavily from classic Doctor Who serials such as David Whitaker’s Power of the Daleks, the first Daleks that we meet here aren’t indiscriminately discharging their gunsticks but offering to help the humans find a cure for the virulent neuro-plague that is ravaging their Border Worlds. This may lack the punch of “Invasion of the Daleks”, but “The Daleks wish only to… help you” has an unsettling dread all of its own. Briggs has done the big invasion and the even bigger war – now it’s time for subtlety.

The less patent plot of Dalek Empire III is every bit as gripping as those of the first two series, if not a little more so. Every strand of the story sucked me in completely (even the initially sluggish sub-plot featuring the Graxis wardens), and the Daleks’ endgame took me completely by  surprise – I was well into the penultimate instalment before I realised why Kaymee was enjoying her Dalek nourishment so much, and why the deadly radiation wasn’t affecting her.

The trade-off is that Dalek Empire III does not have the distinctive comic book feel of its predecessors, not only in its narrative but in its packaging too, which lacks the luxuriant feel of the first two series. Instead of a sizeable CD booklet burgeoning with retro chic, each CD in this series comes with just a basic insert, devoid of redolent illustration. It’s not the be-all and end-all, of course, nonetheless it does feel like the magic of the series has been limited, much like its quota of trans-solar discs.

Similarly, the future that this story paints is almost contrary to the soaring one that we saw at the beginning of Dalek Empire. The Great Catastrophe at the end of the Dalek War had such a devastating impact on the galaxy that it was set back millennia, both technologically and culturally. As the centuries passed and the peoples of the galaxy built themselves back up, the Daleks passed into legend and were ultimately forgotten by everyone… except historian Saloran Hardew, and Galactic Union special envoy Siy Tarkov, with whom she shared her knowledge.

The first instalment, “The Exterminators”, picks up straight after Dalek War’s bookends on Velyshaa. Having detected a Dalek transmission betraying their impending invasion, Tarkov sends a message to the Galactic Union warning them of the danger and then puts himself into cryogenic suspension. Twenty years thereafter, he is revived by Giorgi Selestru, head of security in the Galactic Union who instinctively accepts Tarkov at his word. However, with his superiors refusing to act without evidence, Selustru has no choice but to despatch his best man to the virus-addled Border Worlds in order to find evidence of the Daleks’ complicity - a man by the name of Galanar.

David Tennant’s impressive turn as the series’ leading man has retroactively become one of its greatest selling points. Recorded in 2004, a year or so before he was cast as the Doctor, Tennant’s portrayal of Galanar is the most prominent of a number of Big Finish roles for the Scotsman. It tickled me no end that for the first couples of episodes Galanar is undercover posing as a medic, everybody addressing him as ‘Doctor’, all the while his Scots accent masked by his affected RP. There the similarities to the tenth Doctor end, however. Galanar is one of three “criminally insane” humans from the time of the Dalek War who were captured by the alt-Daleks, their bodies genetically augmented and their minds wiped. Now he’s the ultimate supersoldier – loyal, resourceful, and unnaturally persuasive; he can even make himself invisible. But having “imprinted” upon human beings, their doctrines have become his own, and he might just be the greatest weapon that they can deploy against the Daleks.

Tennant brings a lot of light and shade to the role, constantly surprising the listener with surprising acts of compassion and incredible feats of heroism. His strained relationship with Elaria, a fellow “Demon”, is particularly well-played, not only by the would-be Time Lord but by Claudia Elmhirst too. Briggs almost taunts the listener with the idea that these two tortured souls belong together, only to give one of them a heart that’s all human and the other one that’s got Dalek stamped all over it. This tragedy is offset a little by the budding friendship between Galanar and Tarkov that really comes to the fore towards the end of the story, lending its final, agonising scenes an almost crippling resonance.

William Gaunt (Revelation of the Daleks) also stands out as Selestru, so much so that as the series rattled along I become increasingly irritated by his lack of exposure. Ishia Bennison is also marvellous the chief Graxis warden, Frey Saxton - probably the best-rounded and most identifiable character in the series. The beating heart of the story though is Siy Tarkov, and Steven Edler never fails to rouse with his desperate, heartrending performance. Particularly given that he has to play the poor, tragic fellow with an advanced neurological disease (stutter and all) for most of the series, Edler is absolutely superb. If his final scene doesn’t get you, nothing will.

Dalek Empire III also serves as Susan Mendez’s last hurrah, but it’s in a form that even Alby wouldn’t recognise. It seems that at the end of Dalek War, when Suz used the Emperor Dalek’s authorisation codes to dismantle the Daleks’ defences and send out a shockwave to destroy every single Dalek facility in the universe, a single Dalek creature was conditioned to absorb the destructive pulse and halt its destructive progress. In doing so, however, this Dalek creature also absorbed Suz’s mind which then become one with its own, creating a new Dalek Supreme – a female one! Clearly having been inspired by Hannah Smith’s Mentor in the previous series, Sarah Mowat’s disquieting, ethereal performance is haunting enough in itself, but once the penny drops that this isn’t any old Dalek sovereign but Suz, the sheer awfulness is off the page. It is, quite literally, Suz’s worst nightmare made reality, and thus the listener’s too.

The story’s finale is a thing of real beauty. This time around, Briggs doesn’t leave us hanging on an almighty cliffhanger or set up a future series with a last-minute coda; he does something that I feel is much cleverer, and infinitely more affecting. The series’ last episode, “The Future”, pulls the listener every which way, taking the galaxy to the brink of utter defeat before, just for a fleeting moment, allowing the listener to believe that humanity will prevail.

The ambiguity of the final scene is exquisitely written and performed, presenting the listener with either a future that will see the peoples of the Galactic Union turned into Daleks, or a future that will see them become just as bad. Yet even in the face of this, Galanar’s spirit will not break. Why? Because no matter how bad they have to become in order to stop the Daleks, humans will always have one thing that the Daleks never will – something that means that the Daleks will never truly have power over them. And so with the Dalek Supreme sitting comfortably, Galanar begins to tell her a story. A story about a man named Tarkov. A story about what it really means to be human.

An agonising, moving thing full of well-drawn characters, intrigue and action, Dalek Empire III is almost as inspiring as the mini-series that spawned it, and quite a considerable improvement on the Dalek War that it followed. Perhaps the highest compliment that I could pay to Briggs is that Dalek Empire III manages to feel uplifting and triumphant, even though the picture that it paints is as stark and as desperate as you’re likely to find anywhere. To misquote Galanar, Dalek Empire III is full of death and suffering yet, somehow, it still makes me smile.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2010

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