The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

The Doctor and Ace head to the planet Kar-Charrat after Ace discovers that the Doctor has is overdue in returning three library book from a library which holds information on every subject, and one which the Doctor claims rivals the Matrix for sheer quantity of information. But the arrival of the Doctor's TARDIS doesn't go unnoticed , as the Doctor's old enemies the Daleks have also come to Kar-Charrat, but with much more sinister reasons than to return a book. The library has a new facility - a wetworks facility that the Chief Librarian claims holds the knowledge of the entire universe, which could be very dangerous in the wrong hands. And several races have been demanding access to it.

Mike Tucker's The Genocide Machine is the first part of Big Finish's three loosely linked Dalek Empire stories which sees the return of the Daleks to the world of performed Doctor Who. With these stories, Big Finish set out an aim to return the Daleks to a position of power which they had not reached since the introduction of Davros to Doctor Who in Genesis Of The Daleks. Their return is most definitely a partial success.

Part of the Daleks appeal has always been their physical presence and without that they do loose something in this story. The Dalek voices are done by performed by Nicholas Briggs and Alistair Lock, and it's a little off putting to have different actors performing the voices after the most recent 80's Dalek stories all used the same actors for the voices. But this isn't really that much of a detriment as the voices soon become acceptable. But in saying that there is something not quite right with the Daleks voices. The modulation seems slightly wrong, and the Daleks' voices sometimes seem a little too human. Happily, this was resolved in the later Dalek stories where the voices sound spot on, but it hinders their mostly successful return here in The Genocide Machine.

Sylvester McCoy was very good in The Fearmonger, but there was something not quite right with his performance. But happily, his performance here matches that of The Fearmonger, but overcomes the quality that blemished that performance slightly. Like Tucker's Seventh Doctor BBC books, the characterisation of the Doctor feels closer to that of season 25 and season 26 than the Doctor of the early New Adventures and McCoy seems to revel in this.

Sophie Aldred's performance isn't quite as good as she's capable of. She's not bad, but because of the way her character is scripted she doesn't really manage to perform in the way that she's shown she's capable of here. Louise Faulkner plays Bev Tarrant who came to Kar-Charrat to take the Ziggurat to sell it to a private collector. Her performance is on the whole one of the highlights of the cast, which bodes well her characters reappearance in Dust Breeding. Bruce Montague is quite excellent as Chief Librarian Elgin and gives a dignified performance as the head of the Library, and he really conveys well the sense of shock and fear over the events that happen and how they effect the library that he has worked hard for, for may years.

The production as a whole is good. The effects used to create the phantom voices are excellent and truly convey a sense of genuine mystery. The Daleks voices themselves are if not perfect, sufficiently adequate to be quite good even if they're not completely right. That said there is a distortion effect during a lot of times when the Dalek speak in the early episodes of the story that quickly becomes an irritant. Nicholas Briggs' music works well, blending into the story well without once becoming intrusive on the action of the story itself.

The story itself is reasonably good. No attempt is made to hide the presence of the Daleks, and so from the familiar Dalek like sounds it becomes obvious that they are involved at an early stage. Their plan to obtain the wetworks facility is very interesting as it shows the extent of patience that the Daleks are willing to go for to get what they want. Their attack on the Library failed thanks to the advanced Time Lord protection field installed there, but they waited patiently on the planet for years for their opportunity which presents itself when the Doctor and Ace arrive.

The Genocide Machine, despite its problems, is a good story overall. McCoy is excellent here, really recapturing the qualities that made his Doctor so good during seasons 25 and 26. Tucker's script works well and combined with the good performances from the cast and the dependable production values it's another hit for Big Finish. The return of the Daleks was greatly anticipated, and they don't really satisfy that anticipation here. Their return is certainly welcome, but in The Genocide Machine, their appearance is good, but it's not great, and the fact that the Daleks are not as good as they can be affects the whole story by ensuring it never truly matches its expectations.