The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

'We'll restore democracy to this country and we'll get back Shakespeare.'

If the title hadn't already given it away, given the prevalent theme of this season of Eighth Doctor adventures, it would come as no surprise to discover that Justin Richards The Time Of The Daleks, is all about time. As the penultimate story for this season, it begins to sow together some of the threads of 'the bigger picture' and sets in motion events which seem certain to form the basis of the forthcoming NeverLand. But of more immediate importance, is the fact that this marks the first meeting between Paul McGann and the Doctor's deadliest enemies - the Daleks...

In the two years since Richards' last audio, the less than spectacular Red Dawn, he has given the Eighth Doctor novels a new, dynamic direction since he became their range consultant, and listening to this story he seems to really relish bringing the Eighth Doctor alive through this very different medium of audio. In order to do this, Richards blends a familiar style situation with the unusual and the results are impressive.

Don Warrington's fleeting cameo at the commencement of the drama sets the tone of immediately as he ominously recites from various Shakespearean plays, foreshadowing the catastrophic events which may soon engulf time itself. Intertwined with this is a scene which gives the first inkling of what devious plans the Daleks have hatched on this occasion. It all makes for a very effective method of starting the story, drawing the listener into the story immediately with this example of high drama.

The Doctor's involvement in the main story comes about after he makes a clever allusion to Shakespeare and Charley doesn't pick up on it. When he goes on to explain it her, he discovers she has never heard of Shakespeare at all, yet has knowledge of other contemporary playwrights, which the Doctor finds quite impossible to believe. Soon him and his Edwardian Adventuress companion are on their way to twenty-first Century London to track down a time fissure which threatens to erase Shakespeare from history completely.

The backdrop to the London of the story that they find is never really explained properly, which is a shame in some ways because an exploration of how General Mariah Learman was able to seize control for her benevolent dictatorship might have made the story even more satisfying, but a lengthy historical exposition would almost certainly have damaged the pacing of the drama which is excellent and facilitates a sense of excitement building throughout each episode as it proceeds forthwith towards its conclusion, and helped by Richards focus on the salient issues to the story itself.

From reading Richards' debut novel Theatre Of War his love of all things Shakespearean was evident, and by bringing this to an audio story he has managed to create one of the most bizarre images ever to be heard within Doctor Who in the Shakespeare venerating Daleks, demonstrating their appreciation by quoting from such plays as Hamlet and MacBeth. As fun as this is to hear, Richards acknowledges that the novelty might wear off quickly if overused, and this aspect is kept to a minimum to maximise its effect when deployed.

The plot of The Time Of The Daleks develops very logically and the pacing of the revelations comes at precisely the right moments. The first episode in particular works extremely well in this respect because it develops the situation slowly and by playing with the perceptions of what the Daleks are like, namely by making them appear benevolent, it adds an air of unusualness to the story where it may not have existed otherwise. Richards keeps the twists and turns coming and manages to keep most of these under wraps until he's ready to reveal them (although one of them is telegraphed a little too strongly early on through repetition so strong suspicions about it have formed well before the truth is exposed) making this a very satisfying story.

Paul McGann proves once again how good he is as the Doctor, with yet another top rate performance. The subtleties of his Doctor are once more evidenced through a measured performance, shown in particular by his final scene in this story (amongst others), and as well as his boundless enthusiasm for life, his unswerving ability not to be fazed by what's happening around him. India Fisher is similarly impressive with her consistent portrayal of Charley, although for a lot of the time of this story, she isn't involved as much as she could have been. That said her role within the story turns out to be of crucial importance during the later episodes and these in particular give Fisher the chance to shine in the manner which she often done in the past.

Richards introduces his cast of characters carefully, with the Doctor and Charley slipping easily into their assumed roles as Learman's PR Agents, and finding out more about where they have arrived and discovering that it isn't only Charley whose forgetting Shakespeare. Dot Smith's Learman is the stand out performance of the guest cast from the moment she first speaks, with her steady, unswerving voice which forms a very commanding presence and invests Learman with the gravitas which strengthens the idea that she is a character who could obtain the position she has done and is unwilling to let it go. Smith conveys Learman's obsession with Shakespeare perfectly through her enthusiastic quotations and there is a real sense that she'll do anything to accomplish her aims.

While the majority of the guest cast seems to form an Embrace The Darkness reunion, with all four cast members of that play returning here, in actuality they all demonstrate a great degree of versatility which renders their performances sufficiently different from before for it to be credible that they are different characters and this emphasises that the decision to use these actors again was not a mistake. Nicola Boyce has the biggest role of the returning cast as Learman's niece, Viola, and underplays her well. Viola is trapped by wanting to help the rebels against her Aunt, but at the same time feels a duty to the country and Boyce brings this out well. Mark McDonnell restrains his distinctive vocal tones for this story and as a result his performance as Priestly is quite different from his previous Big Finish roles and comes across as being very determined to succeed in his mission to restore democracy and return Shakespeare to the people. Lee Moone's Hart forms a likeable enough double act with McDonnell's Priestly, although again he seems to suffer from a lack of involvement in the story, but when called upon, he performs well. Ian Brooker's Professor Osric does come across as a bit of a disappointment - not really because of Brooker's performance, but because the character doesn't have any real substance to him and feels very routine.

The cast is completed by Julian Harries and Jem Bassett. Harries performance as Learman's right hand man Major Ferdinand is good, with him showing devotion to his duty, but aware of the greater needs as they become prevalent. Bassett plays the kitchen boy and is deliberately kept as a peripheral character for much of the story, but as the story develops the performance given is entirely appropriate and very convincing.

The Time Of The Daleks breaks two long standing traditions when it comes to Big Finish's Dalek stories. Firstly in their performance, The One Doctor co-writer and current DWM editor Clayton Hickman steps up to the microphone to join Nicholas Briggs as the voices behind Skaro's finest in place of Alistair Lock, and this does give the Daleks a slightly different feel to usual, and when this is combined with the atypical dialogue that the Daleks have during this play and the effect is magnified considerably. But it works magnificently and makes the Daleks of this story very memorable indeed.

Secondly, this story is the first Dalek story where Nicholas Briggs hasn't produced the sound design for the story, with that task falling to BF newcomer Ian Potter. He achieves a good range of sounds which add a lot to the drama, especially in the scenes within the Hall of Mirrors where he conveys the scope of the hundreds of clocks particularly well. While Briggs might not have been creating the sound effects for this story, he composed the score for this story which, whilst not his liveliest one so far, provides a compelling accompaniment to the unfolding drama.

Rather surprisingly both the packaging and the notes indicate that The Time Of The Daleks is the fourth part to the 'Dalek Empire' Doctor Who audios featuring the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors (and not to be confused with the stand alone Dalek Empire series). While this was unexpected, the links to these previous stories make sense in the context of the story and give the idea that the Daleks are working to a much bigger and wide ranging plan on audio than they ever did on television greater credence which adds an extra layer of enjoyment to this story for those listeners who know what happens in those adventures, and won't affect the enjoyment of those who haven't.

The Time Of The Daleks is ultimately a production of a high standard. With an inventive and clever script, Justin Richards and director Nicholas Briggs have forged a gripping and compelling story which showcases the Daleks perfectly (this is almost certainly their best appearance in a Doctor Who audio yet) and makes for terrific entertainment with its unusual blend of elements and fine performances.