The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Dalek Empire: Chapter Four

"We will all live as citizens of the Dalek Empire ... forever!"

With Kalendorf leading the fightback, the Daleks have begun to retreat. Alby seems to know more about this than he should, but recent events weigh heavily on his mind. Yet elsewhere, the procedures for the completion of Project Infinity are being prepared as Tanlee comes to supervise its final phase. But with the Dalek Emperor still pursuing his own agenda, will anyone survive the Dalek Empire?

Project Infinity is the fourth and last of the Dalek Empire series, and as such there is an added weight of expectation upon it that it will provide a sense of resolution to the drama that has gone before. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do this at all, although given the announcement of Dalek Empire II some time ago, this was perhaps inevitable, but what it does do is keep up the quality of drama which Nicholas Briggs’ previous stories have all had in abundance.

Like the stories before, Project Infinity begins by advancing the story yet at the same time revisiting the previous story and clearing up the nature of what happened at the end of ‘Death To The Daleks!’. This is particularly well done here with the story featuring extended scenes of what happened there, but put into a scenario where many of the unanswered questions about the conclusion of that instalment now answered.

Gareth Thomas role in the Dalek Empire series seems to have got larger with each consecutive release, and the same is true of Project Infinity where his character Kalendorf is now very much the main humanoid character. It’s not a position he wanted to be in, but circumstance and fate have conspired to put him into this position and he’s determined that he will not fail. In some ways with Kalendorf in this story, the way that the script is written brings him closest to Thomas’ most famous role of Roj Blake in Blake’s 7.

Throughout the four Dalek Empire stories, one of the most consistent elements has been Mark McDonnell’s performance which has never failed to be anything less than entertaining. Here, his character Alby Brook is reeling from the devastating news he received at the conclusion of the last instalment, and McDonnell is totally convincing in this role as the man whose motivation for everything he’s done since the Dalek Invasion began has been taken away from him. A very powerful performance coupled with some very well written characterisation make this Alby Brooks’ finest moments so far.

Teresa Gallagher, while a late addition to the line up of the audios, continues to show what she’s made of with another very good performance as Mirana, with some very fine acting on show here during this drama.

The true nature of Joyce Gibbs’ hitherto unnamed narrator is also made clear in this story, and Gibbs responds with a dignified performance. The only downside to her more substantial involvement in the storyline is that we loose her narration which gives the story a slightly different feel to the other three episodes, but ultimately this proves itself to be no bad thing.

The Daleks are again voiced by Briggs, Alistair Lock, and Steven Allen, but with Robert Lock joining the ranks of the ever swelling Dalek hordes for this instalment. The addition of a fourth voice to them does add an even greater degree of variety amongst their voices which gives a sense that there are much more Daleks present than ever before. It’s very impressive work.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Project Infinity though is how little involvement Sarah Mowat has, with her involvement limited predominantly to a cameo flashback sequence at the start, clearing up what happened at the end of ‘Death To The Daleks!’. Mowat has frequently been the star performer of the Dalek Empire series and it seems odd somehow that she’s not more involved with the drama here, but given the nature of what happened to her character at the conclusion of the previous release, it’s only right that this should be so as it preserves the power and emotional impact that was present there.

The quality of the sound effects used in Project Infinity is first rate. Nicholas Briggs continues the good work he began in the other parts of the Dalek Empire and maintains the consistent quality which has added tremendously to the drama overall, and particularly impressive were how well they helped the main battle scene become as real as it was. One of the things that the Dalek Empire series has shied away from in the past is actually dramatising major battle scenes, but with this being the conclusion, Nicholas Briggs doesn’t repeat this again and he delivers the battlescene to end all battlescenes with an attack by the Alliance against the Dalek masses being incredibly well conveyed through the combination of music and sound effects, especially so given how it could have sounded given that it’s on audio.

The first three episodes of the Dalek Empire saga were all in their own ways excellent pieces of drama, and demonstrated the power of the Daleks to act as a force in their own right. Project Infinity continues this and showcases the human character to fight back against brutality and evil by putting characters like Kalendorf and Alby Brook into the spotlight. This is exceptionally good drama, and full credit to Nicholas Briggs for making Project Infinity as consistently enjoyable as the other episodes of the Dalek Empire.

While Project Infinity might be yet another excellent piece of drama in itself, where it does fail is in the manner in which it fails to provide any sort of sense of real resolution to the storyline. It builds up well, but just when you think it should be getting into the final phase of the series, you realise that there isn’t enough time left on the audio for this to happen, and the closing moments serve to set up the sequel, rather than deal with the fates of the characters that the listener will have come to care about over the course of these four dramas.

Saying that though, as a cliffhanger, the conclusion to Project Infinity is one of the most intriguing to feature in the Dalek Empire series so far and it bodes very well for the continuation of the series Dalek War. The fact that we don’t get a real ending to the story works well (but will disappoint those who were hoping for the resolution) because it shows that all the loose ends of this epic tale cannot be brought together in one go and there is still much more to tell about the Dalek Empire. Project Infinity will answer many questions about that the Dalek Empire series has raised in the past, but it poses just as many that only time will answer when the Daleks return in Dalek Empire II: Dalek War ...

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