The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Dalek Empire III - Chapter Six

"I think we're going to die. That doesn't mean we have to fail..."

And so Dalek Empire III draws to a conclusion with chapter six, optimistically titled The Future, but there are to be no happy endings this time around for Nicholas Briggs' heroes. The penultimate instalment set most of the characters off towards Velyshaa for a final confrontation against the pursuing Daleks, with the motley band of gardeners-turned-warriors and Demons being the only hope to warn the Galactic Union of the greater danger the Daleks pose. And yet we know what's going to happen here...

It's quite evident by now that Dalek Empire III is very different, stylistically and structurally, from its predecessors and Briggs should be applauded for not simply regurgitating the formula that proved so successful with the first two series. Yet the shadow of those successes has loomed large over this production throughout its run, particularly when Briggs highlighted at the end of Dalek War the risk of things becoming "a mediocre shadow of what they were" when they are prolonged beyond their natural lifespan. While Dalek Empire III might lack the epic scale of the first series and the blistering intensity of the second, it still has its fair share of quality drama and this final instalment sees something of a return to form for Briggs after a trio of disappointingly lacklustre sections as his characters begin the fight of their lives to save the future.

Briggs evokes a wonderfully ominous feeling throughout the play which begins almost immediately as two minor (a sad realisation in the case of one as they had plenty of potential which was never cultivated) characters are brutally exterminated as the Daleks at long last begin to make their move. The Daleks of this series have been insidious, posing as the friends of humanity - the healers - while scheming privately to obliterate them and ensure their own superiority. Scenes such as this, and those that follow on Velyshaa, show that although the Daleks have adapted new methods for achieving conquest they are still at their best (meaning their worst) when they are indiscriminately exterminating those that stand against them.

With tensions rising onboard the Wardens' ship Ranger One reaching their peak when it's discovered that the Daleks have trailed them to Velyshaa, suspicion inevitably falls upon Elaria, the defector Demon whom Tarkov is more than ready to blame given his deep mistrust of her considering her past duplicity. This focus on whether Elaria can be trusted or not allows Claudia Elmhirst to deliver her best performance in the series as she portrays the character's complex ambiguity beautifully so we can never be sure whether she is genuine in her wish to defeat the Daleks or if she's been betraying the Wardens' to the Daleks all along. As Elmhirst is so strong at demonstrating the conflicting emotions that Elaria is going through when she says that she still instinctively has allegiance towards the race she imprinted upon despite knowing that they're evil and wrong it makes a surprise twist towards the end of the play utterly shocking although the doubts linger about whether she was provoking Galanar into action to achieve some kind of respite from the turmoil her divided loyalties or acting in accordance with her nature. This is very typical of Briggs' entire approach to the Dalek Empire III storyline as there are no easy answers to be found here - a technique that ensures by the play's end that some listeners will want more but others will feel disappointment at the lack of any kind of resolution.

The centre piece of this drama is the serial's only major battle as the Wardens must fight to the death to have any hope of denting the Daleks' plans. This is an area where Briggs' skill as a sound designer have shone in the past and the presentation here is even better as the soundscape gives the idea that there's hundreds of marauding Daleks attacking the enclosed ruins of Velyshaa that the Wardens are defending and when combined with Briggs' hard-edged music the effect is simply stunning. The only negative side-effect of this is that because the background noise is supposed to be loud and overpowering, the acting becomes a little stilted in one scene when everyone is shouting in. Short Sentences. To Make Themselves. Understood. As it's unconvincing as they can all be clearly heard anyway. It would be a mistake to render the scene in such a way that the dialogue would be totally unintelligible, but it might have made it sound a bit more authentic were it slightly less discernable. It is but a small complaint in an otherwise gripping scene that gives the Wardens a heroically bleak send-off.

This series has not featured such a prominent philosophical clash of ideology as its predecessors, but it is something that Briggs brings into play at the denouement of The Future, which as the end of the series is certainly more provocative than conclusive. In scenes that recall the memorable final meeting of Kalendorf and the Mentor, the Dalek Supreme individually addresses both Tarkov and Galanar which allows Briggs to reflect upon the themes and ideas of the series. While there's tremendous irony about the words the Dalek Supreme uses to greet Tarkov, being the same ones that the original greeted Susan Mendes with in their first meeting, his implicit assertion that the Daleks will have won a victory as humanity will become the Daleks in order to defeat them is reflected in the story of the Wardens and their transformation from Graxis Gardeners to Intergalactic Warriors, and it's slightly disappointing that Briggs didn't examine this journey on a more personal level as none of them ever really seem to mind that they have, in effect, become soldiers. Steven Elder's Tarkov has been the most consistently interesting character throughout this series and it's the same again in its finale as Elder demonstrates his revulsion brilliantly as his defiance against the Daleks breaks down as he realises the horror of what the Daleks have done to him. After all the terrible things that have befallen him, it is so tragic that the single thing that kept him going will now be stripped away too as he looses his humanity...

Galanar's confrontation proves something of an anticlimax though, as Briggs' efforts to show that humanity's compassion and emotion are what makes them the indomitable species are unusually clumsy. Somehow telling the Dalek Supreme that her race is inferior because "they just don't like themselves very much" is faintly ridiculous, particularly when it forms part of the drama's concluding scene. Although the explanation for the frequent bouts of narration from Galanar that have run throughout the series is suitably apt.

In many ways The Future is reminiscent of the ending to the original Dalek Empire series as Project Infinity was clearly part of a larger storyline and this has the same feeling. Whether the hypothetical Dalek Empire IV ever materialises or not, the overriding impression this series gives a similar message to its predecessor as it shows that while the names change, the fight against evil goes on. As Saloran Hardew says, this may be an unhappy chapter of history and it certainly seems that way by the end of this play as it seems the Daleks have triumphed but there is still a glimmer of hope...

If Dalek Empire III is not as successful as its predecessors, where did it go wrong? Its six part structure has proven extremely problematical as while Briggs' storyline is as solid as you would expect from him, it is too thinly spread which was particularly evident during chapters three through five when the narrative ground to a halt. One of the greatest features of the initial series was the pace of its storytelling in how each story would spiral the overall narrative off into a different place while Dalek War was much narrower in focus and allowed for deeper characterisation. Conversely Dalek Empire III attempts to be equally epic and deep and achieves neither. This is due to the plot being lost amidst the need to flesh out both the backstory as to how the Daleks came to this point from where we left them and the series' cumbersomely extended dramatis personae which meant that even with the extra chapters it would be difficult to use all of them in a meaningful way as they generated many different plot strands. With so many characters competing for attention it's also difficult to connect to them and it's no surprise that the best characters (Tarkov, Saxton and Kaymee) are those that are this series' most human.

With these needs causing instability in the balance between plot and character, Dalek Empire III is often unfocused and uneven and this is partially shown through the way Briggs builds characters up and then discards them, leaving their fates to be resolved hurriedly or (worse) not at all. Particularly strange is how one of the main credited, William Gaunt, barely features at all after The Survivors. And with so many questions left unanswered (why so many mysterious hints over Kaymee's background? Why did Suz's mind meld with Dalek rather than destroy it? What was Mietok's final decision? Was Elaria being truthful at the end? Have the Daleks really won?) it's difficult to escape the feeling that this whole story is merely a prelude to something else, yet to come. Ambiguity within fiction is beneficial in the long run as it makes the audience think harder and avoids the triteness of a work which ties all its loose ends together too tidily (such as the first Gallifrey series for instance) and you can feel that in relation to the important questions regarding the ending that the vagueness is deliberate, but in other areas these questions simply seem to have been overlooked.

Despite its failure to provide the storyline - if not the characters - with a sense of closure, The Future is a decent end to Dalek Empire III which began exceptionally well before loosing its way and never really recovering. Briggs is something of a victim of his own success as expectations for this series were inevitably higher than before, but his desire to push himself with a storyline with a broader scope meant that the best part of his writing, namely the plotting, was undermined. While this series has not succeeded so completely as its forerunners, its ambition remains worthwhile and many of the performances were commendable. Just as Dalek Empire II: Dalek War built on the superb original well, here is a platform for a fourth series to develop further should Briggs and Big Finish decide to produce it, but as a story in its own right, Dalek Empire III is a disappointment which is made even worse by the wasted potential of those first two chapters.

Previous Review

Next Review