M040 - Jubilee

We open with a trailer for an upcoming film starring The Doctor vs the Daleks, which begins normal enough until the Doctor is blowing up Daleks left and right and their mechanical voices are shouting, "Scamper! Scamper!" Then, when the announcer tells you that your mandatory ticket will be sent to you, we know we aren't on Earth as we know it.

The TARDIS is shifting in and out of two locations and the Doctor and Evelyn get out just before it disappears. They seem to be in central London, 2003, but in this world victory against a Dalek invasion a century before has led to the modern rule of the tyrannical President of Britain. Contractions are illegal and the Daleks have become a cartoonish villain used to sell anything from baby powder to power tools, but locked in the tower of London is something truly frightening.

The Daleks have, in my opinion, lost some of their power. They are often portrayed like the Nazis in an Indiana Jones film, pure evil without much else. But in this story they recover their complex villainy. A Dalek that has been held captive and tortured must face something no Dalek ever faces: making a decision for itself.

This play managed to swing between manic satire and thrilling suspense on a level closer to Torchwood than to Doctor Who, with a body count to match. It brings up some challenging philosophy and some interesting sci-fi all at the same time.

M032 - The Time of the Daleks

As usual there is something extra about the 8th Doctor plays. Likely because McGann's Doctor has a majority of his life told through the radio, he seems especially well fit to any story he is given. This one, the fourth in the "Dalek Empire" storyline, pushes the bounds of believability for the time travel technology involved (clocks and mirrors becoming stargate portals), but keeps the tension and doesn't collapse under its paradox weight. The fact that the time travel plot to control Earth is linked to Shakespeare seems like a weak connection at first, but it comes full circle in the end. Even if the solution doesn't hide itself very well.

EDA101-102 - Blood of the Daleks, Parts 1 and 2

Paul McGann, having proven the 8th Doctor's popularity in the monthly releases, headlines an independent series, The Eighth Doctor Adventures, which finally offer a glimpse of what could have been, had the US spinoff occurred. But it's a good thing it didn't because the stories offered through the four seasons of EDA often go beyond the capabilities of 90s US television.

The premier episodes introduce a new companion, Lucie Miller, an obstinant 19-year-old from Northern England who appears mysteriously in the TARDIS much like Donna Noble had in the TV series a few months before. When the Doctor tries to return her to 2006 England, the TARDIS bounces off a temporal shield and they find themselves on a wasteland planet called Red Rocket Rising. The Doctor and Lucie come to a reluctant alliance as they deal with corrupt scientists a newly-created race of Daleks. But when the real Daleks arrive, they want to wipe the "impure" Daleks out of existence and the remaining inhabitants of Red Rocket Rising with them.

As Doctor Who tales go, this one is well written and carries a good pace, and the Daleks are always a plus, but compared to the rest of the EDA, Blood of the Daleks is simply a solid, but mid-range tale. The best episodes are yet to come...

M015 - The Mutant Phase

The Fifth Doctor battles the Daleks in a timey-wimey tale that nearly collapses under the weight of all the paradoxes and attempts to explain said paradoxes.

The Daleks are being killed off by a random mutation, which turns them into impure, mindless monsters. With a clever trap to stop the Doctor leaving a certain time, they draw him down to future Earth where two dozen Daleks are some of the only life left. Now faced with the destruction of the Daleks or a paradox that would destroy the universe, the Doctor has to save his mortal enemies.

Nicholas Briggs manages to pull off the more complex time travel plots quite well, and this is a mid-range example. The story is sometimes too complex for its own good, some of the supporting characters are bland, and the problem of differentiating Daleks on the radio remains, but overall the Big Finish team pull off a successful story; albeit one that felt an episode too long at just over two hours.