Audiobooks and audio dramas have never been my cup of tea really. I've always preferred the visual medium of TV, which is more immersive, or the medium of literature, which is more flexible (because you use your imagination to bring the story to life). I also dislike audiobooks and similar things because listening to them is an 'all-or-nothing' sort of activity; you either pay full attention to them, which means sitting still with your earphones in, or you multitask and focus on doing something else - which, of course, means you don't have your full attention on the story. As a result, though I was aware of Big Finish Productions, and the many many many stories they had produced, I didn't really feel a need to listen to any of them.
Mark, my friend and fellow Whovian, has been trying to get me into the Big Finish stories for a while. Several weeks ago I tried listening to the Mists of Time, a companion chronicle featuring Jo Grant, and I really couldn't get into it. It was confusing, and a bit dull to be honest. So I decided that Big Finish wasn't for me, and left it at that. Mark, though, was extremely persistent, and eventually he convinced me to try again. So I decided to have another go, and start off with the 'New Eighth Doctor Adventures', and series of stories about Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor and his new companion Lucie Miller. It was a case of second time lucky - I absolutely loved it this time round. Partly because of the much more engaging plot, and partly I think because it was an audio drama, instead of an audiobook - the fact that the story could only be told through this medium makes it much more appealing to me.
Anyway, I just yesterday finished the first series of the New Eighth Doctor Adventures, so I decided that for this blog post I would review the first story in the series, Blood of the Daleks. Quick plot summary: when the Doctor - along with mysterious TARDIS intruder Lucie Miller - lands on the ruined colony of Red Rocket Rising, he soon finds his oldest enemy at work.
Blood of the Daleks was an excellent start to the series, the audio equivalent to a page-turner novel that keeps you up until two in the morning. That, incidentally, is exactly what happened with this story for me. I started listening at around midnight, intending to just start the story off to see if it was worth continuing with. I ended up covering the entire story - which is a good 90 minutes long in total, spread over two parts - that same night. There's something about this episode that compels you to carry on listening, even when you know it's too late and you need to get some sleep (by the way, if you ever want to get into Big Finish stories, listening to them late at night when you should be sleeping is the best way to do it).
The portrayal of the titular Daleks is at least partially responsible for the success of this episode. The dilemma of Dalek stories is that pretty much everything that could be done with the Daleks has been done already. It's difficult to take them in a new direction; but instead of struggling against that, Blood of the Daleks revels in it. This story is drenched in archetypal Dalek tropes, from their facade of benevolence (as seen in Power of the Daleks and, more recently, Victory of the Daleks) to the utter hatred of impurity that defines them as villains. Recent Dalek stories in the TV series have touched upon the latter trope - for example, the lone solider in Dalek sacrificing himself because of his impurities, or the mutiny of the Cult of Skaro in Evolution of the Daleks - but none of them have really embraced the concept in the way that this story does. By using the tried and tested techniques previously established by forty-odd years of stories, Blood of the Daleks manages to return the Daleks to a glorious status that they haven't seen in a long time.
Another element of the story that works really well is the human-Daleks. While the mad scientist behind their creation, Professor Martez, falls a little flat, the creatures themselves are excellent counters to the main villains, the 'pure Daleks'. Because they are so similar to the pure Daleks, when the human-Daleks are destroyed because they are 'different' it really displays just how ignorant and small-minded the Daleks truly are. The idea that, if there were only two Daleks left in the entire universe, they would still fight amongst themselves because each one thought the other 'impure' is a fascinating concept, and one that this story goes quite a way into exploring. The Doctor's line about how the Daleks might be at war with themselves furthers this idea - the Daleks really are so obsessed with purity that, if they ever did take over the universe, they would probably just start fighting each other. And of course, I have to mention Dalek Fred (surely the forgotten fifth member of the Cult of Skaro), who is left to die on the Dalek battleship as it hurtles towards the laboratory, and willingly accepts his own death as it is in the name of Dalek victory. This lack of individuality within the Daleks is another facet of their species that has been lost a little in recent years.
But, as much as I've talked about the Daleks, they really are only one half of the story. The other half of the story is Lucie Miller, as this is her introduction both for the Eighth Doctor and for us, the listener. Lucie is a large part of why I enjoyed this story so much, as she really is a fantastic companion and a very suitable counterpart to the Eighth Doctor. One of the problems, I imagine, with audio dramas is making sure none of the actors have similar voices, as having two characters within a story who sound similar could lead to confusion. For example, in this story, I had a bit of difficulty in the early scenes distinguishing Asha and Klint, who both have fairly similar voices, albeit with different accents. By making Lucie a northerner, however, I think that Big Finish have cleverly killed two birds with one stone. Not only does it make Lucie easy to identify, even in very hectic scenes, with lots of characters and dialogue rushing around, but it also turns her into a perfect foil for Paul McGann's Doctor. Eight is a very sophisticated character, and Lucie's practicality and Northern bluntness means the chemistry between the two is nothing short of genius. Congratulations are in order for McGann and Sheridan Smith, who make an excellent team.
Another part of this episode that works well is the character of Tom Cardwell, another example of the 'distinctive voice = memorable character' thing I mentioned earlier. I always love a crazy conspiracy theorist who is proved right, and Cardwell slots right into that category - and, just like with the Doctor, he gets plenty of great banter with Lucie, which helps define both of their characters. It's a pity that some of the other characters aren't quite so interesting; Asha/Martez are both sadly very one-dimensional, falling right into the roll of a stereotypical mad scientist, and not really going anywhere from there. In any other story, there would probably have been a morality play, with characters siding either with Klint (These experiments are wrong) or Martez (These experiments are for the greater good). Unfortunately, as Martez was breeding Daleks, there's pretty much no ground for him to stand on, so the morality play is ignored, and the character is resultingly given very little to do.
Bits and Bobs
- At first I was thrown by the unusual planet name of Red Rocket Rising, but it very quickly grew on me. Why, in science fiction, are so few planets given names like this? I understand it when the planet is inhabited by aliens, but on a human colony planet, Red Rocket Rising actually makes much more sense as a name than, say, Susamachamoria, or some scifi technobabble like that.
- If you listen carefully to Klint's transmission at the end, when she is lauding the arrival of their saviours, you can just make out the name 'Telos' when she mentions the planet name. I don't know if it's just my love of black humour, but I found it hilarious that Red Rocket Rising had been through all that trouble only to be invaded by the Cybermen after the Doctor leaves.
Thanks for reading.
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