Doctor Who - We Are The Daleks (2015) - Audio Review

Starring: Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, Mary Conlon & Nicholas Briggs

Written By: Jonathan Morris

Directed By: Ken Bentley

The year is 1987, and Britain is divided. In Bradford, strikers are picketing and clashing with the police. In the City of London, stockbrokers are drinking champagne and politicians are courting the super-rich. The mysterious media mogul, Alek Zenos, head of the Zenos Corporation, is offering Britain an economic miracle. His partners wish to invest - and their terms are too good to refuse. While the Doctor investigates Warfleet, a new computer game craze that is sweeping the nation, Mel goes undercover to find out the truth about Zenos's partners. The Daleks have a new paradigm. They intend to conquer the universe using economic power. The power of the free market! 

'We Are The Daleks' hooks you in very quickly with a pre-title sequence that keeps thing short and to the point. As the TARDIS arrives in 1987, the Doctor and Mel step out to find a skyscraper in the middle of London shaped like a Dalek. In barely any time, you have a simple opening that's established a setting, date and invoked some fantastic imagery. I love it. A story which takes place in a contemporary setting like this is the kind of thing I feel was missing from Season 24 (among many other things). For the record, I'll openly admit that although it has its fans, I'm really not a fan of Season 24, to the extent that I'd probably call it 'Doctor Who's low-point in the 50+ years it's been around. While Season 24 saw the weaknesses of the John Nathan Turner era at their most extreme (the obsession with casting light entertainment starts, pantomime antics, and a new Doctor behaving like a bumbling clown), 'We Are The Daleks' is significantly meatier, making use of the ripe political commentary of the time.

And make no mistake, 'We Are The Daleks' is very politically charged. You have Celia Dunthorpe, a character that rivals Helen A from 'The Happiness Patrol' as a Margaret Thatcher double. Set her among striking workers and Britain's economic woes, and this is a story that feels more akin to something from Season 25 or 26. Celia is a wonderfully despicable character, and her final moments in the story could've easily come across as silly, but instead feel very fitting. I've got to give credit to 'We Are The Daleks' for having the guts to touch upon some potentially very uncomfortable but important political realities. One of my favourite lines in here comes from Celia: "People don't care. They don't care if their petrol is provided by an oppressive regime, or if their oranges are grown in a country with apartheid. They just want to be able to get on with their lives." It's not a particularly comfortable truth to face up to, but the character raises an important point here. To different extents, I think we all find ourselves becoming desensitized to the oppression that surrounds us, so long as we don't have to face it too. 

Something else this audio gets right is the pairing of the Doctor and Mel. Reunited again with the 7th Doctor, Big Finish continues its good work of making Mel a damn sight better on audio. She's no longer the unbearable scream queen we saw during her brief time on the show. Instead, her established history as a computer programmer gets put to use for once, and for quite some time, Mel is off on her own, helping to advance the plot without the aid of the Doctor. The Doctor meanwhile has his feathers ruffled once he learns that the Daleks are on the scene. Sylvester McCoy adds a snarky element to the Doctor - he's quick to snap and not entirely patient, which is entirely justified given the presence of the Daleks. 

As for the famous pepper pots, I'm happy to say that they too are on form here. I love the image of them acting like waiters around a fancy high-rise party, offering out glasses of champagne. Hearing them ask things such as "Would you like some vol a vaunts?" or "Would you like a prawn cocktail?" also feels like a nice homage to stories like Power and Victory Of The Daleks. You'd think having been around for more than fifty years, and having made dozens of appearances both on TV and audio, they'd have run out of ways to do something new with the Daleks. Well not if this story has anything to do with it. While their real plans are convoluted in the typical Dalek way, I doubt you'll have seen them trying to conquer through financial means before, and certainly not in this much detail anyway. 

(Skip ahead to the next paragraph now to avoid spoilers!) As the story progresses, the action splits between being set in London, and on Skaro, where even the Dalek Emperor puts in an appearance. While I'm never opposed to returning to Skaro, unfortunately its introduction brings with it plenty of this story's weakest aspects. Most notable is the Thals. Try as they might, the Thals seem to be inherently dull and the least interesting part of every story they're in, and this story is no exception. They can't begin to even have a hope of matching the interest or appeal of their Dalek counterparts, and there's nothing for them to do here besides fulfil their role as oppressed victims of the Daleks. Once we get to Skaro, we also have the revelation that the Daleks are also behind the Warfleet video game. It's a way for the Daleks to use humans, human children especially, to programme their battle computers, and what's happening on screen is actually real. It's a nice tie-in to 'Remembrance Of The Daleks', and a quirky idea. However, the idea of "Is what's happening in the game actually happening?" does feel a bit too familiar in my experience. Especially since when I first listened to 'We Are The Daleks', I'd recently finished reading Jacqueline Rayner's novel 'Winner Takes All', which deals with more or less the exact same idea. 

But while it isn't perfect and can stumble a little when it gets a bit too ambitious, 'We Are The Daleks' is still a really fun, creative listen. With great characterization and a willingness to deal with current political affairs, this story is almost a template for what Sylvester McCoy's first season should've been doing. Great concepts and hugely entertaining at the same time, Jonathan Morris continues to prove that he's one of the best writers to currently be associated with 'Doctor Who'.

We Are The Daleks

8/10