Brotherhood of the Daleks

"This is Spiridon, not a walk in the Petrified Forest."

Writer: Alan Barnes

Format: Audio

Released: October 2008

Series: Main Range 114

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Charley

Synopsis

The TARDIS makes a return trip to the jungle planet of Spiridon, when the Sixth Doctor and Charley fall in with a lost platoon of shellshocked Thal soldiers – victims of a sneak attack by their blood enemies, the Daleks.

Besieged by deadly flora, surrounded by invisible monsters, and with all hope of rescue gone, the Thals are the victims of a grim experiment in psychological warfare.

With the very nature of reality under threat, the Doctor and Charley need each other more than ever. But dark forces are conspiring to tear them apart...

Verdict

Brotherhood of the Daleks was a very good audio adventure to continue my slightly sporadic listening of Big Finish's Main Range! I am very keen for as many stories as possible with the Sixth Doctor and Charley given what's going on between the pair and this developed things nicely. The Doctor is obviously no idiot and he knows that Charley isn't all she seems whilst she is desperately trying to avoid giving the truth away. She's not doing too great of a job to be honest and it's really impacting her character which is very good to listen to. She's not quite the loving and selfless Charley Pollard of her travels with the Eighth Doctor and is instead looking out for herself and trying to maintain her secret. That was so evident in this adventure. I loved the prospect of a return to Spiridon and whilst that didn't quite turn out to be the case, I appreciated the references and the Doctor's reaction to thinking where he was. This was a very unique audio, firstly in that it was split into five part instead of the usual four, but also because it did something completely different with the Daleks which I thought was incredibly intriguing. The Daleks didn't really come into the story with their true intentions and appearing on mass until part four which is very late in the day! I usually don't expect them to pop up until at least the end of part one, but they were very late to the party this time around and that was absolutely fine because there was a lot going on elsewhere. The whole experiment within an experiment is never something I'm usually a big fan of, but the whole thing being a Dalek facility in order to harness the comradeship of Thals on the battlefield was excellent. I enjoyed the thought of the Daleks wanting to be a little more like their mortal enemies. Things did get a tad confusing in parts with everything that was going on and I felt that the replication was probably overdone. Nyaiad dying on countless occasions actually got a little boring to be honest despite the emotion attached with each one. I really enjoyed the sound of the Thaleks, a name I physically laughed out loud at when Charley dubbed it because it's just outrageous, as they were so different to the traditional Daleks. I thought the cliffhanger at the end of part three worked well with the delivery of Charley claiming to be a Dalek replicant of the future. It would have explained a lot, but to put it as a cliffhanger when us listeners already know that isn't true was a bit questionable in my estimation. It was a nice effort on her part though. I do wonder how long she will be able to keep up her facade though as every time she revealed knowledge of something she shouldn't have, the Doctor was there to pounce. I thought it was really good that it was actually her that was being remembered from the events of Terror Firma. Some nice continuity there. The use of a consciousness loop seems incredibly harsh but fresh and I also really liked the prospect of the Daleks pollinating a planet with their ideas. The reference to the Robomen and the Mechanoid Wars was really good, but I thought the ending could have been improved. Part five seemed a bit rushed with the Doctor arriving in similar fashion to what we heard in part one with Jesic. He didn't even solve things! That was left to an emotional outburst with Murgat not wanting the word spoken about. That word was exterminate and the concept of that bonding the Daleks in brotherhood was outstanding. That should have been the focus all along. Overall though, a really good audio adventure!

Rating: 8/10