The Triumph of Davros

"A warrior race of your own creation."

Writer: Matt Fitton

Format: Audio

Released: October 2021

Series: Dalek Universe 3.03

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Anya

Synopsis

Returning to a familiar planet, with Movellan and Dalek warships floating in the sky above, the stakes for the time-travellers are higher than ever.

The mistakes of the Doctor's past are coming back to haunt him. Alliances are made and broken. And the course of the war is about to turn.

The Doctor can't stop what's coming. But maybe, just maybe... he may be able to save his friends.

Verdict

The Triumph of Davros was a fantastic story to conclude the third (and final) series of Dalek Universe! It's been quite the journey for the Tenth Doctor in a world before the Time War had happened, but this tied things up very nicely. Following on from the terrific cliffhanger at the end of The Dalek Defence, I liked the concept of Mark wanting Davros to work on weaponry that would destroy his own creations. Davros was surprisingly willingly to help, all part of his master scheme of course, and wanted the Doctor as his lab assistant which was an amusing dynamic! The Doctor recalling Destiny of the Daleks and how he and Davros had discovered the advantage over the Movellans already, but that was an advantage Davros didn't want to give away just yet. Having Anya separated alongside Keelan and with the Supreme Dalek was fantastic and the Doctor's latest comments about all of the Supremes was very fun. For me, the highlight was the interaction between the Doctor and Davros and I loved when the latter challenged the former over turning Mark Seven into a soldier and actually blamed the Time Lord for implementing the creation of the Movellans! It was a bold claim, but the suggestion of name corruption over time certainly made sense and it was audibly eating the Doctor up which Tennant played so well. I'm so glad the Tenth Doctor got the chance for more adventures with Davros. Speaking of challenging, the Doctor trying to challenge Mark to remember his true self and unlock the memories within was great. Anya's presence helped with that as she was familiar and that sparked something in Seven. Davros was shining here and him revelling in the knowledge, without specifics, that the Daleks would cause the Doctor anguish in the future was brilliant, as was the preposterous nature of his proposal to Mark of orchestrating a Dalek-Movellan alliance to wipe out humanity! The Kembel faction of Daleks was a lot of fun and I loved the idea of them recovering lost temporal knowledge. The Doctor's recollection of The Chase and getting Ian and Barbara home with the Dalek time machine was magnificent. He was still shocked! This provided some impetus in the Doctor's mind as a Dalek time machine was his way back to the other side of the Time War. Davros hooking himself up to the Dalek pathweb was excellent and him ordering a ceasefire with the Movellans just felt wrong. The continuation of Dalek hierarchical issues for Davros was great with the Supreme Dalek only answering to the Emperor. He planned to attack the Prime ship despite the ceasefire and then exterminate Davros! Dalek dissension in the ranks is always fun. Mark supposedly being the ultimate weapon against the Daleks made sense and I liked how he was the seed and template used for the war machine-like Movellans. Davros sealing the deal with a handshake to Mark and release chaos and corruption into him and therefore the entire race was sublime and the maniacal laugh of the Dalek creator was a joy to behold. The Doctor wasn't having it though with a marvellous reemergence and ensured the chaos seed was going nowhere and that the ship would soon be in danger. Mark was troubled which was sad to hear with all of his directives focused on killing the Daleks as he was forced to watch from within after reconstruction, but after everything that happened in The Trojan Dalek, it was nice for the Doctor to get to say goodbye. It was nice for things to come full circle with the Doctor wanting Anya to come with him in the Dalek time capsule, but with the frailty of it alongside with the presence of the Supreme Dalek, Anya sacrificed herself to allow the Doctor to escape back to his own time. The mark of a magnificent companion! I do hope that with how things ended here with her being alive and Mark wanting to attack the Kaled organic component of the Daleks' makeup, that there is more life in the Dalek Universe yet. Overall, a fantastic end! 

Rating: 9/10