Anti-Genesis: The Master's Dalek Plan

"Oh Davros, the things you could have achieved."

Writer: Alan Barnes

Format: Audio

Released: December 2019

Series: War Master 4.02

Featuring: War Master

Synopsis 

As the Master infiltrates the Kaled scientific elite, the Time Lords seek to encounter his interference. But while Narvin and President Livia try to stabilise the past, a new and horrifying future dawns in the wastelands of ancient Skaro.

Verdict 

The Master's Dalek Plan was another great episode to continue my way through the Anti-Genesis fourth series of the War Master’s adventures. After a spectacular opener in From the Flames, this continued brilliantly with the Master relishing his new life deep into the past of Skaro. That setting was terrific and really took me back to the I, Davros spin-off series which was strong continuity. I thought it was presented well and it was also great to reference The Elite which I didn’t see coming. It was logical though and it was just a nice meshing of early Dalek continuity. Of course, this was Skaro before the Daleks given the events altered by the Master to ensure Davros actually died in the bomb strike that crippled him in real time. So, without Davros you would think that the Master had achieved the end of the Time War with the Daleks erased before their existence. Except, in typical Master fashion he had his own play at hand. He would become the creator of the Daleks! I thought that was marvellous. Having the Master in the guise of Sarvod was terrific and a fine use of his love of disguise. The name was clever and I thought it was nice to mention the Kaled tradition of naming children backwards. The comical comment that the Daleks actually should be named as Delaks was a fine moment and it was amusing that it basically went unaddressed afterwards. I mean, it was a good point! I thought Lamarius was less good in this story as I was only interested in everything the Master was doing to be honest. I liked that hand mines were mentioned when it seemed like she would be captured as a slave as that really linked in well with The Magician’s Apprentice and more early Skaro continuity. Her reports weren’t too interesting and that’s probably because she was literally trapped and stuck with options. Arfor was not a favourite character of mine unfortunately as he just seemed a bit much and too easy to change his mind. He was a Muto and they have a lot of potential, but they weren’t utilised too well here. Having Lamarius captured was decent and it was fun to hear the Master reacting to her having a double binary system. That only seemed significant to him with that not being unusual for Mutos to have two of a number of body parts! Narvin and Livia didn’t feature much but when they did I really enjoyed the eeriness that came from multiple versions of Gallifrey and time literally moving and altering around them. Pondering on whether they would actually know if it was happening was terrific and the focal point of Mount Caden was very helpful. At one point it was gone completely but what I liked the most was the idea of it having a giant Dalek eyestalk implanted! The Master had his own fun with Dalek eyestalks and actually repairing vision on a Muto with one to ensure his hypnotic spell could be maintained was chilling. The Master pre-creating the Daleks was just brilliant and hearing them all cry out that the Master was their leader and they obeyed him was sensational. I love the play on words for the title of this story, and the episode does a good job with his Dalek plan. I’m very excited to hear where things go from here!   

Rating: 8/10