Victory of the Daleks: Daleks Victorious

"The Daleks aren't going to take our future."

Writer: Felicia Barker

Format: Audio

Released: February 2024

Series: Eleventh Doctor Chronicles 6.02

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Valarie 

Synopsis 

Everything dies when the Daleks arrive. Friends, loved ones, even hope itself. As the people of Medruth are about to discover, nothing can stand in their way. After all, the Daleks have won the Last Great Time War. Right?

Verdict

Daleks Victorious was a great story to continue my way through the Victory of the Doctor sixth series of Eleventh Doctor Chronicles! This really followed up nicely with where things were left in the previous series on Medruth seeing Valarie reunited with her girlfriend Roanna and her alternate timeline husband Hayden. It's quite amazing that these two characters get on so well given their completely different relationship with Valarie, and how she only has love for Roanna. For Hayden that must be incredibly difficult to accept considering he led a life with her as his wife, but she has no memory of that. Of course, after a lengthy and teasing build this episode sees the full triumphant return of the New Paradigm Daleks. They didn't get a chance on television and I think in the audio format they can actually flourish. Let's not sugarcoat it, the change of design in Victory of the Daleks wasn't the best move as they did just look a bit clunky and too big. The colours weren't exactly intimidating either, but exploring more about each colour's role was good stuff. The Doctor's comments about the orange one and his likening to orange always being different was really fun. I thought the conversation with the Eternal in particular was brilliant and I loved how eery and enigmatic he sounded. I got real Dalek Caan vibes and I loved the Doctor likening him to a Dalek historian. I think it's fun for the Doctor to have removed himself from the Dalek Pathweb, but fully exploring why that wasn't a good idea worked very well for the basis of the story. Removing the fear of the Doctor from the Daleks meant they were essentially unstoppable. They feared the thought of not being the superior beings, so when the Doctor emerged as a Time Lord it meant they hadn't quite won the Last Great Time War after all. Or had they won it in the first place? That was really fun to explore, especially when they considered some previous unaccounted for defeats going back to the likes of Spiridon, Kembel and Exxilon. That was fun and so the Doctor's presence and existence might have been the answer. The Supreme getting in touch with the Dalek Prime Minister was very good and I loved the exploration of different types. One highlight that adorns the artwork is the modern take on the Special Weapons Dalek! That was brilliant and painted quite the image. I liked the build towards the Daleks trying to assert their dominance and the link with the Yearn was really interesting. I wasn't wholly sold on that link with the Dalek Pathweb but it was good for him to infiltrate it and listen in. The drama of it becoming whole was a good way to take out most of the Daleks but for whatever reason something just felt a little off there, not in a bad way but not enough to go past the current rating. The sacrifice of Hoster was really emotional as the battle for Medruth really took its toll. Roanna's reaction was understandably a sad one and it just seems that every time the Doctor gets involved in someone in Valarie's life, something terrible happens. It's the bloody Daleks again and hearing the Doctor pondering on having to become a warrior again was powerful stuff. Valarie's in danger and destined for death and the Daleks are causing pain. It's a tantalising set up for the next episode to come! Overall, a really strong story that rounded out a lot of continuity from these Chronicles whilst setting us up very nicely for the final two episodes. I'm very excited and now a little bit cautious! 

Rating: 8/10