Restoration of the Daleks

"It's like they were never gone."

Writer: Matt Fitton

Format: Audio

Released: September 2020

Series: The Eighth Doctor: Time War 4.03

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Bliss

Synopsis

The Dalek Time Strategist restores the Dalek armies to the universe but wants to dispense with Davros.

Verdict

Restoration of the Daleks was a great episode to conclude the fourth Time War volume of Eighth Doctor Adventures! I'm not really sure why but I did expect this to have more of a finality in its feel, but I think that really was kind of impossible. We know the Time War goes on for quite some time yet and we don't even have the Doctor in his War incarnation yet, and here we are having the Daleks restored to the universe after the Valeyard had already ended the Time War and wiped out the Daleks from memory. The scale of this conflict really is stretched and I'm loving what Big Finish are doing in filling in that gap between The Movie and Rose. There's so much life in the Eighth Doctor and whilst this would take us somewhere close to the end of his incarnation, it's nice to know that at this point he remains committed to not entering the frontline of the Time War. He doesn't want any part despite doing what he can to help the Time Lords. Of course, Bliss was against him not helping as that's literally what he told him he does where he can so when the people of Cosca needed him, he didn't take too much convincing from his companion. I thought the dynamic between Bliss and Rasmus in particular was intriguing and whilst I'm not sure how Bliss will end her story, it's good to know that she has a place on Gallifrey. I did like that she felt her place was alongside the Doctor for now though. Davros being the link that the Dalek Time Strategist was drawing upon to restore the Daleks to the universe was good and I loved that we got some more Dalek civil war. In tapping into the multiverse, the advantage the Daleks had on the battleground was paramount as the number of casualties they were suffering simply didn't matter. More and more versions continued to come. Whilst I'm usually a huge fan of the interaction between the Doctor and Davros, it was actually the former's conversation with the Dalek Time Strategist that I found most intriguing in this episode. The prospect of the Strategist being scared of killing the Doctor because of his position in their future history was excellent and we got some incredible namedropping of the likes of the Cult of Skaro, Dalek Caan and even the New Dalek Paradigm! That's some future. The Strategist foreseeing the fall of Gallifrey was not something the Doctor was happy with as you might expect, but he couldn't deny that he was entwined with the Daleks. They were a necessary evil. I thought the restoration of the Dalek Emperor was fantastic and I wonder if that was intended as a way to explain his presence in The Parting of the Ways following on from the Time War. I found the dynamic between Davros and the Emperor fascinating and the creator of the Daleks being labelled as false seemed odd because he literally did conjure them into existence, and his position in this episode of extracting the Dalek in every species was something I'd have liked more time spent on. That was a brilliant concept. Bickering between different sets of Daleks basically causing their downfall here was interesting and did work, but it just felt slightly quick after a lengthy buildup and story arc. I feel like this boxset could have done with an additional episode to really flesh things out, but what we got was still really great. The Dcotor being enticed with his own family connection in the form of his great-grandson Alex was excellent and completely unexpected, but a fine addition. The impact of To the Death on this incarnation of the Doctor will never be forgotten so to have it come into play here was really well done. I thought Davros at the end after being thwarted was maniacal as ever and his laugh of almost relief and joy at being kept alive and needed by his children was eery and just fantastic. Overall, a really strong finale to what has been an incredible run of Time War adventures! And we're far from over.

Rating: 8/10