We Are The Daleks

"The Daleks offer a future of prosperity."

Writer: Jonathan Morris

Format: Audio

Released: July 2015

Series: Monthly Adventures 201

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Mel

Synopsis

The year is 1987, and Britain is divided. In Bradford, strikers are picketing and clashing with the police. In the City of London, stockbrokers are drinking champagne and politicians are courting the super-rich. The mysterious media mogul Alek Zenos, head of the Zenos Corporation, is offering Britain an economic miracle. His partners wish to invest – and their terms are too good to refuse.

While the Doctor investigates Warfleet, a new computer game craze that is sweeping the nation, Mel goes undercover to find out the truth about Zenos's partners.

The Daleks have a new paradigm. They intend to conquer the universe using economic power. The power of the free market! 

Verdict

We Are The Daleks was an excellent audio to continue my way through the Monthly Adventures! I’m in the home stretch now with just seventy-four audios to go to complete the range and whilst this will still take me a few years yet, it feels personally significant to be past the 200-mark. And what a way to celebrate it! This was just excellent from start to finish and went so close to full marks for me. I don’t do decimal places but if I did I’d round up so this would fall ever so short at a 9.49. I just loved it. I thought the 1987 setting was brilliant and whilst it wasn’t too long ago, it’s good to get a contemporary historical. Is that possible? It’s quite fun to go one year into Mel’s future but she was quick to point out how things were vastly different for only a year. I mean, having a pre-titles with a Dalek shaped tower in the middle of central London in the 1980s is superb! My interest was there right from the off. In another world I think this story could have been called Economics of the Daleks because this was the Daleks in a way we’ve never had them before. Kudos for doing something unique with them and the idea of a Dalek investment is just sensational! The Doctor is quick to point out that this is far from usual behaviour and that’s why it worked for me. It was groundbreaking. I thought the use of the Warfleet video game was impressive and the concept of the players being linked through modems was magnificent. It’s crazy to think how much we take for granted now with gaming in 2025 and how connected we are with the globe, but that was far from the case in 1987! I was right on the last batch of computer users where a phone line was required and the concept just seems alien now, so to incorporate this into a Doctor Who story was delightful. The revelation that the game was actually a direct interface for Dalek drones wasn’t much of a surprise but it still made for a very strong moment. Just because it was predictable didn’t mean it was bad. It’s a marvellous concept. I liked the use of a time corridor to Skaro and going from Earth to the Dalek home world was excellent. I didn’t anticipate the story to feature Thals and the Dalek Emperor but I was absolutely all for it! The Doctor still having something of a legendary status amongst the Thal race was a nice touch and I was really intrigued by Skaro history to find that the planet was basically rid of Thals now except for a few slaves. The Daleks initially not recognising the Seventh Doctor as their arch nemesis was terrific and fine continuity to establish this as this incarnation’s first chronological encounter with his oldest enemies. The strong continuity didn’t stop there though as we were very much setting up for Remembrance of the Daleks with the concept of human children being better than battle computers. They were too logical whereas the children had an instinct for war. I loved that. I thought the use of Mel in the audio was impressive and it was great to utilise her computer skills as she wasted no time getting into the coding. The cliffhanger where she was used as bait by the Daleks and on the verge of extermination by her own kind via the game was just brilliant. It put a massive smile on my face. The title of the story coming into play with the Dalek tower acting as a beacon to make everyone think like a Dalek. The UK being the favoured nation was a fun concept and I loved the subtle mention of the EU as a reason to choose the country with this release coming in 2015. Alek Zenos as an agent from within was a nice twist but his extermination came a little earlier than I anticipated! Celia Dunthorpe as the Member of Parliament was good fun and the way she was mopping up the Dalek mess at the end of the story and suggesting she became their Prime Minister was phenomenal. Talk about a link to Asylum of the Daleks! I loved it. With the Daleks being on the verge of making the UK population like them, the Doctor reminded them exactly of who they were. The reference to The Evil of the Daleks with the use of the human factor and now the Doctor using the Dalek factor with the tower field to remind them of exactly what they were was marvellous. There would be no more Dalek society and they all thought as individuals again. Dalek individuals consumed by hate, so much so that they were spontaneously combusting. That was a fitting finale. Overall, quite the story! A very unique and excellent use of the Daleks. 

Rating: 9/10