Bret Vyon Lives!: The Wages of Death

"Your use to us has expired."

Writer: David Llewellyn

Format: Audio

Released: July 2026

Series: Space Security Service 2.02

Featuring: Anya, Mark

Synopsis

Furiosa 237 is a remote world in the hinterlands of the galaxy. Anya and Mark teleport in and quickly take jobs on a cargo ship. They're undercover – on an urgent, secret mission. 

Their task is to locate a device called a Progenitor, then drop it into the nearest black hole – and quickly, before it can hatch.

But at least one person on board is determined to save the Progenitor and unleash its deadly contents: a whole army of Daleks.

Verdict

The Wages of Death was a good episode to continue my way through the Bret Vyon Lives! second series of Space Security Service. This was a pretty solid story and was very much par for the course in terms of standard quality, but I worry that this particular boxset has started with the main event. The appeal of Bret Vyon returning is obvious given his importance in The Daleks' Master Plan and the familial connection he would have hear to Anya, but now that seems to all be over in The Man Inside and unless anything happens in the finale, Bret's story seems to be over. I suspect that will be the case given the finality of the previous episode. I think we need more of the Daleks and whilst they did feature well here, it was more their potential infiltration. I think we need an all out battle between the SSS and the Daleks, especially in the finale! I suspect there won't be a third series of this particular spinoff so I do hope it goes out with a bang. I really like the pairing of Anya and Mark Seven and they worked well together again here. It was good that Anya was suspicious of the Mark duplicate almost right from the off and with him being an android I imagine that wasn't so easy to detect. I thought the pair trying to blend in on the mission was amusing because they were very far from being believable in their descriptions of their past jobs and just their lives up to this point. I always enjoy stories that play around with black holes because the science behind them is so incomprehensibly fascinating. I love it. It's difficult to wrap your head around the potential and the giant pull that they have. What would be on the other side, if anything? It's fun to ponder on. The Dalek Progenitor as the cargo that was to be deposited within the black hole was really good and I like how the story was utilising elements we are familiar with from on screen episodes. It ties in continuity very nicely and also blends eras. I liked that a lot and it certainly makes sense why they would want to throw it into a black hole when it contained everything possible to create new Daleks! The mystery of who the Daleks' man on the inside was worked well, especially with such a small cast because that left only a couple of options. Ballad initially being thought of in that position because he was the medical officer and the codes to thwart the technology could only be used by someone in his position seemed to explain everything. So the dark twist of Mark Seven was handled very well and for a moment it seemed he was in the thrall of the Daleks once again. That's always a fun story to tell. Of course, the teleport was actually intercepted for the true article. Melville was a strong character as the other one that could potentially be the wrongdoer and I was impressed with the assembled crew of the ship. I just think the story was missing a little something to push it to the next level. The characters were great and I enjoyed the plot and setting for the most part, but I think it needed a bit of action and impact. Dmitry being killed by the Dalek self destructing may have happened a little too early in the episode as I'm not sure we ever got back to those heights which was a shame. Still, Anya being on hand to send the fake Mark packing was great and I liked that the SSS were able to complete their mission. Overall, a good listen! 

Rating: 7/10