In the Galactic Census, idyllic Strellin is recorded as a Grade Three planet – its inhabitants possessing neither advanced technology, nor knowledge of other worlds. Accordingly, Strellin is protected: landings by off-worlders are strictly prohibited. Unless, of course, those off-worlders are officials of the Galactic Census itself, come to investigate the origin of a mysterious sub-space signal – a signal no native of Strellin should be able to send…
Breaking all local by-laws, the time-travelling Doctor and his companion Wren Mrs Constance Clarke (AWOL) have only just landed on Strellin, too. But they and the Census officials aren’t the only off-worlders to have come here. Inside a nearby monastery, the monks of the reclusive Brotherhood of the Black Petal are guarding a strange and terrible secret. Something that might bring disaster not just to Strellin, but to every civilised world in the galaxy!
ORDER OF THE DALEKS
I’m starting to think we’re simply running out of Doctor Who stories to tell. The latest installment in the increasingly pointless monthly range, “Order of the Daleks” comes from Mike Tucker, which should have been my first warning. It manages to be composed entirely of clichés, doing absolutely nothing interesting or compelling for its entire two-hour running time. I grew up watching Doctor Who. I love Doctor Who. But I’ve never found myself so consistently checking my watch during Doctor Who stories than I have over the past few years of Big Finish releases. What is going on here?
There isn’t a single element of “Order of the Daleks” that even a casual Doctor Who fan hasn’t seen before. A small, damaged group of Daleks infiltrates the local society where they crash-landed in order to rebuild themselves? How many times have we done that? Not as many times as we’ve had stories with “Dalek” in the title close the first episode with the stunning revelation that the Daleks are involved, and that horrible cliché is here too! Gee, I wonder who this mysterious alien race, hidden in the monastery, could be? I’m sure the first cliffhanger will shock the hell out of me with that revelation! Oh, the Daleks are possessing people? Cue at least one scene of the Doctor urging someone to break their possession by yelling “Fight it!” and so forth at them. Lots of running around being captured and recaptured? But of course. An officious bureaucrat who is there largely to irritate the Doctor? The bureaucrat’s lackey, who turns out to be the smarter of the two? Naturally! How about a needless, heroic sacrifice of a guest character to save the Doctor or his companion? How about more than one! I don’t think I need to continue.
I don’t normally talk about this, but as I have almost nothing to say about this comically unimaginative Doctor Who story, I’ll jump in: the review copy on the “Order of the Daleks” product page boggles my mind. Look, I understand that for many people, all they want out of a Doctor Who audio is a bit of nostalgia to fire their memories. And that’s fine – it’s not what I look for in a piece of drama, but people can like what they want. And there’s nothing particularly wrong with “Order of the Daleks” – there is literally nothing fresh or imaginative about it, but it’s put together well enough and the cast give enthusiastic performances. I’ll be awarding an average score at the end, in fact, for whatever that’s worth. But I cannot understand glowing, over-the-top praise of a story like this. I suppose it’s fitting that one of the quotes pulled says that the story “ticks all the boxes” – to me, an exercise in box-ticking is not worth a high score, but as that appears to be the entire raison d’être of the monthly range right now, I see why it was offered and accepted as a compliment.
I like Constance Clarke, at any rate – she’s a strong, self-reliant female character from an era that could easily have turned her into a cliché. I’d never describe her as one of my favorites, because we simply haven’t learned enough about her, but she’s an entertaining listen. It’s a shame, then, that she’s almost entirely wasted on this story. Tucker gives her a couple of moments that seem great, as she devises plans to help save the day. The problem is that these plans fail and make the situation worse in the process, so she ends up looking useless instead of ingenious. And this isn’t some sort of smart commentary on the role of the companion; it’s just bad characterization.
While the guest cast turns in good performances across the board, “Order of the Daleks” comes across like the money ran out. Robbie Stevens, Sam Fletcher, and Nicholas Briggs all play multiple roles and it’s quite obvious that they’re doing so. There are also a number of scenes in which characters listen in on things happening at a distance, and this is communicated either by turning down the levels or muffling the dialogue. This is, needless to say, incomprehensible, and I’m not sure if the decision was down to director Jamie Anderson or sound designer Robert Harvey, but it was a mistake. Apart from that, the story is paced quite well, something Anderson achieves in spite of the script, and the sound effects, as well as the score from Jamie Robertson, are quite effective.
Overall, what more is there to say about “Order of the Daleks?” It’s a giant pile of clichés from start to finish. If you’re looking for a warm glow of nostalgia to wash over you, I suppose this story will do that as well as any other. If you want anything other than that, look somewhere else. But that’s the monthly range for you: a vast, empty, uninspiring gray sea, occasionally spoiled by something interesting.
Mediocre.
5/10