The Doctor and Charley encounter the Daleks but are surprised to discover that they are Shakespeare’s biggest fans.
The Doctor and Charley encounter the Daleks but are surprised to discover that they are Shakespeare’s biggest fans.
THE TIME OF THE DALEKS
Though I do acknowledge the works of William Shakespeare as some of the greatest dramatic compositions of human history, I must admit to being more than a little annoyed by students of the Bard. Let’s be fair — you can’t talk to an amateur drama student for more than five minutes before hearing something about the latest Shakespeare project in which they’re involved, and they’re often terrible at whatever it is they’re supposed to be doing. As such, mindless Shakespeare adoration really gets on my nerves, but Justin Richards’ The Time of the Daleks is so wonderfully over the top about the whole thing that it kept a grin on my face throughout, even considering some of the play’s more obvious flaws.
Starting from the idea “The Daleks quoting Shakespeare!” and writing a play from there is a recipe for disaster, as the author will generally come up with a ridiculously contrived reason for this happening. The Time of the Daleks is no different — there’s really no reason for Shakespeare to be involved with this play at all other than to give motivation to one of the villains. This motivation is just silly — she wants to erase Shakespeare from history because nobody can appreciate him? Huh? However, the inclusion of Shakespeare does allow for Daleks yelling things like “Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war” which is both funny and disturbing. Richards said he wanted to disconcert his audience and in this respect he proves a smashing success.
However, the script falls down in the details. Richards gives an excellent homage to Dalek stories of the past — the echoes to The Evil of the Daleks are wonderful — but unfortunately when he needs to join the set pieces together, he can’t come up with a better means than endless technobabble. The opening of the play is unsatisfying because it’s impossible to understand what the Daleks are doing, and the constant discussions of the mechanics behind the mirror/clock time-travel device are simply boring. The successful plot elements probably could have been joined together in a much more realistic setting, lending the script a “first draft” feel — but despite this it’s still very entertaining.
Paul McGann is again unusual here, but I’d put that down to the author rather than the actor. Richards writes a Doctor very similar to the pre-amnesia EDA Doctor: breathless, enthusiastic, energetic, and petulant. I hasten to point out that this is not bad, it is just disconcerting after the previous eight McGann plays. McGann himself is hilarious at times, especially with his “It wasn’t actually locked, you know” response to a Dalek shooting its way into a room.
India Fisher continues to impress in her second season, as yet again she is able to demonstrate her character’s strengths without becoming offensive to the ears. She is properly horrified by the Daleks’ behavior, yet still allows her natural sarcasm to come to the fore when threatened with extermination at the conclusion. She also possesses a wonderful chemistry with McGann, demonstrated at the play’s final scene, which also lays the groundwork for the epic conclusion to follow.
The supporting cast for this story is huge, with only Dot Smith really standing apart from the pack as General Learman. Her performance is excellent — at the start of the play, she comes across as an intelligent, benevolent dictator, and by the conclusion she’s obviously completely insane, but her performance does not change: the listener learns by her actions. On the flip side, Nicola Boyce is somewhat weak as Viola, as her lines just sound forced.
Along with his directing duties, Nicholas Briggs also provides the score for The Time of the Daleks, and it is excellent — it echoes both The Evil of the Daleks and Briggs’ own Dalek plays, and by the end there is a unique but very recognizable “Dalek theme” which proves quite intimidating. Ian Potter provides his first sound design work for the range, which is solid; in The Inside Story he describes his process of creating the mirror effects, and while listening to the play I noted how impressive those effects were. Briggs’ direction is solid if unspectacular.
The Time of the Daleks is not without its weaknesses, and I suspect the perspective of the listener will determine their opinion of the play. Approached as a serious exploration of the consequences of unrestricted time travel and intrusions into the past, the play fails, but approached as an enjoyable romp with homages to the past, it succeeds. Worth purchasing, but still a step down from the first four plays of the season — still, since it’s average rather than poor, it illustrates the leap forward in quality of this season over the first.
5/10