The year is 2163. Ten years since the Daleks invaded the Earth. One year until the Doctor, in his first incarnation, will help bring the occupation to an end. But for now, their reign of terror goes on.
The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Peri to Scotland – enslaved, like everywhere else on the planet. But there are rumours of Dalek-free islands off its coast. Places where resistors and refuseniks are coming together, gathering arms and armour, preparing to strike back against the enemy.
When the Doctor falls in with an unlikely group of freedom fighters making that dangerous journey to Orkney, he finds himself trapped – but not only by the Daleks, their robotised henchmen and their human collaborators.
By history.
Because history shows that for another year, resistance is useless…
The rebellion must fail – and as a Time Lord, the Doctor can do nothing to help.
MASTERS OF EARTH
The second story in 2014’s final trilogy, “Masters of Earth” from Mark Wright and Cavan Scott, sees the sixth Doctor and Peri return to Earth in 2163 during the Dalek invasion first seen during the William Hartnell era. It’s a solid enough action runaround with a couple of interesting twists at the conclusion, but ultimately there’s not enough going on here to put the story among the classics.
This review is going to sound like I disliked “Masters of Earth,” and that’s not entirely true. There’s actually a lot to enjoy here, most of which revolves around the acting and production. Colin Baker is up to his usual high standard, while it’s interesting to hear Nicola Bryant’s take on an older, world-wearier Peri who seems less interested in bickering and more interested in genuinely challenging the Doctor. While Tracy Wiles’ character is all over the map, her performance is solid throughout, and Brian McCardie is even better – Weir is a believable, somewhat sympathetic character even though he’s in no way a good person. It’s rare to have three-dimensional supporting characters in stories like this, but you can usually depend upon Scott and Wright to provide them.
The big problem with “Masters of Earth,” on the other hand, is that in spite of its successful production, it’s not really about anything. The first three episodes go on and on with action set piece after action set piece – the Doctor and Peri land, get captured, escape, encounter Varga plants, encounter Slythers in the sea, fight off infection, explore the deserted Orkneys, and so forth, and not a minute of it seems at all important. It’s certainly better written than other Dalek runarounds Big Finish has released, which is why I’m not as down on it, but for a story that plays up its setting so much it’s remarkable how little it’s actually used. We get window dressing – Robomen, Daleks with satellite dishes on their backs – but nothing that seriously engages with the Dalek invasion. The Doctor is audibly terrified when the TARDIS first lands when he figures out where they are – what are they going to do if he’s forced to interfere with the actions of his past self? What if the Daleks capture and interrogate him? Heck, the blurb even says “The rebellion must fail – and as a Time Lord, the Doctor can do nothing to help” – so why does the story fail to engage with this possibility? Heck, even when the Doctor is captured and interrogated, he spends the session mocking and ignoring the Black Dalek!
At least the final episode tries to claw back some significance for the story, though the eye-rolling revelation that the runaround of the previous three episodes was actually an elaborate Dalek test is difficult to take seriously. And when one character is seen to change allegiances at least four times in the same story, it stretches belief. Interesting concepts are introduced and then dropped. Can the human race be as bad as the Daleks if you let them? Sure, quite possibly, so why not explore that over the course of four episodes rather than ten minutes at the end? How does the Doctor’s failure to wipe out the Daleks in “Genesis” inform his actions here? Couldn’t we have spent more than a minute on that? Episode 4 is one part of a great story; episodes 1-3 are three parts of an average one.
The production is generally excellent, especially the direction and the suitable score from Nicholas Briggs. I enjoyed Martin Montague’s sound design, though it occasionally falls prey to the Big Finish tendency to communicate action via incomprehensible explosions and screaming. Overall, “Masters of Earth” is disappointing. It’s largely an action story, and while it’s a fairly well-told action story, it gets just interesting enough in the final episode to make you wonder what might have been. Despite the tone of this review, I enjoyed listening to it, but even though I enjoyed what it was I was disappointed in what it wasn’t.
Not bad, though.
6/10