The Graxis Wardens are the only ones ready to fight the Daleks now their intentions are known. They are also down to their last few people.
The Graxis Wardens are the only ones ready to fight the Daleks now their intentions are known. They are also down to their last few people.
DALEK EMPIRE III
CHAPTER THREE: THE SURVIVORS
This is the best installment yet, as Briggs is tightening up his plots and tying them all together, all the while springing new revelations on the listener. The Graxis story reaches its first conclusion, as the Wardens are driven off the planet by the Dalek onslaught. We get to see trust in the Daleks start to fall apart, as Carneill (Oliver Hume) is finally convinced by hours of brutal slaughter that maybe the Daleks aren’t acting in the interests of peace. The decision to leave Kaymee behind is heart-wrenching, and Ishia Bennison shows why she headlines these plays with a commanding performance. All three leads are in excellent form, including William Gaunt, who dominates his scenes before the council and later before Ian Brooker’s Bulis Mietok. Briggs wrong-foots the listener here: we learn that Tarkov’s happy ending in “The Healers” was anything but, and that Galanar is not what he seems. Gaunt, playing the experienced old soldier, doesn’t let these mistakes shake him. But the best material is that which dominates the second half of the play: David Tennant’s Galanar investigating the Dalek facility. The chase through the building is gripping, even as Galanar’s superhuman abilities are revealed, and the presence of the Dalek Supreme/Susan Mendes hybrid hovers over everything like a bird of prey. Sarah Mowat comes dangerously close to going over the top, with her peculiar tendency to whisper one line and bellow the next, but for now she is remarkably intimidating. Unfortunately, this is only the halfway point — can Briggs continue building these tensions for two more parts? Hard to say, but for now, this was very impressive.
8/10