Something is coming to Stockbridge. Something which turns village cricketers into ravening zombies – a plague such as the Earth has never seen, falling through history from a time when humanity’s greatest enemy was a race known as the Daleks. The Doctor and Nyssa visit Stockbridge for the final time, to confront the terrible secret buried at its heart.
PLAGUE OF THE DALEKS
I’m usually not one to complain about so-called “Dalek fatigue” – if the stories are good, they’re good – but given that “Plague of the Daleks” is the third Dalek play out of the past nine releases, the ratio does seem to be growing somewhat excessive, especially without any plot continuity between the Dalek stories. “Plague” is also the first full-length story for the main range by occasional Doctor Who novelist Mark Morris, who generally produces competent but unmemorable books with a horror focus. Result? Well, it has a horror focus, and it’s definitely unmemorable.
“Plague of the Daleks” is a story of two distinct halves. The first is once again set in Stockbridge, and features a slow, atmospheric buildup toward some grand revelations. The main problem, though, is that we saw a setup very similar to this in the last story: The Doctor and Nyssa wander through Stockbridge, observe the locals acting oddly, and attempt to figure out what’s causing everyone to behave strangely. This time, we discover that instead of reliving their memories, the locals are being turned into zombies by a mysterious acidic rain. A fascinating idea, to be sure, but it’s ruined by Morris’s struggles with the audio format: for most of the first two episodes, we’re back to the sort of “Look! Doctor! It looks like some sort of acid rain!” nonsense dialogue that should have vanished from Big Finish’s output a decade ago. Nyssa is also incredibly useless while she’s paired with the Doctor: she honestly asks “What is it, Doctor?” at one point, the sort of line that’s been roundly mocked for years.
Almost every reviewer has complained that the title of the play completely ruins what is obviously supposed to be a surprise Dalek revelation at the end of the second part, but as this is a Doctor Who tradition as old as the series I’m not sure why people care. What bothers me is what happens after the Daleks turn up: the atmosphere vanishes, the attempts at a zombie-esque horror story go away, and things turn into a traditional, uninspired Dalek runaround. Curiously, the writing improves at almost exactly the same time: the dialogue becomes more natural, the Doctor and Nyssa are separated into two-handed pairings with supporting characters and both begin to shine, etc. So why are the Daleks so totally wasted? The Doctor undercuts their scheme the instant he sees them, which just causes them to pronounce that they’re ready to conquer the universe. There’s lots of Dalek screaming – “THE DOCTOR WILL BECOME A DALEK” and all that – but this is just a time warp back to the 1970s, when “subtlety” and “Daleks” were irreconcilable.
Not that the story is without its redeeming factors. Peter Davison is in strong form, especially when playing a Dalek-controlled Doctor, while Sarah Sutton gets more of the spotlight than usual in the second half. Their scenes with Keith Barron and Liza Tarbuck are entertaining as well – though it must be said that Nyssa and Lysette spend far too much of the script hiding and talking. Probably the most effective scene is the traditional zombie horror with Vincent (Barry McCarthy) and Alexis (Richenda Carey) Linfoot which, while predictable, is the sort of thing Doctor Who doesn’t normally do. Steve Foxon’s sound design is excellent as ever, though I’ll be honest in that I already can’t remember what the score sounded like.
Ultimately, there just isn’t much to recommend about “Plague of the Daleks.” I don’t mind a slow-paced story, but absolutely nothing here justifies it, and the story is awfully padded for Barnaby Edwards’ direction. I like Dalek stories, but here they are little more than generic shouting bad guys, lacking the cunning both Big Finish and the television series have granted them. The zombie story is ignored just as it starts getting interesting. And I haven’t even mentioned the preservation of Stockbridge or its destruction at the conclusion, as it seems forced and unearned. After a poor first trilogy for the fifth Doctor, this one was even worse – what’s going on here?
Not recommended.
3/10