Starring Colin Baker, India Fisher, Michael Cochrane & Nicholas Briggs
Written by Alan Barnes
Directed by Nicholas Briggs
The TARDIS makes a return trip to the jungle planet of Spiridon, where the Doctor and Charley fall in with a lost platoon of shellshocked Thal soldiers - victims of a sneak attack by their blood enemies, the Daleks.
Besieged by deadly flora, surrounded by invisible monsters, and with all hope of rescue gone, the Thals are the victims of a grim experiment is psychological warfare.
With the very nature of reality under threat, the Doctor and Charley need each other more than ever. But dark forces are conspiring to tear them apart...
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF PAUL SPRAGG
1975-2014
Brotherhood Of The Daleks can sometimes get lost amongst the myriad number of Dalek stories that are out there, but it's probably one of the greatest ones. It's a psychological examination of the Daleks, it's a tense, thriller style piece where you can trust nobody and it's taking the idea that the Daleks were born of fascists and turning that on it's head to the other end of the political spectrum. So basically Communist Daleks. It also makes heavy reference to stories like The Daleks, Terror Firma, Planet Of The Daleks, The Doomwood Curse and The Mind's Eye, amongst others. It's therefore one of the most barmy Doctor Who stories ever to grace the cannon, but it's also brilliantly written and brilliantly crafted. Never mind barmy, this story is bloody brilliant.
Alan Barnes is one of Big Finish's best writers and he knows how to juggle all these elements and make them into a fully fleged story that stands on it's own two feet. It's a story that requires repeated listening to try to get around all the different twists. I got it in 2008 and only when relistening to this story in 2014 did I realise the reason why the pre credits title sequence existed. It's really one of these stories where you do need to sit down and completely focus upon what's going on, however you really will get your money's worth for it. The story may never make sense, but you will definatly enjoy it. It does take time for you to get your head around it, but it will make sense when it's put together. The ideas that are in the story are wonderful, every element complements the other. If I had one complaint about Brootherhood at a scripting level is that the continuity references can get slightly gratuitous. However, as I've said before, it's still strongly plotted with plenty of good ideas and it looks at the psychology of the Daleks much stronger than 2012's Asylum Of The Daleks. Certainly that story looked at the Daleks from a psychological standpoint, but this does it to a much better extent. It really looks at interesting aspects of the Daleks and then plays around with them in very interesting ways. And it has singing Daleks! Like Jubilee or Evil Of The Daleks, we have Daleks singing! There singing Communist songs! They've finished with one dictator (Hitler) and swapped for another (Stalin) and it's interesting to see how they adapt to fit the Communist model.
However, the acting and directing are possibly slightly too bog standard considering the innovative script that they've been presented with. Both Colin Baker and India Fisher are fantastic, as is Michael Cochrane as Murgat, Alison Thea-Skot as Jesic and Nicholas Briggs as the Daleks. There all really invest in the material, giving there characters deep layers and making us really care about them. However, the remaining Thals are slightly too like cliches for my liking and sometimes each character get lost amongst the others. This isn't really a fault of the actors, but rather a fault of the characters on the page. They all just slightly cliched and they couldn't really connect with the other characters who feel better when your listening to them. Nick Briggs's direction is very normal, not outstanding but not poor or bad. However, I feel that prehaps a director who was more prepared to do different things would proberbly have been more successful with. Steve Foxon's music and sound design, however, cover this adequately enough, but it would have been better, had it been tried to be pushed in newer directions.
All that being said, however, Brotherhood Of The Daleks is still a very strong story and is still one of Big Finish's best Dalek stories. It's well written and generally well performed and directed. If it wasn't for the flaws which have already been picked out, this would be a classic. However, it is still one of the strongest stories BF have ever released.
TARDIS Rating - 9/10
Comments
Post a Comment