Having very little personal time in the army, I've decided to finally delve into Big Finish for my occasional Doctor Who fix whenever I have the chance.
So with that being said, Enemy Of The Daleks is a pretty fun concept and very evocative of late 80s Doctor Who.
WRITTEN BY
David Bishop, freelance writer whose most notable contribution to the show appears to be the novel Who Killed Kennedy.
PLOT
The Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex land on the charming planet Bliss for vacation, only to find themselves caught in a terrible historical event from the Dalek-Human War.
ANALYSIS
Basically, this is a sequel to Genesis Of The Daleks, but in all the right ways. Rather than drag Davros and Skaro back like certain other stories, Enemy revisits the Doctor's moral dilemma on a thematic level. Here we have a new predator race created by an equally deluded genius that could hunt and kill the Daleks, but is equally harmful to the suffering human race('collateral damage').
So once again, the Doctor has to decide whether the universe would be better off without this newborn race.
There's neat callbacks to the McCoy era - the Doctor immediately recognises the situation and keeps his companions in the dark. Ace's experience with the Daleks is obvious. And the heavy metal soundtrack is a killer(I don't actually know if it's heavy metal, but it sounded badass).
It's also nice to see a straightforward story in Big Finish, as they do have a tendency to bemore mature and emotionally draining in my experience. In spite of its dramatic side, Enemy was energetic and pacy, and quite exhilarating. Especially once the Japanese piranha locusts came in.
No, I'm not kidding.
CHARACTERS
Unlike Peter Davison or Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy could've zapped in from 1989 and without seeing him, I couldn't tell the difference. I desperately still hope the new series can do a multi-Doctor story with him set before the events of the TV Movie.
Anyway, he actually manages quite well with the more emotional side of the story without going into histrionics as he tended to in the show("If we fight like animals, we'll die like animaaaaaals!!!"), showing proper despair and outrage upon his discovery of professor Shimura's work.
Sophie Aldred presents an older Ace(I'm assuming this story is set many years after Survival) and it's a fascinatingly cynical performance, more akin to Molly O'Sullivan than the happy-go-lucky teen Ace was. There's none of her 80s slang or baseball bats or even nitro-9. What she does have, though, is a bitter acceptance of death and destruction, and an understanding of just how ruthless the Daleks are.
Which brings us to the wet newbie Hex, played by Philip Olivier. He's basically a mixture of Rory and Amy, although I would be interested to find out how he fits into the complicated relationship between Seven and Ace(which isn't really touched upon here).
Loved the Kiseybia and their sort of animalistic sentience. They are basically the Daleks reinvented, with hints of culture(the influence of their creator, professor Shimura), but a more creepy, craving fury replacing the Daleks' racist rage,
Eiji Kusuhara was rather interesting as the Davros equivalent. His motives are a little muddled: Shimura repeatedly insists that the Kiseybia were created as a last resort weapon against the Daleks, but there's also hints that he knew of their destructive potential(their name translates to "parasite savior", he began the experiments before the war and he also seems to have a sadistic side as he pranks the Doctor by offering him as food to the metal-eating Kiseybia before the Doctor knew of the fact).
Nevertheless, Kusuhara gives an almost kindly performance and comes across as a nice, if obsessive person until we peel back the layers.
Kate Ashfield was similarly multilayered as Lieutenant Beth Stokes, who struggles to face the Daleks after they traumatised her as a child, and as a result has to bear being perceived as a coward by her subordinates. She has quite a nice arc where she tries to hold onto her sanity in the midst of a Dalek battle.
NOTES
*I really liked the nurse robot's sing-song voice(think Mondasian Cybermen, who could keep a tune).
*I wonder if the Japanese folk song that Shimura uses as a lullaby to the Kiseybia is actually real.
*I'd love to see... um, hear... eh, notice(?) Ace and Hex hook up in a later audio.
*It's amazing that, considering the Seventh Doctor's vastly different approach to life when compared to his earlier and later incarnations, that he's only been barely referenced in the new series(the only time I can really remember was when the Tenth Doctor admitted that he "got clever. Manipulated people into taking their own (lives)." in The End Of Time.
*I may be mistaken, but when Stokes has a mental breakdown, she seems to be humming Shimura's lullaby??
CONTINUITY ADVISOR
1) The Doctor reveals to Ace and Hex that he was once set to destroy the Daleks in the past(as seen in Genesis Of The Daleks), but failed and now has come to regret the decision. It's an interesting callback not just for the sake of making one, so I heartily approve.
2) The Dalek superior is referred to as the "Black Dalek" as in The Dalek Invasion Of Earth. Personally, I think that just sounds stupid.
BEST QUOTE
"It's my part in history and I've got to do it!" - The Doctor justifies killing the Kiseybia. He's definitely changed.
CONCLUSION
A solid Dalek story that ties well into Genesis with a good cast of characters. It's not amazing, but it's fine.
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