The Genocide Machine

 

Funnily Enough, This Dalek Story is not Written by Nick Briggs

You can't tell

The Genocide Machine by Mike Tucker

The Genocide Machine is such a ordinary Dalek flick you wouldn't be bothered by the masses if you confused it with The Mutant Phase, Time of The Daleks, Energy of The Daleks, Dalek Contract, Blood of The Daleks, Only The Monsterous, they don't make a lot of them when you compare the Dalek output to Big Finish output, but even if you aren't looking for them, they definitely sneak up behind your back in most Big Finish audio series. After a while, Terry Nation found problems writing Dalek stories, they all turned out rather similar to eachother, and to be honest, from Genesis on, they were either Davros stories where Daleks where peripheral, or they needed a brilliant writer like Robert Shearman to really show you what they can do. My favorite Dalek stories are from the RTD era, because after Rob Shearman introduced them so damn well, they hold onto that threat for newcomers brilliantly, OR the stories that...hear me out, The Daleks are barely in. Yeah, stories that utilize them as invincible backdrop figures, like War Master Only The Good or Dalek Occupation Of Winter do, those are where they really nail it for me.

So what does Genocide Machine do? Not much. What's there is fine, there are lovely pieces, and it does a few unique things. I like Bev Tarrant, I understand she's important to Bernice Summerfield, but I wish that she had been a 7/Ace thing. I like the Library, it's not as good as it would eventually be in other stories, stories like Silence in The Library or Library in the Body put this to shame, but it's well realized and gives the Daleks a unique goal. I like the Ace duplicate, I especially like the Ace duplicate. (If you want this story to be even better, imagine that she has a stalk growing out of her head in later scenes like Moffats' Dalek duplicates) and above all, this is not a bad story, it's actually an incredibly comfortable and enjoyable way to spend two hours, it's well paced, it's well plotted, I find little to complain about the more I think of it. I do however, think that it does feel like it is going down a checklist, doing a generic classic series Dalek rushabout, and it's not bad for any of it, It's just the early classic range is so good by comparison, I do wonder what there is to shout about that makes The Genocide Machine worth seeking out more than some of Big Finishes' Dalek Masterpieces like Jubilee, or several others. 7.5/10