Dalek Universe Three

 

Dalek Universe 3 

It's rare that I'm as positive as I am about a series as I am about Dalek Universe. It's essentially the Tenth Doctor's fourth full season as the Doctor - hell, if you count up it along with the specials - 5 episodes plus these 9 add up to a Christmas Special and then a season of 13 episodes like the other RTD seasons. Which could be coincidental, but I think it helps to prove my point. Without actually resurrecting Russell T Davies as head writer (Television is going to handle that) they've really created something organic here. But the other reason I love Dalek Universe is it's so unabashedly Big Finish - they jump back to before the time war to give us a cavalcade of Daleks, Mechonoids, Movellans, Varga Plants, The Monk, Davros, The Kingdom Family, River Song and all in all adding up to the Tenth Doctor dealing with the ultimate Terry Nation series, it's almost a tribute to him at his best even when the Daleks aren't around. (River aside, she's more present as a link to Ten's own era.) It's gloriously fanwanky but not so that it can't tell the right stories. There are nine episodes and two prominently feature the Daleks. A third features fake Daleks. It's almost a direct response to Big Finish sometimes having one too many Dalek runaround, properly using the creatures by saving them for when it's big and momentous. And it's given the Tenth Doctor a companion that somehow I love more than Donna. Anya Kingdom is perfect and she's used in such a magnificent way throughout these sets to it's conclusion. It's not that I don't have anything negative to say about Dalek Universe Three - I do - but for a moment I'd like to focus on the monumental achievement of it, a series both for the general public and the Big Finish die hards. A series on the extraordinary level of quality (or close to it) of God Among Us, and a series that surpassed Doom Coalition of all things!! Bravo to those who made this masterwork!

The First Son by Lizzie Hopley

That being said, the First Son sucks hard. It's the first episode of the series (and only) that directly does not work for me, plain and simple. It's not an interesting script to me, it's not very exciting, and those who came into this looking for some fun interactions between Ten, Anya and River as a trio are sadly not going to get what they want, as River is pretending to be a movellan for most of the story, and there's a "mystery" around that, but honestly we all know it's actually River and not a movellan that looks like her stop trying to fake us out. River's importance beyond that is kind of like Jack Harkness in Fugitive of the Judoon - she appears to quickly warn us about a figure in the future, the first movellan. Which would work better if the First Movellan wasn't next to immediately revealed in the very next episode. Part of my issue with the First Son is it's disconnect with the rest of the series. The other part is it's just not as exciting, energetic and inviting as a Tenth Doctor story should be - Ten is a Doctor that can work in a contemplative setting at times if it's intriguing enough, and I'm not sure why it doesn't work for him here. But it doesn't. I'm not going to say the story is completely bad, Ten and Anya are still brimming with their usual chemistry. But I would have preferred River to have been much more her usual self if she was going to be included in this set at all, and the villain is kind of pathetic. Ultimately kind of irrelevant, not worthy of anyone's time: 3/10 

The Dalek Defense by Matt Fitton

I was apprehensive as hell going into a Matt Fitton finale (the man singlehandedly sunk Dark Eyes) but ultimately I shouldn't have been, as he's a good writer most of the time and this and Triumph of Davros might just be his best script. Dalek Defense is a story that's a lot of buildup, but it's not devoid of good elements, and it really knows what it's doing to make sure that Triumph of Davros has the maximum punch in terms of character drama and action that a finale deserves. The Dalek Defense genuinely just works, knowing exactly what to do with it's characters, and having a steady direction towards a knockout cliffhanger. Tennant and Molloy are incredible, instantly having the same electric rapport that Tennant and Bleach had on screen. Molloy's very presence continues to impress me, his time as Davros in Big Finish is utterly incomparable - he just shouldn't be this good. His literal being there drives the plot so well. There's an extraordinary level of "holy shit, it's Davros" that he has to his performance that gives the episode such stakes. It's hard to quantify the brilliance of the Dalek Defense, but by it's cliffhanger, instead of savoring the set like I intended to, I immediately jumped into Triumph of Davros - it's just that good! 9/10 

The Triumph of Davros by Matt Fitton

Okay, so, um, major major major major major major major fucking spoilers turn back now you idiots or be faced by the full brunt of plot twists in writing.

 ♪ Doopy, doopy, woopy doopy, turn back now, bloopy loopy ♪

haha I'm giving you plenty of time here, no seriously, you can't tell me that this article spoiled you because I am actively giving you an OVERLOAD of amount of time on getting away from this one 

Like really, If One person alive says that I spoiled Dalek Universe Three for them, I will just legit hunt them down because I'm putting in a lot of effort here and am actively going out of my way to avoid that so I know it's your fault if you keep scrolling 

I'M GOING TO SAY IT

SERIOUSLY

RUN

OKAY SO I REALLY LOVED WHEN GARFIELD KILLED DAVROS WITH THOR'S HAMMER 

alright seriously

yeah this one was fucking ridiculous, and definitely one of the best episodes in Dalek Universe. Mark Seven's return was the perfect sendoff to such an incredible series. In a way, playing off of Terry Nation giving things similar names (Mark Seven, Mo-Vellen) is not only clever meta commentary it sends this series to such a memorable close. The Dalek Movellan War is given a really great focus, and the usage of the Movellans actually gives a sense of drama to what I had previously felt was such a disposable Doctor Who race. (Hell, they originate from a serial where Terry Nation just kinda forgets Daleks aren't robots.) This is peak Russell T Davies-esque finale bullshit, but it remembers to have drama and emotional impact - most evident in the scenes with Mark Seven, Jane Slavin's exquisite performance throughout, character analyzation and those magnificent long scenes that you always get between Davros and The Doctor, and Anya's departure. (Which is brilliantly played, dramatic and sad without spending the last 30 minutes of the episode moaning about how sad it is, it's up there with Martha's departure for me honestly.) Davros and the Doctor have their best scenes yet together, and I love what it does with the Movellans/Mark Seven and The Doctor's relationship as compared to the Doctor and Davros. The story goes out of it's way to team the Doctor with Davros for most of it's runtime and ultimately, it's nothing but rewarding to the audience. It's the most irresistably dramatic combination out of any of these characters, and their history still works wonders for writers who can really nail it, and I was surprised, but Fitton really does. If a story can make the fucking Movellans such a brilliant dramatic tension point, you know it's doing something right here. There's not a single thing about this episode that I don't like, which is rather impressive. Davros is great, the Daleks are great, Anya is great, Mark Seven's great, the Doctor's great, the Movellan's are great, it's all very impressive, especially given how worried I was about it not living up to the hype and holding the series together so well. Good job, Matt Fitton, this series ended with style: 10/10