The Most Original Dalek Stories

There's an increasing problem with the Daleks these days. It can be downright unpleasant to note that the Daleks are the largest victim of the tried and tested formulas over the years - we were already experiencing it in the Third and Fourth Doctor's eras, that early on - when Terry Nation, their own creator struggled to deliver an original story each time and proceeded to make something that usually ended up looking rather similar to the previous one. While there have been exceptions since then, stories that forged the Daleks in a new way in public consciousness - Genesis of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks, or more simply, Dalek, but in truth, even these newer entries have their imitators. As such, it can be common perception among the Doctor Who fan that the Daleks, as a species, are on a decline, and there is less and less to do with them. And indeed - even in Big Finish, that can be the case. We're now onto Fifty Eight years of Dalek-ing, with no end in sight, and every writer under the sun has attempted to do something that takes them in a new direction. Today I'm going to look at some of those - they may not be the best, they may even lean onto the average, but today I am going to examine those stories at Big Finish that do take the Daleks in new directions and do something MEMORABLE with them. These stories do deserve that credit after all. That no matter what, good or bad, they came up with an idea for the Daleks. That's probably an accomplishment in itself. In no particular order - the Most Original Dalek stories. 

Immediately, the cover art of Order of The Daleks may strike you. It's a powerful image, and one that sticks in the brain quite nicely, but this sort of list isn't for the kinds of stories that give Daleks' redesigns - that happens every few years! And it would be doubly inappropriate to rank it a spot as a good Dalek audio story on a visual merit. No, Order of the Daleks is on this list for it's more insidious reasons. It's hailed as one of the best Big Finish covers, but no one talks on it beyond that, and in earnest, I do wonder why, because the Daleks are portrayed very well indeed. It's a story that much like Resolution, portrays the Daleks as scavengers, but the similarities end there. No, this is Doctor Who meets Cadfael, the Daleks shacking up in a medieval monastery, the Order of The Black Petal, and it's an especially brilliant one, focusing not on the firepower of the Daleks as so many stories do, but the terrifying mindset, methodology of the Daleks, and how that can corrupt. If you combine this with some rare visceral horror for the program, it suddenly becomes quite memorable indeed as one of the famous pepperpots most unique outings. It's perhaps one of the more typical "Doctor Who" stories on this list, there are many Classic Who stories with very similar pacing - none will be shocked when the Daleks are unveiled at the end of Part One, but what is shocking is how it's done. The Doctor and allies discover caseless Dalek mutants rejuvenating inside cut open animal stomachs!! It's a grisly sort of turn, and not something you could put on BBC One, but the story's macabre atmosphere is to it's credit, and it does consider realistically how a Dalek could survive without a technological casing in medieval times, and indeed, what the people surrounding it might think of it. A stellar listen. 

We Are The Daleks, although they came out at similar times, could not contrast further from the dark and moody atmosphere of Order. In 1980, The Daleks' are out in full force, having usurped an office tower building in downtown London, preparing for their newest scheme to take over the world, using...British Politicians and the Modern Stock Market! It's a bit shocking in it's jovial tone from the outset, the whole story bubbles with positive energy, a story that slots in perfectly with season 24 in tone. The Daleks aren't necessarily scary in this one, but they are bold, they are ever so present, and they are doing things they've not done before. At a certain point, Daleks chant that "Daleks invest and return!" at a stockbroker's meeting, and this madcap lunacy helps the story hit it's stride. By the time that the Daleks begin working on producing modern Video Games, the audience is both confused by the story's inanity and thoroughly on board. It's not a comedy, but a joyous romp nonetheless, having plenty of emotional depth and resonance to the shenanigans. Mary Conlon serves as "Celia Dunthorpe," a character that gives credence to the title, an incredibly memorable political figure, especially due to her realism. She's not a laughing melodramatic criminal or a overtly sweet politician who can do no wrong, she's a realistically drawn character that ties the story together. When you have a story like this, there can be nothing but fun and the meaning can be brushed to one side, but We Are The Daleks ignores this. Ultimately, the title isn't just a catchy one, it's a thematic point with much resonance to it. 

The Enemy of My Enemy is an odd tale, clearly just a section of the larger Time Lord Victorious canvas, but it drew my attention when constructing this list because of something that's just really genuinely not done elsewhere. It's a story where The Daleks are the companions of the tale - something that really baffles the audience to get used to. But anyone afraid that the story might not balance this out well, and the Daleks lose their threat or presence, be not afraid, because Enemy is a story that is quite frankly, is smart, if predictable. The Daleks do go off the rails a bit - it wouldn't be a Dalek story if they exactly did everything as they were told. But on the whole, they are technically speaking, alongside the Doctor, Protagonists. McGann and Briggs sparkle together, able to dredge up quite a bit of chemistry despite the Dalek's grating vocal filter. It's an interesting relationship, one of codependence but still that bitter dislike of each other, the hallmarks of The Doctor and Daleks together. It's a card trick that can't be played too many times or it is easy to see through, something you really can't do all the time. ...But nonetheless, it's still worthy of your attention for it doing something not another story has done.  And brilliantly so. The companion role being a threat was something briefly drawn upon in the Black Guardian trilogy back in season 20, but I'd argue this is to more convincing effect. By the end of it, there may not be surprise, but there will be respect and appreciation for a Dalek story that actually does bother to do something new with the accursed things. 

Dark Eyes messed up a lot over it's bloated four boxsets of existence, but the first set maintains a bastion of quality that even afterwards, the other three sets can't push into and disregard. It's a series that opened strong, and regardless how you feel about what followed, I think it's hard to disregard the opener. Tangled Web isn't entirely a story on it's own. It's part three of four stories in one ensemble. And ultimately, the main thing I want to talk about it, sort of exists in it's own realm within the story, as within the monolithic four hour arc of Dark Eyes, there's an ongoing scene where The Doctor and new companion Molly must consider whether there is good in the Daleks' after all. I'll leave the cause ambiguous, but essentially The Doctor and Molly find themselves briefly on an alternative Skaro where the Daleks are friendly, sedate creatures, that play with children, laugh happily, rebuild city infrastructure and take long catnaps in their old Dalek casings which are currently covered with flowers. It's a wondrously odd visual, and even if the boxset does not focus on it for long, it does bring up an excellent thematic point about the Doctor's relationship with the Daleks' that is examined more closely. While there isn't much drama to be had in sedate, happy, Daleks, there is in the Doctor's opinion on whether such things can even exist, and this talking point leads to some real eloquent writing from Nick Briggs, and yet another one of McGann's greatest triumphs. 

Perhaps The Dalek Occupation of Winter is dripped in 60s Dalekmania, and so is rooted in that atmosphere, harkening back to an age where the Daleks were truly alien to us - they're familiar now, even outside of Britain most people are at least aware of the Dalek's appearance. But that first moment in the original Dalek tale where Barbara is menaced by a plunger slowly drawing closer to her is something that can't truly be captured. People can't really make the Daleks scary again - unless your name is David K Barnes. Perhaps it's a stretch to put a story that ties so heavily to a particular era in a list about originality - I considered many stories for this spot, Jubilee, The Trojan Dalek, and quite a few others, but ultimately it had to be this one. Simply because it manages to do something none of those other stories manage for me - the Daleks are for the first time scary not because of their firepower, they are scary in this story in spite of that. They're scary because of how alien they are, how they're the focus of every moment of this tale but are in it so rarely. For the first time we truly see a world under the Daleks, and how people, ordinary people learn to cope, how they rise above or they falter and become lesser people. Or how they die. It's a chilling, chilling listen, and one that any era would be happy to have, but it does fit the early perspective best - if you imagine the whole tale in black and white with little bits of grain over the film the atmosphere can take over utterly completely and you're transported back to 1963 when not a child knew what that strange alien thing was on their television set...  and the story becomes so much more. 

Is there hope for the Daleks? It's a question. Making this list was difficult - many stories that were brilliant simply didn't qualify as new, and I explicitly chose to exclude any story involving Davros. The list was, thus, difficult to make for the wrong reasons. That these days, people DO do less and less with the Daleks. It is far easier to make a shooty shooty blam blam story with them than something with dramatic depth - and because of that, it can be disheartening. There are things you can do - stories you can tell with the idiots, and they are an enduring creation because their highs are quite simply, so high. The energy to be found in a good Dalek story is unrivaled - although I probably shouldn't mention Energy of the Daleks, because I don't like that one. Um, my point is that I'm one person. There are plenty of brilliant Dalek stories out there, and because they're such an enduring creation like I said, no one human can do it all. I could be missing plenty of brilliant ones, and so I encourage you to reach out: maybe someday we can have a complete "original Dalek stories" list, and no one will have to watch Dalek serial #3,459,865,321 again. One can only hope.