I have not previously heard more than a little of Dalek Empire, and my understanding is that it may be fairest to it to treat the entire series as a single continuous story. For that reason, I am activating a manual override of the Selectortron and instead selecting:
Dalek Empire: Invasion of the Daleks
Starring: Sarah Mowat as Susan Mendes, Mark McDonnell as Alby Brook, and Gareth Thomas as Kalendorf
Format: one full-cast CD (or download) with no episode breaks
Silly? No.
Standalone? No. Invasion of the Daleks can be understood without having heard any prior Big Finish audios, but has no ending whatsoever and is obviously just the first episode of a larger story.
Recommended? Not in itself, and I haven't heard the entire story yet.
My reactions to this story contain spoilers for it and for other releases under the Dalek Empire banner.
Before listening
I have mentioned before that I tend to veer away from the darker parts of Big Finish's catalog. Dalek Empire is very much that. I have 12 episodes of it, but I think I've listened just to this episode and part of the one after it. I've heard the beginning of this episode several times but I think I've only reached the end once.The title "Dalek Empire" was initially used on a few stories in the Doctor Who main range. These stories had some linkage, with the Daleks using information and resources from the first installments to enact a later plan. The Daleks' plans were somewhat successful, but these were Doctor Who stories and the Doctor saved the day at least partially. The series that has Dalek Empire as its primary title takes place after those Doctor Who stories. It is the story of what happens when there is a large-scale Dalek invasion and the Doctor doesn't randomly materialize in the midst of it to set things right.
We know from the television story The Dalek Invasion of Earth that the Daleks use horrific tactics, such as depopulating planets with germ warfare. The TV show, however, never focused on these tactics directly for very long. In Invasion of the Daleks, the opening episode of Dalek Empire, we follow a planet from the peaceful day before the invasion through those atrocities into a state of subjugation. It is heavy and hard for me to listen to, not because of any lack of quality, but because it is very good at what it does.
I am not entirely sure that it was necessary for me to override the Selectortron all the way back to this story, rather than to Dalek War - Chapter 1, but from what I've read the Dalek War four-parter seems to depend on what happened in the first season of Dalek Empire and I'd rather judge each episode of Dalek Empire with as much context on the table as possible.
I am not especially looking forward to trudging through this bleak war story again, but I say this as a statement of my personal taste, not as a mark against its quality or artistic merit.
After listening
Having mentally prepared myself, this wasn't so hard to listen to. The thing that makes this Dalek invasion different isn't just that the Doctor shows up. The Daleks recently conquered a major library (in the Seventh Doctor audio The Genocide Machine) and have learned about human psychology. The Daleks are aware of the concept of hope and are attempting to exploit it. Phrasing it that way makes it sound like something you might encounter in a Saturday morning cartoon, but the Daleks aren't trying to chemically extract the "hope factor" or anything like that; they have realized that humans who lose hope are prone to suicidal acts of rebellion, while humans who retain hope are much less likely to do anything sudden and derail the Daleks' plans. They are using slave labor to mine a mineral they require, and they are encouraging a degree of hope in the slaves instead of trying to demoralize them completely. They are, as of the end of this episode, entirely successful in this and are getting the mineral they want from their slaves while also successfully exterminating rebel groups.There are many references to events of Big Finish's Doctor Who main range, including The Sirens of Time, The Genocide Machine, and The Apocalypse Element. TV stories with directly referenced elements include The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Evil of the Daleks. Humanity hasn't heard from the Daleks and centuries and are generally surprised they've returned, although two of the protagonists of this story are part of large secretive organizations that are much less surprised.
Invasion of the Daleks has no ending whatsoever; it doesn't quite end in a cliffhanger, but it obviously is just a portion of a larger story. I will have to hear more of it before I can say more about it. I'm now sort of hoping the Randomoid Selectortron lands back in Dalek Empire sooner rather than later, as I am interested and not as depressed as I thought I would be.
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