Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Tracey Childs, Christian Edwards, Terry Malloy, Jonathan Forbes, Nicholas Briggs, Tim Delap, Jessica Brooks, Paul Chandi.
There is only one way to perhaps to finish off what has been an absorbing trilogy involving one of the best female additions to the Doctor Who audio range, a machine so powerful that even in the Doctor’s hands can cause the listener anxiety issues and a fine quirky new companion straight from U.N.I.T. and that’s by having the revulsion of the Doctor’s most hated enemy make an appearance alongside their creator. If all that can happen in one great story then what hope is there for others following after.
Daleks Among Us sees the Doctor, Dr. Elizabeth Klein, played with great talent by the superb Tracey Childs and Will Arrowsmith, the instantly likeable Christian Edwards, make one attempt in which to find both the Persuasion machine and Dr. Schalk and stop what seems an inevitable act of futility. Alan Barnes’ script for Daleks Among Us might take the listener down roads they might not have thought of ever seeing but the result is tremendous, two hours of wondering whether Elizabeth Klein will revert to her former deceitful fascist self, Daleks hidden in plain site within a society that has chosen to lie about its history at the hands of the metal monsters and the wonderful return of the finest Davros of them all, the excellent Terry Molloy.
The world of Azimuth, once liberated by The Doctor and Ace, now under a different type of tyranny, the oppression of self-imposed thought control, the creeping Big Brother scenario is quite unnerving as citizens are re-educated to never remember what happened in the death camps, to forget acts of aggression by neighbour upon neighbour, on father to son lest so called order breaks down. It may be easier to forget what happened in a war, to turn your head away from it and live life in blissful self–imposed ignorance but then something very human dies along with truth, the realisation that the struggle to be free will never end.
Sylvester McCoy simply shines in the presence of Terry Malloy and Tracey Childs, both of whom give sterling performances as two sides of the same evil spectrum, for both though to be playing such commanding, much loved and authorative characters in one story is enough to send any Doctor Who fan giddy.
The latest trilogy starring Sylvester McCoy’s incarnation of The Doctor, starting with Persuasion, followed by Starlight Robbery and culminating in Daleks Among Us, should be viewed as perhaps the finest trilogy for the seventh Doctor in the long proud history of Big Finish’s tenure of creating stories for the classic Doctors. Pacey, deliberate, brilliantly woven tales by Jonathan Barnes, Matt Fitton and Alan Barnes with the right mixture of humour, well rounded characters, adversaries and enemies to shudder at and an arc that never lost its way once. A fantastic achievement as the 50th Anniversary looms ever closer.
Magnificent!
Daleks Among Us is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall