Zerinza

Today's post concerns the "Outer Space Robot People"from tv's Dr. Who. Terry Nation, a former struggling comedy writer, famously said he needed to create villains for a children's television series and then planned to "fly like a thief." But necessity is the mother of invention and his creations turned out to be deathlessly popular,  As you'll probably know, Big Finish's supremo Nicholas Briggs is also the voice of the Daleks on television. Fifteen years ago, Briggs wrote a number of galaxy-spanning audio miniseries which are probably his strongest work. I didn't follow the series when it was first released- I was in less financially secure circumstances- but I've caught up with it this spring and summer.

Dalek Empire builds on BF's earliest Dalek stories, The Genocide Machine and The Apocalypse Element. In the 42nd century, we follow the ordeals of Dalek slave leader Susan Mendes, the so-called Angel of Mercy of the labour camps and the lordly, enigmatic Kalendorf ( played by Gareth "Blake " Thomas) as they are pursued by blokey Northern space agent Alby Brook.
Surreptitiously,  Karl and Suz organise a slave uprising but a whole alternative universe of Daleks is unveiled  at the climax.

The delightfully retro packaging and the hyperbole ("Prepare for extermination!") is reflected in the blend of 1950s Dan Dare tropes that appear in the series, primarily drawn from children's annuals such as the 1964 Dalek Book. But Dalek Empire is leavened by the grittiness of Eric Saward's 80s Doctor Who. However, when listening to these audios, I don't picture the bronze Daleks of the RTD era or the colourful New Paradigm (which failed to catch on in the Moffat years)- just the blue and silver models from the Sixties.

The rollicking space opera returned in 2003 with a fantastically sinister electronic theme for the Daleks. Sides are switched, allegiances are swapped and comedy Geordie Morli joins Alby in his search for Suz, The blend of high-concept sci-fi and pulp science continues: the surface of Jupiter is infested with the Daleks' lethal Varga plants.

In the final episode, the action jumps 2,500 years into the future and we witness the telepath Kalendorf and Suz engineering  a "Great Catastrophe" from the perspective of historian Saloran Hardew and Galactic Union Siy Tarkov

In the third series, released in 2004 the action now takes place over six installments. The terrible NFS plague ravages the post-Catastrophe galaxy of the 67th Century; the environmentalist Graxis Wardens gradually discover to their horror that it is the first stage in a scheme to transform humans into a gargantuan Dalek army.

David Tennant plays Galanar, a security agent who is the superhuman creation of the parallel world Daleks from the first two series. Two years before taking over the Tardis, he is very Doctor-ish in his speeches about the human condition.
The Daleks' master plan here is rather complex and inefficient - why infect then cure the victims? Why not just infiltrate and transform them? But the series ends fatalistically, with the possibility of betrayal and a human race poised to become as militaristic and ruthless as the Daleks,

Interestingly, the series makes the Doctor's victories in the BF universe more incredible and impressive. This is Doctor Who's answer to Star Wars and Briggs' writing is consistently engaging and satisfying. To my mind, there hasn't been a memorable Dalek tv adventure during Moffat's tenure and I think Briggs could have delivered one.

I'm going on holiday to bonnie Galloway next week but when I return, I'll be blogging about Batgirl and Robin, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Silk and Spider-Gwen.

* According to the Dalek Book, "Zerinza" is a  Dalek exclamation of success before a battle

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