Big Finish Short Trips: Dalek Empire A Collection of Short Stories

Editor	Nicholas Briggs
Published	2006

Synopsis: Everybody remembers Doctor Who's most terrifying monsters, the metallic, murderous Daleks! Here they are again in a collection of ripping yarns that draw upon the events and themes of Big Finish Productions' acclaimed series Dalek Empire. But never fear, no prior knowledge is necessary. The good Doctor in his many incarnations is on hand to guide us through the terrible events before, after and during the Daleks' ruthless onslaught.

• "A precipitous storm" by Thomas Cookson

"A precipitous storm" by Thomas Cookson 18/1/15

Yes, Dalek Empire. That old chestnut. I still think that the first two series are the best thing Big Finish have ever produced. I still have something of a soft spot for the more superfluous and not quite as tightly disciplined third series. I think in its prime it was ripe for adaptation for TV, or even in anime form and would have made a gripping drama indeed. After all, the Daleks are a ratings winner and a magnetic nostalgic icon. It was an original enough story with resonant human interest to be accessible to non-fans and the arc was well-crafted enough to still be able to engage latecomers. And hey, since Nick Briggs is already involved with the New Series, there's no reason he shouldn't have gained the reigns over his spin-off in the way Chibnall did over Torchwood. It certainly looked like something that would have more potential and standalone independence than Torchwood, which always seemed lost without its parent show. Dalek Empire almost. Almost. Never did.

And yet I can't deny that, in the end, the interest in it was rather burned into the ground. It has indeed become yesterday's news. When I learned from Briggs himself that there would be no Dalek Empire V, I was partly disappointed but partly aware that its time was over, and the well had run dry. Hell, after listening to Dalek Empire IV, I'd say the well had run downright toxic.

How does something go from most talked about, to least talked about? Well it's simple mathematics. If it lasted only till the end of the first or second season, it would stand as a self-contained, rounded-off story. It would be a veritable jewel, both unique and tangibly attainable. Not so much after a third series, where interest starts to wane. Fans who were interested by the story are perhaps getting less interested and feel they're getting the same old stuff that was beginning to cheapen and demystify it. Those who've never heard it but are curious are now looking at an ongoing inconclusive story comprising 14 CDs to buy. At that point, following this story might begin to look like less of a treat and more of a chore. I think there's a reason why I Davros is generally considered the best and most recommended of all Big Finish's spin-offs. Because you don't feel overfed by it.

Why am I talking about all this? Well I suppose because this is why this anthology exists. Three years after Dalek Empire III, this was a release that sought to remind fans of the old spin-off and how good it was. And I'd say it succeeded. In spite of the obnoxious turn on cultish, creepy RTD love-in sites like Planet Skaro and Gallifrey Base, of philistine fans with no real personality beyond the superficial and the hissy hyperbolic that were influenced by New Who into a snooty adolescent mindset of looking down on any fan navelgazing as proof that 'sadder' fans aren't 'living in the now'.

Sure, if you were disappointed by Dalek Empire III's inconclusive final chapter, this wasn't going to offer any catharsis, except for some vague hints at the end that maybe the Time Lords weren't going to stand for this anymore, and were finally going to get involved. But it was a perfect, all-purpose capstone to the mini-franchise, and one that might have gotten people talking again.

Unfortunately, of course, that wasn't what it was designed to be. It was designed to reignite interest yes, but more to promote the new Dalek Empire IV than anything. And once Dalek Empire IV happened, the range had fired its last bolt. Even I couldn't defend it. But, most damningly, it wasn't the wrap-up to Dalek Empire III's open ending that many of us wanted. And for those of us who remembered the Susan Mendes storyline fondly, it almost seemed to treat that past storyline with open contempt. And I think that was where the revitalised interest died.

As much as I've claimed that classic Who should have ended when Tom Baker left, I can't swear that the Doctors that came after weren't a key component in at least keeping interest alive, which often persuades me to move my stake in the ground somewhere halfway through Davison, though never past The Five Doctors. Sure I can struggle to imagine how Warriors of the Deep or The Twin Dilemma ever did the show any favours or even did any more good than harm in terms of gaining new fans or maintaining the show's charm. But I think I can safely say here that continuing Dalek Empire in a fourth series was a tremendous mistake that had the opposite effect.

This last point is relevant to the book. The reason ultimately why Dalek Empire IV failed is similar to the reason why I think Series 6 did. Take a gifted writer who can pen laser-precision plots and compelling characters but has a propensity for overkill. The kind of overkill that just about works, in the same way as Aliens or the Terminator films did, so long as you have an actual story to punctuate. Dalek Empire IV showed what happens when overkill is induced when there is no story, when the thing just isn't about anything anymore, but has to fill its running-time slot anyway. It becomes kind of repellent sound and fury. Dark storytelling without the emotional euphoria, and which just feels like a nasty experience overall.

So to get into the book, what we have is the opposite. Short stories that say their piece quickly, written by new writers having a go at what previously seemed to be a thought-out world and a cohesive, thematically rich, raw writing form that only Nick Briggs really understood. Writers that frankly might have made a better job of Dalek Empire IV than Nick did at this point. Demonstrating that maybe what ruined the franchise was a lack of new blood.

Nick Briggs does write the introductory story, which focuses on Kalendorf's story when he was on Vega VI when the Daleks came. It restarts the Dalek Empire story in the same way, on a visceral ground level experience of the invasion. Nick clearly feels at home with the mythology of the Knights of Veleysha and milks it for all its worth.

Sharon Gosling focuses on the two stories of Susan and Alby, separated by war. Her writing does inevitably come off as a bit shipperish, but never irksomely or obnoxiously so. Alby's story is the more original, actioneering one. However, it does revisit his wrestling with his orders to assassinate Susan if he ever finds her. This was a subplot of the first series that I was never keen on, and even one that felt vaguely misogynistic in that it had us rooting for a man seeking out his lover whilst considering murdering her on the advice of a male friend telling him he needed to be more pragmatic and manly. On the other hand, it seemed a pointless false dilemma since he was obviously never going to go through with it. So it was an aspect of the first series I was glad fell by the wayside and not one I welcomed revisiting. For what it's worth, the writer draws what genuine internal emotional strife from it she can, and it works for that.

Susan's story is more a collection of introspectives into Susan's mind in the key moments of the first series. It is interesting to see Susan Mendes described from a first-person perspective and her co-dependent relationship with Kalendorf, reminiscent of Clarice hoping she could save just one of the lambs. When Susan is looked at from another perspective, she does begin to show herself up as really quite manipulative and selfish. Yes she has a philanthropic streak and a Florence Nightingale complex, but you half get the sense that her desire to be there for needy, desperate people who adulate her is motivated more by her own needs than theirs. This doesn't of course become apparent from Susan's perspective, but it does illuminate her bond with Kalendorf. The one friend who doesn't just tell her what she wants to hear.

Ian Farrington contributes two stories, neither of which particularly stand out from the crop, apart from the incongruous presence of Pertwee and Jo in the Dalek Empire events. Given how pat a lot of the Pertwee era was, they feel indescribably out of place here in an overstory where nothing is pat for a moment. Nothing indispensable, but I tend to reread them the least.

Joseph Lidster writes the secondary framing arc of the story alongside the stuff with Susan and Kalendorf. Recovered diary excerpts from a student called Natalie. This was my favourite part of the book and really captured the uncompromising spirit and youthful energy of the NA books. The intimacy of its account got me by my heartstrings and it is punctuated by the most disquietingly shocking moment in the book, which places the Daleks' relelntless evil and how they force the hand of good people to do evil things into sharp relief. The visceral, sensory experiences of the story are vivid; in fact, I get a strange craving for tomato soup every time I think of this story.

A close second favourite would be one of Simon Guerrier's contributions. Both featuring the Sixth Doctor. But I think I'm going to pick the one about the struggling comedian who fancies himself as a Dalek satirist. It's bitingly funny and exquisitely cynical. It also taps into the savage beauty of Dalek Empire in its humanist view of how our future species might cope with the horror of an unending Dalek war. How we just might adapt a more superhuman resilience, as the Daleks' propensity for unyielding combat and martyrdom might even rub off on us, as we begin to think of ourselves as a species rather than as individuals, willing to face our fears and give our lives for a greater cause. Taking the duty to be humanity's very own immune system. It's a wonderful idea that taps into the first series' story of Susan's sacrifice. About the idea that the Dalek threat gives us a reason to live and, by extension, a reason to die. To prepare for the one moment in life that truly matters, when we become part of something greater.

Justin Richards writes the only story that pertains to Dalek Empire III's aftermath. His ideas here will be recycled blatantly and not so effectively in the Eleventh Doctor graphic novel The Only Good Dalek. But here it's the right form and the right lifespan for his story. And it really captures the nightmare future of the series. Again though, the overall second Dalek war goes unresolved.

At this point, the collection feels like it's reached a complete enough note, but the final piece is James Swallow's Museum Peace, in which a meeting takes place between Kalendorf and what's clearly meant to be the Eighth Doctor in the final days of the Time War. It's a little hard at this point to buy the Doctor's moral indecision over destroying the Daleks. But the story is structured well and works wonderfully at conveying two old fighters who are simply tired but know that duty is calling them. The prose has ballistic beauty and grace, and it all leaves an unforgettable impression. It's easy to see why this was picked for the final Short Trips greatest hits anthology, and between this and Cyberman 2 (which to me was everything Dalek Empire IV should've been), I'd love to see what James Swallow writes next.

Finally, there's the script for the somewhat derivative Seventh Doctor audio, Return of the Daleks. Since Museum Peace heavily refers back to it, its inclusion makes sense.

So there you have it. Well worth reading to forget the last Dalek Empire series, and be reminded of its prime days.