On the planet Bliss, an isolated human research base is besieged by both the local insect life and by an approaching attack force of Daleks. The TARDIS arrives outside the base, and the Doctor, Ace and Hex demand shelter from the deadly insect swarm. Once inside, the time travelers find that the base’s crew is demoralized and on edge. Something is drawing the Daleks’ attention to this otherwise unremarkable outpost – and the Doctor discovers that it could be something even more horrifyingly destructive than the Daleks themselves. Will he actually join forces with his dreaded enemies to keep it contained?
written by David Bishop
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Steve FoxonCast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Philip Olivier (Hex), Kate Ashfield (Lieutenant Beth Stokes), Bindya Solanki (Sergeant Tahira Khan), Eiji Kusuhara (Professor Toshio Shimura), Jeremy James (Sistermatic / Kiseibya / Male Patient / Male Voice), Nicholas Briggs (Daleks)
Timeline: between The Magic Mousetrap and Angel Of Scutari
LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green
Review: A throwback to pre-Davros, Pertwee-era Dalek mayhem, Enemy Of The Daleks is a glorious celebration of screaming ring-modulated voices and lots of stuff blowing up, with the Doctor pulling the strings in the background – in other words, a textbook rollicking McCoy-era adventure.
No stranger to Doctor Who, writer David Bishop has put in his time with Big Finish on the original 2000 A.D. audio range. Appropriately, Enemy Of The Daleks has plenty of action, a startlingly energetic, electric-guitar driven musical score, and a positively grim body count by the end of part four. A cause of death that one wouldn’t even wish on a Dalek? Seriously? Enemy Of The Daleks has it.
Helping to keep this from being Just Another Dalek Blast-Fest is Philip Olivier as Hex, who hasn’t met the Daleks before and does an outstanding job of presenting a viewpoint that the audience can readily identify with. At the end of the story, Hex finds himself wondering if he’s cut out for the Doctor’s hazardous, time-hopping life, and to put it in perspective, the Daleks have seen out more than their share of TARDIS travelers – Tegan and, more fatally, Sara Kingdom. They’re enough to scare anybody out of the TARDIS lifestyle. Ace takes Dalek fighting almost too calmly in her stride, which is a bit of a story point in and of itself: she’s a full-time resident of the Doctor’s dangerous lifestyle, and even having traveled with the Doctor and Ace for so long, Hex still has one foot in his own world.
Genesis Of The Daleks again raises its head as both a continuity reference and a key influence, but the story takes its cues from even older Dalek stories: the Daleks are doing plenty of nasty things of their own accord without Davros hanging over them.
An energetic, even slightly exhausting listen, Enemy Of The Daleks is so action-packed that one can occasionally lose track of who’s shooting at what… but on further reflection, that probably just means that the story is accurately reflecting what it’s like to be in the heat of battle. A recommended listen if you’re up for some explosive Dalek action.