The war against the Daleks rages on, but Alby Brook doesn’t give a damn – he’s deep in mourning for the woman he loved, and deeply drunk. But when he and Kalendorf discover that Suz left her knowledge of the Daleks’ plans behind for them, there’s new hope for the human resistance. But what Kalendorf and Alby don’t realize until it’s too late is that the Daleks have planted their servants deep within the ranks of the resistance, relaying vital tactical information back to their masters. One captured Dalek servant provides the freedom fighters with a way to listen in on the Dalek communications network, and the terrifying truth of Project Infinity comes to light. A desperate race ensues between the resistance forces and the mighty fleets of the Daleks, and the prize is universal peace…or universal domination.
written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Nicholas BriggsCast: Gareth Thomas (Kalendorf), Teresa Gallagher (Mirana), Mark McDonnell (Alby Brook), Joyce Gibbs (The Seer), Sarah Mowat (The Angel of Mercy), Simon Bridge (Dr. Johnstone), Ian Brooker (Espeelius), Jeremy James (Herrick), David Sax (Tanlee), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voice), Alistair Lock (Dalek voice), Steven Allen (Dalek voice), Robert Lock (Dalek voice)
LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green
Review: I wasn’t sure about the whole Dalek Empire series at first. We’re going to have 4+ solid hours of Daleks? On audio only? Are you kidding?
Well, Nick Briggs wasn’t, and no pun intended, he didn’t forget the human factor. The Daleks aren’t necessarily in the foreground full-time, as a story of human defiance, and trying to pursue love and freedom against literally impossible odds is woven throughout the large-scale war story. Kudos to the cast who got to play human beings in this one – they were all excellent, even if Gareth Thomas’ Kalendorf really did start to smack mightily of Thomas’ starring role in the BBC’s late 70s space saga Blake’s 7. Toward the latter half of Dalek Empire, as more non-human freedom fighters enter the picture, some truly bizarre voice treatments were tried out in an effort to mask the relatively small number of actual performers voicing the characters. Some of those voice filters were quite successful (and others, quite distracting), but the thing is, if Briggs and company at Big Finish were trying to go for a not-quite-high-budgeted-BBC-TV sound, they achieved it.
Oh, and the cliffhanger? That’s a mighty fine cliffhanger. But we’ll talk more about that when we get into the season two guide.