Interestingly, for the Daleks, it is before the events in the Asylum, as they clearly know the Doctor. Indeed, the whole tale hangs on their manipulation of time with a plan to ensnare the Time Lord.
Suffering from what he terms an occupational hazard, the Doctor receives a message that hails from his own future. Drawn to a graveside on a desolate planet he takes the first step in a complex, temporally twisted journey.
Later, responding to a distress call, the TARDIS is bumped off course. Rather than coming to the rescue of a pair of scientists, the Doctor becomes embroiled in the fate of their children; Sable, Jenibeth and little Ollus Blakely. His investigation into their parent’s secret, one they willingly died for, is entwined with the fate of the Sunlight worlds – a group of four hundred planets where the Daleks appear to be the kindly benefactors of mankind.
The principal foe throughout is the Dalek Time Controller, a fearsome creature that appears to outrank even the Dalek Supreme. With its superior intellectual capacity and powers of temporal perception, this Dalek appears to be both unusually subtle and brilliantly manipulative and the author awards it an particularly human voice. The Time Controller is not excusive to this novel, having tackled the Doctor in both Sixth and Eighth incarnations in Briggs’ audio adventures.
As for the Doctor himself, we see his difficulties in dealing with children and endure his discomfort when he has to allude to their parent’s distressing fate. Worse horrors are to come too as they lose one of their number to the Daleks.
One of the most enjoyable parts of the book has to be the sequence involving the Dalek Litigator, who turns up incongruously to act as the prosecution in the Doctor’s ‘hate crime’ hearing for bad mouthing the Dalek Foundation in public.
Briggs cast of supporting characters, while fun, can tend to verge on the Monty Python silly voice brigade. The Doctor’s defence council and judge are a case in point, as well as the police officers who appear to be dim and Americanised for no particular reason.
In many ways, this is a gut-wrenching tale and it provides further ammunition for the Doctor’s decision to become a recluse. We are left with a few questions though, as we never find out anything about the creators of the awesome power the Daleks seek or indeed the fate of the Sunlight worlds if they retain any influence over them.
The story is not without humour though, a lot of which comes from the Doctor having to deal with toilet breaks and the children’s expectations. Much of the sting of the tale is reduced with a satisfying resolution that suits the TV series’ habit of grand everybody lives moments.
Released on Thursday 6 June 2013 by AudioGO.
> Buy Series 7 Part 2 on DVD on Amazon.
> Buy Series 7 Part 1 on DVD on Amazon.
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