Doctor Who: Shadow of the Daleks 1

Just a wonderful release and that my least favorite story (the second one) was still pretty great and the first story was a rare 10/10 for me. I fear the answers to the mysteries may not be as compelling as the mysteries themselves, but even if part 2 is only half as good as this it’ll still be pretty good.

I feel a bit silly saying this now, as in retrospect it was very obvious, but I was a bit surprised and disappointed at the end that there was no real resolution to the over-arching mystery. Ah, well, what can I do but echo the common sentiment and express that I, too, am eager to hear the sequel?

One thing I do want to touch on is what a great idea it was to have humans speak with Dalek voices, and overlay the one onto the other. I kinda wish they'd done more with that idea, and been a bit more subtle early on, so that it was harder to tell whether or not you're hearing a human or a Dalek. It's definitely a conceit that could, alone, justify an entire full-length story--and one that perhaps would work best in live-action Doctor Who. But it occurs to me that the live-action series might be incapable of doing the idea justice, as strange as that may sound on the face of it. It doesn't take much to get an actor on-screen speaking with a Dalek voice, right? And I think that's the problem: if the TV show tried to do something like this, they'd almost certainly ruin the effect of a "human Dalek" with unnecessary special effects. So perhaps it is best that Big Finish got here first.

I don't know how the Dalek sound modulation works, but I wonder if it could be applied slightly, as if on a gentle gradient, as an actor is speaking. If so, they could do some very interesting things with sound in future stories.

....

Also, near the end, I got to thinking about how these stories might resolve. And I think, or perhaps hope, Shadow of the Daleks 2 might be a good opportunity for a cameo from another Doctor. Ideally the 8th Doctor, though potentially the "Young War Doctor" would work. Just to give some nice "foreshadowing" to the 5th Doctor. So many multi-Doctor stories are played lightly: multiple incarnations show up because times-wimey, and maybe the universe will explode or maybe it won't, but it doesn't matter because they can fix everything, and they happily snipe at each other as they do just that. The end. It's a very functional formula for fanservice. But here is an opportunity for something different: a future Doctor wouldn't trade barbs with the 5th Doctor, Ned simply tell him to get out. To leave. His future is not a pleasant one and not one he should be glad to glimpse, any more than a Time War Doctor would be heartened to see an earlier, more innocent self, spared the horrors of the war he is not utterly immersed in.

....

Another thought i had while listening: I think I finally realized why I haven't really warmed up to the 5th Doctor on audio, despite loving his era of the TV show. At first I thought it was simply Davison's much-changed voice. But it didn't bother me at all here, where I found myself enjoying the 5th Doctor more than in any other audio play I've yet heard. And... I think it's because the Doctor was alone this time.

I've realized I just don't like any of the 5th Doctor's companions. Not really. Some are more bearable than others, but none really have an interesting dynamic, or chemistry, with the Doctor. I often enjoy stories where the Doctor is by himself, so perhaps this is another case of something that I have been foolish not to notice earlier, so obvious is it in hindsight.

Just landed on CultBox, my take on Shadow 1 - always difficult to judge where a story is headed at the halfway point, but what I hears, I likes!

I think it's one example of how to do a Time War story. It's not something I think would be interesting if regularly repeated and feel it's more appropriately used when including past Doctors in the Time War (see the First Doctor Companion Chronicles set), but I'm not sure it's representative of the Time War.



But that's the beauty of the Time War concept, isn't it? You can do anything and everything with it. They're all perfectly valid and it's down to the individual to determine how strong they felt it was.

Oh, absolutely. I was just saying it's nice to see the fall-out from a temporal conflict, rather than some of the Time Lord vs Dalek war stories we often get. Not that this is the only time-warpy story we've had set in the Time War, but it is certainly a memorable one!

Cheers!