‘GENETICS OF THE DALEK’ (TLV)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Daleks aboard the Starship Future with the Fourth Doctor

I stated ‘Ghosts’ won me over ‘Precious Annihilation’ in ‘The Tenth Doctor and River Song’ box set.

Well, in this same instance during the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ series, ‘Genetics of the Daleks’ by Jonathan Morris won me over ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ by Lizzie Hopley. I admit, ‘Genetics of the Daleks’ isn’t as good as ‘Ghosts’, but I did enjoy the story and characters throughout the audio. 🙂

‘Genetics of the Daleks’ features Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor battling against the Daleks, voiced by Nicholas Briggs in the ‘TLV’ series. It was so unusual to hear this ‘TLV’ audio adventure featuring Tom Baker’s Doctor and it came as a surprise treat during the releases of other ‘TLV’ stories in ‘Doctor Who’.

This audio adventure also serves as a prequel to the Escape Hunt game called ‘A Dalek Awakens’, which is currently held in places like Birmingham Resort World, Cheltenham, Norwich and Reading. I’ve not attended ‘A Dalek Awakens’ as an Escape Hunt game in order to know what it’s all about. 😐

It’s not that I don’t want to attend the gaming experience, but mainly I’d like to attend ‘Doctor Who’ events that are more local and having to go to places like Birmingham Resort World, Cheltenham, Norwich and Reading seems expensive. I’d need time off from work before I purchase train tickets. 🙁

Also, at the time of this review, with the world having been through a global pandemic in 2020 and 2021, I’m currently anxious about visiting places outside Wales. Maybe my opinion will change and perhaps by the time you’re reading this review, I will have attended the ‘A Dalek Awakens’ game. 😀

For now, ‘Genetics of the Daleks’ is the closest I’ll get to attending ‘A Dalek Awakens’ and I don’t think you need to worry about attending the live game experience afterwards. Also, I’ve currently made a vow to not review the live experience events featured in the ‘TLV’ series of ‘Doctor Who’. 😐

In many respects, ‘Genetics of the Daleks’ has been a fun ride. It was intriguing to hear Tom Baker’s participation in the ‘TLV’ series where it’s been mostly Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant’s Doctor who have participated. There have also been the Eleventh and Thirteenth Doctors.

But still, it’s surprising that not every Doctor featured in ‘Doctor Who’ took part in the ‘TLV’ series. As mentioned in another review, it would’ve been nice for the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa to be involved in ‘TLV’. I don’t think the War Doctor’s involvement would be possible considering he’s locked in the Time War. 😐

It does take a while for Tom Baker’s Doctor to make an appearance in ‘Genetics of the Daleks’ when we’re getting to know the guest characters aboard the starship Future. But it’s not a major issue, as the guest characters’ introductions are fascinating and Tom Baker’s appearance is worth waiting for.

The story takes place in outer space on the 27th of May 2985. The starship Future contains 10,000 humans in stasis. They’re expecting to wake up on a distant planet, which is to be their new home. I might have used a colony ship idea for one of my ‘Doctor Who’ stories. I can’t tell you which one though. 😀

The starship Future has been on its journey for 20 years. It takes on board fuel, but it also brings aboard something else. Something that has been waiting and frozen in space for a very long time. It happens to be a Dalek mutant! There are also members of a crime syndicate about to cause trouble.

I like how the story builds up the tension throughout, especially concerning members of the starship crew that aren’t what they seem and they turn out to be crime syndicate members. The Doctor turns up to help out the crew of the starship Future and may get a sneak preview about his own future. 😐

Tom Baker is a delight to listen to in this audio adventure. I enjoyed it when the Doctor was freed from his laser prison cell by the two crime syndicate members, but he decides not to follow their bait and calls the captain to tell her that he’s been freed. I hoped that Tom’s Doctor would do that. 🙂

It’s also intriguing when he meets the Dalek mutant that he gets to hear about his future and that he will end up becoming the Time Lord Victorious. Naturally, Tom’s Doctor doesn’t believe he will cast away his morals so readily in the future and he doesn’t take the Dalek mutant’s word at face value.

It was fun to hear the Dalek mutant before he becomes a fully-formed Dalek in its casing, voiced by Nicholas Briggs, in the adventure. This is of course a survivor of the Dalek Time Squad from the other ‘TLV’ stories featuring the Eighth Doctor as well as the Ninth and Tenth Doctors in books and audios.

Despite this being called ‘Genetics of the Daleks’, there’s only one fully-formed Dalek that appears in this adventure. Yet, the Dalek mutant takes advantage of turning the humans in their stasis chambers to become Daleks once they wake up. Reminds me of ‘Revelation of the Daleks’ somehow.

Pippa Haywood guest stars as Captain Graff. I’ve seen Pippa Haywood as Helen Brittas in the BBC comedy TV series ‘The Brittas Empire’ and she was in ‘The Master of Callous’ with Sir Derek Jacobi. Graff may have noble intentions, but she was willing to sacrifice the humans on the starship Future!

Clive Mantle guest stars as Medical Officer Chuke. I’ve seen Clive Mantle in episodes of ‘The Vicar of Dibley’ and he’s also been in Big Finish audios like ‘Destroy the Infinite’ and ‘The Burning Prince’. Chuke is not the real Chuke in this story and he happens to be one of the crime syndicate members!

Nina Toussaint-White guest stars as Security Officer Swann in the adventure. I’ve met Nina Toussaint-White in real life at ‘Collectormania Glasgow 2012’ and she’s well-known for playing Mels in ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’. Like Chuke, Swann is another member of the crime syndicate aboard the starship.

Andrew James Spooner guest stars as Professor Brooke, the man who discovered the Dalek mutant and became its slave. Andrew has done other Big Finishes like the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Psychic Circus’, an audio episode of ‘Star Cops’ and he was in the ‘Timeslip’ story ‘The War That Never Was’.

Joseph Kloska guest stars as Pilot Jake Finlay, revived from cryogenic sleep after two previous pilots of the starship Future were deceased. Joseph Kloska has had his fair share of ‘Doctor Who’ Big Finish audios like ‘The Masters of Luxor’, ‘The Doctor’s Tale’, ‘The Acheron Pulse’ and ‘Order of the Daleks’.

I don’t know if it’s me, but there are echoes of the audio story ‘The Elite’ where a Dalek mutant was uncased before it became inserted into a Dalek casing by Professor Brooke. The difference between the two stories is that there was a surprise reveal for the Dalek at the end of ‘Part One’ of ‘The Elite’.

There was a lot to take in regarding the action-packed climax of this adventure. That’s probably why ‘Genetics of the Daleks’ isn’t as good as ‘Ghosts’ for me, which is a shame, as I’d been enjoying this adventure for the most part. Pretty much all the guest characters featured in this story get killed off.

The story concludes with the Doctor leaving in the TARDIS and saying goodbye to Jake Finlay. Pilot Finlay is about to clean up the mess following the chaos ensued by the Dalek mutant. But the Dalek mutant has survived and kills off Finlay. The story ends on a cliffhanger to lead into ‘A Dalek Awakens’.

‘Genetics of the Daleks’ has been a fun ‘Doctor Who’ audio adventure to listen to. I wouldn’t say it’s a masterpiece, but Tom Baker delivers well as the Fourth Doctor and Jonny Morris does well in delivering good character development for the guest stars. This is a really intriguing ‘TLV’ instalment.

The CD extras are as follows. At the end of ‘Genetics of the Daleks’, there are behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew including Tom Baker, Nicholas Briggs, director Jamie Anderson, producer Emma Haigh, Pippa Haywood, Clive Mantle, Nina Toussaint-White, Andrew James Spooner, Joseph Kloska, etc.

‘Genetics of the Daleks’ (TLV) rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Fourth Doctor was ‘Someone I Once Knew’ (DRS) (Audio) For the Daleks was ‘Mutually Assurred Destruction’ (TLV) (Book)	The next story For the Fourth Doctor is ‘Millennium Shock’ (Book) For the Daleks is ‘Time War’ (G) (Audio)
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