‘THE TROJAN DALEK’

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Not-Daleks with the Tenth Doctor, Anya and Mark

The fourth story of the ‘Dalek Universe’ season is called ‘The Trojan Dalek’ by John Dorney. I greatly enjoyed hearing this story with David Tennant’s Doctor, although it does get emotional by the end. 🙁

In the episode, the Doctor, Anya and Mark visit an SSS space station called the Beltros Station. They hope to find the temporal scientist Arborecc, who could provide help with the Doctor’s predicament.

Unfortunately, when they get there, the officer in charge of the station – Blake Ritson as Major McLinn – denies all knowledge of Arborecc’s presence. This does make the TARDIS trio very curious.

Unwilling to leave the station once McLinn demands their departure, the TARDIS trio soon split up and uncover a heinous plot involving the Doctor’s foes, the Daleks. But they aren’t what they seem.

Blake Ritson has appeared in quite a number of Big Finish audios over the years. Recently, I heard him in ‘The False Guardian’/’Time’s Assassin’, which is an audio story that featured Anya as Ann Kelso.

Thankfully he doesn’t do an over-the-top performance in this audio story like he did in ‘The False Guardian’/’Time’s Assassin’. Blake Ritson has also been in ‘Death and the Queen’ with David Tennant. 🙂

It was interesting how McLinn got unveiled as an enemy in this audio episode. He oversees a secret SSS operation where wounded soldiers are mutated into fake Daleks to infiltrate the enemy lines. 😮

Naturally, the Doctor is appalled by what McLinn is intent on doing. There are echoes of ‘The House of Kingdom’ in this episode, where Abigail Crane attempted to use Varga plants as human weapons.

There are also echoes of ‘Daleks in Manhattan’/’Evolution of the Daleks’ in this episode. This is especially when the human-mutated Daleks refused to open fire and kill coldly at McLinn’s orders. 🙂

Speaking of the Daleks, these aren’t the traditional Nicholas Briggs-sounding Daleks we’ve been used to. These Daleks sound like the ones from the original TV version of ‘Day of the Daleks’ with odd voices.

I’m not sure if Nick Briggs voices any of the human-mutated Daleks in the episode, despite being credited in the CD sleeves notes and not in the audio episode, but their voices do make sense to me.

It was interesting to hear how these humanised Daleks sounded compared to the ones in ‘Revelation of the Daleks’. They sound quite pathetic and I don’t believe their Dalek casings help in that regard.

Some of the humanised Daleks’ casings are damaged, I believe. It was also interesting to hear the humans who have been turned into Daleks, as we heard what some of them sound like in the story.

There’s Barnaby Edwards who plays the scientist Arborecc himself. He gets turned into a Dalek in this episode. David Tennant’s Doctor discovers this when he investigates the Dalek that’s guarding him.

Pippa Bennett-Warner guest stars as Felicity ‘Fliss’ Keeley in the episode. She too gets turned into a Dalek. She also happens to be a potential love interest for Mark Seven, but it ends rather tragically. 🙁

It was sad to hear how Fliss became injured before she went on to become a Dalek. Apparently, a Sontaran fragmentation mine injured her. From what I’ve gathered, those things can be really lethal.

Barnaby Edwards also plays the station computer, a nurse and the ‘boss’ in the episode. Pippa Bennett-Warner also plays Polsandys. She’s involved with the mutation of the humans into Daleks. 🙁

It was shocking to hear how the episode ended. Mark Seven tries to persuade the human part of Fliss to come to the forefront. Unfortunately, Fliss exterminates Mark instead. Is this the end of him?

I wonder if Mark will return for the rest of the ‘Dalek Universe’ season, as this seems to be a premature end for him in ‘Doctor Who’. We are only about halfway into the ‘Dalek Universe’ season.

The performances of David Tennant and Jane Slavin are great in this episode, especially in how they react to Mark Seven’s death. Joe Sims also delivers a great performance playing Mark in the episode.

‘The Trojan Dalek’ has been a gripping and gut-punching episode to listen to. It was a shock to hear Mark being killed off by Fliss-Dalek in the story. I’m wondering what will happen next in the season. 🙂

‘The Trojan Dalek’ rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Tenth Doctor was ‘Cycle of Destruction’ (Audio) For Anya was ‘Cycle of Destruction’ (Audio) For Mark Seven was ‘Cycle of Destruction’ (Audio)	The next story For the Tenth Doctor is ‘The Lost’ (Audio) For Anya is ‘The Lost’ (Audio) For Mark Seven is ‘The Dalek Defence’/’The Triumph of Davros’ (Audio)
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