‘DALEKS!’ (TLV)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Islos, the Entity and Mechanoids with the Daleks
Could this YouTube animation series echo the Dalek comics from TV Century 21?
‘Daleks!’ is a five-episode mini-series featuring the Daleks which was released weekly on the official ‘Doctor Who’ YouTube channel as part of the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ series. The five episodes were by James Goss. Nicholas Briggs provided the voices of the Daleks in the five episodes of the series. 🙂
The series also features voice actors like Joe Sugg, Anjli Mohindra and Ayesha Antoine. It’s amazing this series was created especially for ‘Time Lord Victorious’. It must have been made before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially with the voice actors providing their talent to this series. 😀
I, of course, am a subscriber to the ‘Doctor Who’ YouTube channel, but I didn’t get a chance to check out the series at the time the episodes were transmitted. I decided to hold back until I got a chance to check out the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ series in full, regardless of the order that the stories came in.
I was looking forward to checking out each episode of the ‘Daleks!’ series. They seemed exciting from watching the trailers. The episodes are 13 to 15 minutes in length and have echoes of the classic 1960s Dalek comic stories produced by TV Century 21. Would the series truly meet my expectations?
‘Daleks!’ is a series that takes place before the events of ‘Defender of the Daleks’ and ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’ in the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ series. You could argue that ‘Daleks!’ is the earliest participation of the metal pepperpots in ‘Time Lord Victorious’. At least, that’s how I’d perceive it. 🙂
The series was released from November to December 2020 via the official ‘Doctor Who’ YouTube channel. The five episodes include ‘The Archive of Islos’, ‘The Sentinel of the Fifth Galaxy’, ‘Planet of the Mechanoids’, ‘The Deadly Ally’ and ‘Day of Reckoning’. Let’s brave on to check out this series! 😀
1. ‘THE ARCHIVE OF ISLOS’
The first episode of ‘Daleks!’ called ‘The Archive of Islos’ has the Daleks invading the planet Islos to take over their Archive. At this point, it’s not clear to say why the Daleks want the Archive for. The Archive’s guardians led by the Chief Archivian aren’t willing to surrender the Archive to the Daleks. 😐
As well as Nicholas Briggs voicing the Daleks, Ayesha Antoine voices the Chief Archivian in this episode. You may know Ayesha Antoine for playing Dee Dee Blasco in the ‘Doctor Who’ episode ‘Midnight’. She’s also played Ruth Leonidas in the ‘Bernice Summerfield’ audio stories by Big Finish.
On first impressions, ‘The Archive of Islos’ is a nice beginning to the ‘Daleks!’ series. The animation is decent enough and there are some good action sequences of Daleks attacking the planet Islos from outer space and on the planet surface. But I’m curious about what the Daleks are doing in this series.
The Dalek characters include the gold Emperor of the Restoration, the Dalek Prime Strategist and the Dalek Executioner. These characters have appeared in other ‘TLV’ stories like ‘Defender of the Daleks’ and ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’. I was curious what attacked the Daleks from the open portal.
‘The Archive of Islos’ rating – 7/10
2. ‘THE SENTINEL OF THE FIFTH GALAXY’
When we come to the second episode of the series called ‘The Sentinel of the Fifth Galaxy’, it turns out an unidentified Entity is attacking the Daleks. The Daleks flee to their home planet Skaro, but the green-glowing Entity is already managing to wipe out the Daleks once it destroys them one by one.
Fearing it may already be too late, the Dalek Strategist comes up with a plan that will require the co-operation of the Sentinel of the Fifth Galaxy. The Sentinel is like a yellow construction android (voiced by Joe Sugg). Its task is to oversee an army of red Daleks being held in suspended animation.
But it’s already too late. The army of red Daleks has already been taken over by the unidentified green-glowing Entity and the Sentinel has also betrayed the Dalek Strategist. Very soon, the Dalek Strategist returns to the golden Emperor on his flagship to report what’s just happened to the army.
The Dalek Executioner leads Dalek forces against the Entity’s acquired red Dalek army, but it seems all hope is lost for the Daleks with the Entity destroying them one by one. The Dalek Strategist soon reveals to the Emperor that there is another solution to this problem, but it’s one it won’t really like.
‘The Sentinel of the Fifth Galaxy’ rating – 8/10
3. ‘PLANET OF THE MECHANOIDS’
The third episode of ‘Daleks!’ has our metal pepperpots visiting the planet of their foes called the Mechanoids. The Mechanoids and Mechanus were seen in the ‘Doctor Who’ story called ‘The Chase’. It was great to see the Mechanoids again having enjoyed them from their only TV series outing.
The Mechanoids have also been in the Big Finish audio called ‘The Juggernauts’. In this episode, the Mechanoids are led by their queen, voiced by Anjli Mohindra, who played Rani Chandra in ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’. It was fascinating to see the blue Mechanoid Queen being more talkative. 🙂
There’s also a Mechanoid scientist called Mechanoid 2150 (voiced by Ayesha Antoine) which the Dalek Strategist interacts with. The gold Dalek Emperor mostly interacts with the blue Mechanoid Queen. The rest of the Mechanoids are voiced by Nicholas Briggs who also voices the Daleks here. 🙂
The Daleks attempt to make an alliance with the Mechanoids, but the Queen isn’t so willing to accept the offer at face value. The Silver Daleks become impatient and soon a battle ensues between them and the Mechanoids. But it turns out that the Daleks have led the Entity to the Mechanoids. 😮
‘Planet of the Mechanoids’ rating – 8/10
4. ‘THE DEADLY ALLY’
In the fourth episode of ‘Daleks!’ called ‘The Deadly Ally’, the Daleks and the Mechanoids make an uneasy alliance where they try to stop the green-glowing Entity and hopefully save the universe. It’s very intriguing how the Daleks and the Mechanoids become allies in this particular ‘Daleks!’ episode.
The Dalek Strategist and Mechanoid 2150 seem to work well together in terms of intellect when they devise a plan on how to weaken the Entity’s hold on the planet Mechanus. The Mechanoid Queen however is more than happy to have the gold Dalek Emperor be exterminated by the enemy.
It was fun and exciting to see the Mechanoids defending their planet against the Entity which seemed to show no mercy. It was also quite disturbing when the Dalek Emperor was determined to defend himself against the Entity and his gold casing became badly damaged by the Entity’s attacks.
In the end, the Dalek Strategist and Mechanoid 2150 find a way to send the Entity back to the dimension where it came from. The Mechanoid Queen orders the Dalek Emperor and the Dalek Strategist to leave Mechanus as she declares that the Mechanoids will be coming after the Daleks. 😐
‘The Deadly Ally’ rating – 7/10
5. ‘DAY OF RECKONING’
In the fifth and final episode of ‘Daleks!’; the Dalek Emperor and the Dalek Strategist return to Skaro where they’re about to make a final stand against their enemies, the Mechanoids. It was fun to see the Mechanoids coming to attack Skaro. It turns out there’s a secret army of Daleks on the planet. 🙂
The battle scenes between Daleks and Mechanoids are probably what ‘Doctor Who’ fans most wanted to see since seeing them battle in ‘The Chase’. And they’re in colour too! 😀 It was intriguing to see how the Mechanoids tried to bargain with the Dalek Strategist in order to defeat the Daleks. 🙂
There’s a moment when the Dalek Emperor thinks the Dalek Strategist has betrayed their race to the Mechanoids. But it turns out the Dalek Strategist has opened a portal for the green-glowing Entity to suck in the Mechanoids in order to defeat them. I knew the Dalek Strategist wouldn’t betray his kind.
The series ends with the Emperor congratulating the Strategist for destroying both the Mechanoids and the Entity. But one of the damaged Mechanoids gets possessed by the Entity and tells the Daleks they’ve no idea what is coming. This is a reference to the Hond in ‘Defender of the Daleks’, I believe.
‘Daleks!’ has been an enjoyable five-episode animation series to watch on YouTube. I wish the series had more character-driven stuff going on and that the episodes were longer. Then again, this animation series was likely made within a short amount of time to tie-in with ‘Time Lord Victorious’.
Despite that, I found ‘Daleks!’ worth checking out in the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ saga. Knowing how the Daleks will end up meeting the Tenth Doctor in ‘Defender of the Daleks’ and the Eighth Doctor in ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’, I’m curious about where the series will continue next time for the Daleks!
‘Day of Reckoning’ rating –8/10
‘Daleks!’ (TLV) rating – 8/10
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