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Big Finish: Monthly Range #93
Doctor Who: Renaissance of the Daleks
A random landing in London and a trip to the Savoy Hotel yield unexpected results for the Doctor. Tea, scones, an American general who knows far too much, and the threat of a Dalek invasion of Earth.
Meanwhile, the Doctor's companion Nyssa is in Rhodes during the time of the Crusades, where her position proves to be distinctly precarious.
It seems the Doctor's deadliest foes have woven a tangled web indeed. And in order to defeat them, he must cross the forbidden barriers of time and walk into the very centre of their latest, most outlandish scheme of conquest.
This story takes place between Time-Flight and Arc of Infinity.
Meanwhile, the Doctor's companion Nyssa is in Rhodes during the time of the Crusades, where her position proves to be distinctly precarious.
It seems the Doctor's deadliest foes have woven a tangled web indeed. And in order to defeat them, he must cross the forbidden barriers of time and walk into the very centre of their latest, most outlandish scheme of conquest.
This story takes place between Time-Flight and Arc of Infinity.
Audio CD
First published March 30, 2007
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About the author
Christopher H. Bidmead
13 books11 followersChristopher Hamilton Bidmead is a British writer and journalist who wrote several Doctor Who TV serials, all of which he also novelised. He was also script editor for Season 18.
He was attached (agreed, but without a contract) to write several serials that were ultimatelly cancelled. They were In the Hollows of Time, a two-part (forty-five minute) story for the cancelled season 23[1], and a four parter, Pinacotheca (a.k.a. The Last Adventure), which would have been the third part of the The Trial of a Time Lord arc[2].
He was attached (agreed, but without a contract) to write several serials that were ultimatelly cancelled. They were In the Hollows of Time, a two-part (forty-five minute) story for the cancelled season 23[1], and a four parter, Pinacotheca (a.k.a. The Last Adventure), which would have been the third part of the The Trial of a Time Lord arc[2].
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 13, 2024
Sarah Sutton’s birthday and also the 60th anniversary of one of the Dalek Invasion of Earth episodes. It starts off strong, with there being tension regarding whether The Doctor should interfere when it comes to the invasion. It does go down a little though. I do kinda wonder if the toy Daleks idea is a reference to Who merch.
August 8, 2021
This story has quite a bad reputation among fans and there's still the mystery of who actually adapted/wrote it. It is an idea from Christopher H Bidmead and throughout I was wondering which parts was his idea, possibly the additional science stuff. Christopher H Bidmead is a nice guy but most of his era is all let's gets kids into science but not actually explain it to them because you should already know about it. But having said that, this story never really dragged for me.
There are some stories which I love that often drag however this did flow nicely for about 2 hours. The structure of the story, sometimes characters and the final reveals is alittle boring but it's fun at times. Theres numerous plots here, American war history, PTSD, changing timelines and mini Daleks. Some are more interesting than others. There is some great ideas here, the mini toy Daleks that have actual Daleks in them is a great fun idea and here it's more hilariously ridiculous. But I did like it.
There is also an idea about how the Daleks have found a way to change history by making everyone want to fight each other. Projecting images and voices into there heads. This is a great idea of how the Daleks are minupluting wars and humanity but there is a big problem that I see. 1. This is real history and your showing some serious moments such as a character who was a black slave who I did enjoy but with some historical inaccuracies, however it does work with the context of this story and has some truth to it. So yes already some contridictions are showing up. Meaning that once the Daleks are defeated the Dr willingly returns him back, to his master. Also meaning that the wars must continue and the Dr does nothing. Which I understand it's a time enigma thingy. But it's not really clear near the end of this if this just alternative timeline were the Daleks have slipped in or actually history of earth?
I think my main problems are that the ending doesn't feel like an ending. It's not clear how all these timelines and wars have been minupluted. It's revealed towards the end that the creature the greylish plans to spread Dalek particles and mini Dalek toys around earth in various wars with the hope that they will keep people fighting and somehow kill each other off so they can rule the planet. The idea of having Daleks tricking soldiers into thinking there suffering from PTSD with the voices of war to make them fight and be paranoid about one another is an horrific and interesting idea for them. But the story makes it so over complicated then it really needed to be. Plus we start to get a group of characters one from different wars that do nothing to plot but just be there which is a wasted idea. The end even has one character sacrifice himself to the vortex with the mini Daleks in the crates, but I don't understand why he had to die, this story just makes him do and it somehow allows the Dr to travel back to the Daleks and trick the greylish to sacrifice itself against the Daleks.
Okay fair even but why over complicate things, timelines aside, the story is there but it's all muddled up and still trying to be a story about all this other things.
I'm not saying I could fix this and make it a masterpiece but the ideas are there. So have the Daleks plant these Dalek toys around the timezones of a war (maybe just one war so it's less complicated) to cheer kids up etc and have some be sent as a present to their father's etc fighting in the wars. Have it then be revealed that they have parts of Daleks in them that mess with people's minds and miniupltive them to either keep fighting each other or make the kids say propaganda/hate speech that makes both sides get even madder at one other because to them, the enemy is trying to currpte our children. But we know it's the Daleks, like in Frontier in space. Then at the end when the doctor confronts the emperor dalek who's behind it and reveals his plan is to spread them Daleks across multiple timelines, the Dr does something clever and all timelines are erased and the war goes on as normal.
I'd recommend getting the download for this as its so much cheaper than trying to get an out of print cd and see what you think. It's definitely not the worst big finish audio I've listened to and deffintaly not the worst Dalek audio I've listened to but it's very, in a way unquie.
Rating 2/5 5/10
There are some stories which I love that often drag however this did flow nicely for about 2 hours. The structure of the story, sometimes characters and the final reveals is alittle boring but it's fun at times. Theres numerous plots here, American war history, PTSD, changing timelines and mini Daleks. Some are more interesting than others. There is some great ideas here, the mini toy Daleks that have actual Daleks in them is a great fun idea and here it's more hilariously ridiculous. But I did like it.
There is also an idea about how the Daleks have found a way to change history by making everyone want to fight each other. Projecting images and voices into there heads. This is a great idea of how the Daleks are minupluting wars and humanity but there is a big problem that I see. 1. This is real history and your showing some serious moments such as a character who was a black slave who I did enjoy but with some historical inaccuracies, however it does work with the context of this story and has some truth to it. So yes already some contridictions are showing up. Meaning that once the Daleks are defeated the Dr willingly returns him back, to his master. Also meaning that the wars must continue and the Dr does nothing. Which I understand it's a time enigma thingy. But it's not really clear near the end of this if this just alternative timeline were the Daleks have slipped in or actually history of earth?
I think my main problems are that the ending doesn't feel like an ending. It's not clear how all these timelines and wars have been minupluted. It's revealed towards the end that the creature the greylish plans to spread Dalek particles and mini Dalek toys around earth in various wars with the hope that they will keep people fighting and somehow kill each other off so they can rule the planet. The idea of having Daleks tricking soldiers into thinking there suffering from PTSD with the voices of war to make them fight and be paranoid about one another is an horrific and interesting idea for them. But the story makes it so over complicated then it really needed to be. Plus we start to get a group of characters one from different wars that do nothing to plot but just be there which is a wasted idea. The end even has one character sacrifice himself to the vortex with the mini Daleks in the crates, but I don't understand why he had to die, this story just makes him do and it somehow allows the Dr to travel back to the Daleks and trick the greylish to sacrifice itself against the Daleks.
Okay fair even but why over complicate things, timelines aside, the story is there but it's all muddled up and still trying to be a story about all this other things.
I'm not saying I could fix this and make it a masterpiece but the ideas are there. So have the Daleks plant these Dalek toys around the timezones of a war (maybe just one war so it's less complicated) to cheer kids up etc and have some be sent as a present to their father's etc fighting in the wars. Have it then be revealed that they have parts of Daleks in them that mess with people's minds and miniupltive them to either keep fighting each other or make the kids say propaganda/hate speech that makes both sides get even madder at one other because to them, the enemy is trying to currpte our children. But we know it's the Daleks, like in Frontier in space. Then at the end when the doctor confronts the emperor dalek who's behind it and reveals his plan is to spread them Daleks across multiple timelines, the Dr does something clever and all timelines are erased and the war goes on as normal.
I'd recommend getting the download for this as its so much cheaper than trying to get an out of print cd and see what you think. It's definitely not the worst big finish audio I've listened to and deffintaly not the worst Dalek audio I've listened to but it's very, in a way unquie.
Rating 2/5 5/10
May 27, 2017
Ambitious, but over reaching. The story can't really make up it's mind tonally what it's going for. One minute there are cute wind up Daleks over running the console room (which felt like it would have been great comedy) the next are horrible implications of preventing the Dalek invasion of Earth from happening (which aren't as serious as the story makes out). The result is a bit of a muddled mess. Enjoyable, but swinging the pendulum either way toward spoof or full blown Dalek mayhem would have helped immensely.
May 23, 2024
DNF 1/3rd of the way through. Couldn’t stand one more second of the awful dialogue, offensive characters, or half-baked plot. If I were Christopher H. Bidmead, I’d have taken my name off the story entirely just to avoid the embarrassment.
March 24, 2024
Idea for a drinking game: take a shot every time they mention the temporal interocitor.
October 3, 2024
The story was a bit all over the place, like it didn't know what it was supposed to be doing.
February 7, 2026
Fifth Doctor shenanigans & DALEKS!
June 26, 2017
This would, at the time, have been the third Big Finish release in three months to feature the daleks, which would, to my mind, have rather dented any possible impact. (In fairness, the other two weren't in the main series, as this one is, so it wasn't necessarily planned that way).
At any rate, this is a story as much about a time paradox as anything else, and does have a number of Bidmead's trademarks, with technobabble based on real science and something that's at least akin to a pocket dimension. There are a number of nice ideas in it, but ultimately it doesn't add up to much beyond a run-around through time. It doesn't help that some of the American accents are so bad they'll irritate you even if you're not American.
It's not actively bad, by any means, but the whole is somehow less than the sum of its parts.
At any rate, this is a story as much about a time paradox as anything else, and does have a number of Bidmead's trademarks, with technobabble based on real science and something that's at least akin to a pocket dimension. There are a number of nice ideas in it, but ultimately it doesn't add up to much beyond a run-around through time. It doesn't help that some of the American accents are so bad they'll irritate you even if you're not American.
It's not actively bad, by any means, but the whole is somehow less than the sum of its parts.
Read
April 8, 2009Renaissance of the Daleks has all kinds of weirdness in it: historical soldiers from Rhodes, the Battle of the Crater and 'Nam, plus also an attempt to prevent the Dalek Invasion of Earth from happening, plus (as ever in a Bidmead story) a place with a privileged location in the whole of space-time, plus Daleks of all sizes - the smaller they are, the nastier they get. It is an ambitious piece that didn't quite reach what it was looking for (and Bidmead slightly dissociated himself from the final version) but worth listening to, apart from one absolutely terrible member of the guest cast.
August 31, 2014
The Doctor leaves Nyssa on Earth, not knowing that she's in Rhodes during the Crusades, then ends up in the American Civil War. The Doctor meets General Tillington, an American general that has been spying on the TARDIS with actinoids. The Doctor finds out that The Dalek Invasion of Earth hasn't happened and a new Dalek invasion is coming very soon. The Doctor must try to put history right, but how can he convince General Tillington? The Doctor heads to the TARDIS. With the help of Tillington's nephew Wilton, can he save Nyssa and her friends Mulberry and Floyd from getting blown up? And can he escape the deadly "Toy Daleks"?
June 10, 2024
There's the 5th Doctor (Peter Davison). There Nyssa (Sarah Sutton). And there are Daleks (Nicholas Briggs). Tried and true formula. Not reinventing the wheel, but a more than adequate story. Think of it as the "comfort food" of 5th Doctor audio adventures: it's not gourmet, but it is familiar and satisfying.
January 21, 2016
The Doctor and Nyssa have to figure out why time is out of Kilter and The Daleks haven't invaded on a date the Doctor has landed on. There are also the toy dales that everyone is collecting but don't know why. Is this another Dalek plot to try to dominate the world and universe. Find out.
June 21, 2016
the fifth doctor battles daleks. The thing that bothers me about this story is that one of the doctors companions is a slave from the civil war who loves the confederacy, bloody awful that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 14, 2024
"What am I thinking? Well I’ve got a TARDIS full of strangers and…yes, the TARDIS has been locked on course to an undisclosed destination by a couple of toy Daleks!"
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews