Brotherhood of the Daleks (Doctor Who) [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Another welcome return for The Doctor's greatest enemies; Brotherhood of the Daleks returns the TARDIS to Spiridon, home of the invisible peace-loving Spiridons and sometime base of the emotionless Nazi pepperpots. The Third Doctor and Jo Grant visited the planet in the 1972 adventure `Planet of the Daleks'; as they did that time, the time travellers encounter a squad of Thals, the race that The Daleks shared a home when they were simply a race of humanoids then known as Kaleds. This time The Daleks are using replicants to infiltrate the Thals - this gets a bit confusing when we encounter `replicated replicants' (!) - But the myriad twists and turns and exciting dénouement make for an absorbing, if convoluted listen.

The saga of the Doctor's companion, Charley, hiding the fact that she previously travelled with his future incarnation, continues to slide inexorably towards its inevitable conclusion, and India Fisher and Colin Baker play this brilliantly; you never quite know how much The Timelord knows, or suspects. Fisher meanwhile, has Charley constantly fleeing the scene to avoid the truth emerging, and her combination of insouciance and fear of exposure are well-acted and extremely effective in building tension. It will be a shame when this mix of time travellers is scrapped by the production team, but in the meantime we can enjoy the mystery.

The CD extras are the usual interviews with cast and crew. The most notable contribution is that of Michael Cochrane; the actor played Lord Cranleigh in the 1982 television story `Black Orchid', and his memories of the shoot make for fascinating listening.

This is the hundred and fourteenth release from Big Finish in their range of full cast audio adventures starring classic Doctor Whos. It stars Colin Baker as old Sixie, and India Fisher as Charlotte Pollard. There are four episodes, roughly 25-30 minutes each, complete with original theme music between each, and cliff hanger endings. Two episodes per disc on 2 discs, and a short booklet with some pictures of the cast and production notes. There are some interviews with cast and crew at the end of each disc.

This is a story that left me with several questions - who, what, when, how and why? It's a complicated multilayered story, that uses the mind bending plant species encountered in `The Mind's Eye' to good effect and create a story where nothing is as it seems as reality is a rare element. It's like an onion. It has many layers, as you carefully peel them back it might make you cry in parts, but you know that the end result is going to be something tasty.

The Doctor and Charlie land in the middle of a tropical jungle - but why does the TARDIS think that it is ice cold? Things soon get complicated as they encounter Thaals and Daleks, and the Doc quickly realises that not all is as it seems. The story then goes off in seemingly myriad mindbending directions as layers of reality are peeled back and gradually the hard core of truth is revealed.

The whole layered nature of the story and the inability of the Doctor to trust anything is almost a simile for the relationship he has with Charlotte. Indeed, the story is almost second place in this release to the excellent Charlie/Six story arc progression that takes place. The Doctor is aware that all is not as it seems, and is gently probing to get to the truth.

It's an excellent story, and very well acted, especially Baker and Fisher who really do wonders with their characters and bring a real depth to the relationship. You might have to listen to it a couple of times to get what is going on (I know I did!) but it really is worth 5 stars.

This is a many layered tale playing tricks with perception and reality in which the Sixth Doctor and Charley end up on (yet another) isolated space station on which various scientific experiments are being carried out.

Eventually (and this skips all the plot) you end up with Daleks founding a state based on the precepts of Karl Marx, singing the Red Flag and all whilst under the influence of mind altering drugs.

The story probably tries too hard, and also has the unavoidable Charley mystery bits - i.e. how do you know all this if you have amnesia.

Fun but maybe not the very best