We Are The Daleks (2015)

We Are The Daleks sees the Seventh Doctor reunite with Mel. This is the first time that the two have encountered each other since Red back in 2006 or release number 85 so it’s odd that its release number 201 before we get another story and to celebrate this story the Daleks have been bought back. It’s often argued that Daleks are overused by Big Finish but the last Dalek story was Daleks Among Us back in 2013. It was also the first time that Mel had faced the Daleks since The Juggernauts back in February 2005. There is one good thing about the difference between Mel stories and Ace/Hex stories and that there isn’t the impending sense of doom in the Mel stories and there is a sense of freedom with the Mel stories which after the sort of stories that the seventh Doctor has had in the last few years in the main range I felt as I was listening that this story wasn’t bogged down and could just carry on being a Dalek story.

As the cover shows, a skyscraper in the design of a Dalek has been built in the centre of London which is something I think everyone would want to see. The Mel that we get in the main range is a million times better than the Mel that we get in the TV series. Mel acts like someone who is computer literate and the story allows her to show these skills. She has shown them more in this story than she ever did on TV. Like the Sixth Doctor, Mel has undergone a revival thanks to Big Finish and from start to finish she is on fine form. I would dare to say that she is actually better in this story than the Doctor.

Being a story set in the late 1980’s, this story has a thinly veiled swipe at the attitudes of the time and namely capitalism and Thatcherism. The attitude of both of these seem to manifest in the character of Celia Dunthorpe played very well by Mary Conlon. The way that she takes over from Alex Zenos is very cold. If there was a problem with characters in this story then it would be with Alex Zenos because it was very obvious that the character wasn’t going to last very long in the story and he was dispensed with in a rather lacklustre manner. That is the only thing that I could say was wrong with the story because whilst there is a political theme running through the story, at its heart is a very good and at times very traditional Dalek story. The return of the Dalek Emperor is welcomed and I imagine him more like the Emperor seen in 2005’s The Parting of the Ways and not the 1967 story Evil of the Daleks. I don’t know if you are like me and would love to hear Dalek say weird or naughty words and phrases and this story allows us one moment of this. Hearing a Dalek say “Do You Want a Volovant?” is one of the funniest lines in the entire story.

As much as I enjoyed this story, I don’t think its better than the last Dalek story in the main range (Masters of Earth) but it’s one of the best Dalek stories in the last few years. The story itself is enjoyable and the resurgence of Mel is another reason why I will be happy to re-listen to this story in the future. Hopefully the rest of the stories in the series will be as fun to listen to as this one.