The TARDIS seems to have made an unexpected return trip to the jungle planet of Spiridon, where the Doctor and Charley fall in with a lost platoon of shell-shocked Thal soldiers, victims of a sneak attack by their blood enemies, the Daleks. Besieged by deadly flora, surrounded by invisible monsters, and with all hope of rescue gone, the Thals are subjects of a grim experiment in psychological warfare. With the very nature of reality under threat, the Doctor and Charley need each other more than ever - but dark forces are conspiring to tear them apart...

With writers constantly striving to do something different with the Doctor’s oldest enemies, we’ve seen the Daleks doing some strange things over the years. We’ve seen them humanised, weaponless and imprisoned. We’ve had renegade Daleks, hybrid Daleks and alternate universe Daleks. We’ve even had them quoting Shakespeare and turned into toys. Now writer Alan Barnes has them singing and changing into communists! It’s all connected with an experiment to merge the minds of Thals and Daleks - but whose experiment is it, and what is the ultimate aim?

Barnes and director Nicholas Briggs (who, as usual, also plays the Daleks) keep us guessing right up to the end, with a tale that unfolds like a Russian doll (as the production team put in the CD extras), peeling back layer after layer of deceit and misunderstanding. Even Charley (India Fisher) is part of the deception, as she hasn’t yet told the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) the truth about her origins as a former companion of one of his future selves. Will she finally spill the beans this time...?

The producers say that you might have to listen to this audio drama a few times in order to fully comprehend it, but actually I found it easier to follow than some other recent stories, such as Assassin in the Limelight, The Death Collectors and Time Reef. This is probably because the tale revolves around elements that will be very familiar to most Who fans: Daleks, Thals and the planet Spiridon. The writer borrows from several classic Dalek stories, including Planet of the Daleks, The Chase and, most obviously of all, The Evil of the Daleks. The hallucinogenic plants from The Mind’s Eye are also added to the mix.

As in The Girl Who Never Was, Barnes messes around with the placement of the theme tune during the final episode.

Brotherhood of the Daleks isn’t as radical as it thinks it is, but it’s well worth subscribing to the capitalist ideology by purchasing this double CD. You have nothing to lose but your change.

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Richard McGinlay