|
Two millennia ago, Susan Mendes sent a destructive impulse
through the Dalek Command Network. The result was utter devastation:
what came to be known as the Great Catastrophe. Twenty years
ago, Galactic Union envoy Siy Tarkov set off from Velyshaa
with vital information about an imminent Dalek invasion. Today,
the only evidence that Tarkov ever existed is a garbled message,
calling for help...
The Daleks are back! And it's great to have them back. It's
all change this time around, since this new six-part miniseries
takes place 2,000 years after Dalek Empires I and II.
There's
a host of new characters, including security chief Georgi
Selestru (played by The Champions star William Gaunt),
whose fears regarding the Daleks do not appear to be shared
by his superiors, and Kaymee Arnod (Laura Rees), a trainee
game warden assigned to an alien planet. This is not Gaunt's
first foray into the territory of the evil exterminators -
he previously played Grand Master Orcini in the Colin Baker
Doctor Who serial Revelation of the Daleks.
Rees is extremely endearing as the eager but nervous and inexperienced
raw recruit Kaymee. Her performance reminded me of Nicole
deBoer as Ezri Dax in Deep Space Nine and Parminder
Nagra as Neela Rasgotra in ER. The scenes in which
the terrified trainee endures a free-fall drop from a transport
ship to the planet's surface - without the aid of a shuttlecraft
- are truly exhilarating.
Sarah
Mowat, the star of the previous two miniseries, makes a brief
reappearance in a flashback sequence as Susan Mendes, in her
guise as a sentient destructive impulse. However, I must say
that this response to the Dalek threat is rather too similar
to Starfleet's solution to the Borg incursion in the Star
Trek: The Next Generation episode The Best of Both
Worlds.
Writer/director
Nicholas Briggs has packed a lot of good stuff into this opening
instalment. Other intriguing ingredients include some curiously
intelligent primates and some suspiciously helpful Daleks
(a la The Power of the Daleks). I haven't got much
idea how all these disparate elements fit together just yet,
and that's exactly the way it should be at this stage.
Bring
on Chapter Two... or you will be ex-ter-min-a-ted!
Richard
McGinlay
Buy
this item online
We
compare prices online so you get the cheapest
deal!
(Please note all prices exclude P&P). Click
on the logo of the desired store below to purchase
this item.
|
All prices correct at time of going to press.
|
|
