The Daleks have returned to Earth – but is it simply to conquer and destroy?

Matt Fitton’s finale for this first box set featuring Eric Roberts’ incarnation of the Master is a bit more restrained than the second story, with the Master, Magnus Drake, Lila Kreeg, Vienna and different factions within the Daleks all pursuing their own agendas. We finally get an explanation for why Daleks would be putting anyone on trial – one of the many queries people had about the 1996 TV Movie – and neatly tying that into one of the new series’ more controversial changes to the Skarosian infrastructure. We also meet a leader whom I suspect becomes rather more important down the line and allows Nicholas Briggs to bring out his unctuous Dalek character voice once more.

As for the Master, he’s got a chance to get his revenge for some of the indignities he’s suffered and there are some moments when Eric Roberts shows this Master’s true mettle. Chase Masterson’s Vienna has to make some difficult choices along the way and there’s a couple of scenes that demonstrate how the character has altered in the time that she’s been part of the Big Finish universe. Meanwhile Laura Aikman’s Lila comes full circle to an extent.

This has been something different from the usual Big Finish box sets and while not all of it has perhaps worked as well as it could, it’s been a chance to shine a spotlight on an incarnation of the Master that many of us genuinely thought was as lost to Doctor Who history as Grace Holloway.

Verdict: The Master and the Daleks – but not playing out as you might expect… 8/10

Paul Simpson

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