After the first two FANTASTIC stories of the Stockbridge trilogy, the trilogy ends with an absolute whimper with a generic Dalek story that has nothing to do with Stockbridge. A celebration of an iconic EU location ending with a flacid trombone.
This story had the working titles of The Ancients and Village of the Damned, both of which are infinitely better than Plague of the Daleks as that title spoils their appearance and their plan (there are Daleks and they have a plague), even more frustrating when the first appearance of a Dalek at the end of Part Two would genuinely be a surprise were it not for them being in the name and on the cover. There’s no way to get around the Terry Nation credit on the back of the CD case, but that’s far less of an issue. I know slapping the name Dalek on the cover sells, but it spoils the story and comics, including Doctor Who ones, are known to save the reveal of the monster for a cliffhanger (like Children of the Revolution or The Flood) to get readers to want to pick up the next issue.
I wonder too at which point the Veridios thread was dropped. He’s mentioned by Maude (as in Maude the Withered, not Maude the Strumpet) in Castle of Fear and the core antagonist of The Eternal Summer, but there’s nothing about him here. Assuming that Stockbridge being in an environment dome, like a giant snowglobe, was around from the start (continuing a theme of the village being isolate, through fog and time bubble before) then the Green Man taking refuge in one of the last natural locations on Earth is an interesting one.