I pretty much agree with @BillFiler here. Solid enjoyable fun and, oh what a joy to have the Daleks back. Some nice ideas that, yes, could have been fleshed out a little more but were still interesting early in the range. It’s good fun and, most crucially for theor first Big Finish story, it really feels like a Dalek story to me.
Also, I heartily agree with your assertion, Bill, that the Seventh Doctor can do outrage like no other Doctor. There are others who can match him (the Fourth Doctor’s disgust at the Captain’s acievements [Pirate Planet], the Third Doctor’s contempt for the Controller [Day of the Daleks] or Chinn [Axos]), but stylistically different. I love McCoy’s delivery in moments like this!
Really enjoyed your animation, even if as you say the story is quite mid. Watching it along with the audio certainly helped keep me focused on the story, as otherwise I tend to end up looking elsewhere and reading and then I get totally lost.
Feel free to pop into Introductions so we can welcome you properly (even if most of us will know who you are)!
I think it’s the very classic, proper old school feel of The Genocide Machine as a Dalek story that appeals to me so much. Although themes were different, the aural aesthetic and general sense took me back to the good old fashioned Terry Nation rollicking good adventure with the Daleks style stories (before the rise of Davros). At the time of first release, this was a joyous thing. Since then, of course, we’ve had Davros free Dalek stories aplenty back on TV (although that old fashioned Nationesque feel is seldom revisited).
(Watched this one with the Animation made by Josh Snares a while ago)
Well this one is very solid and when I say that, I do want to put the emphasis on very. This is no all-timer by any means, but I think for a first Dalek Outing it offers some great Ideas and has all around some pretty great Performances from our Cast. The Setting is probably the big Standout here for me, the Twist with the Librarians is a very fun one here, and I like the running gag with this one Character who never can properly be able to say anything, even if it got a bit old quickly. McCoy and Aldred have as always some electric chemistry between each other. There are some really great Bits in the first two parts, sadly this Story falls apart as we move forward with the Part 3 - 4.
Really as I said at best it’s really solid, but the bad stuff lowers it very much down. By no means is it a Highlight of the early Years of that range but for being a Standard Dalek Story, yeah it’s okay, I can give it a listen once!
Re-listened to this today, and think you’ve summed it up perfectly - really solid, but nothing to stand out which iw frustrating for the first Dalek audio entry
Listened to this yesterday, I was kinda hooked at first but it lost me. I did not like Elgin even before the twist, he was pretty annoying honestly. The character of Prink seemed rather pointless, the joke that he never gets to talk was chuckleworthy (at best) for the first few times but then just got old. And later we’re supposed to feel really sad that the character who never spoke a single line gets killed? I don’t buy it.
I think the native Kar-Charrat species are an interesting idea but it felt like the whole story shifted to them and the Daleks were completely sidelined, like is the story supposed to be about the Daleks trying to make this weapon, or is it about the natives and their whole kerfuffle with the Librarians?
Combine this with Bev not really doing much at all and you have a recipe for “well this wasn’t that good, was it?”
There were things I liked though, like the setting (though I wish the library was explored more), Sylvester and Sophie are great as always, and the return of the Special Weapons Dalek is appreciated.
Well, this story is partially meant to introduce a few elements that would later pop up in other stories, such as Bev. This is part of the bigger Dalek Empire arc.
