Big Finish: Time Lord Victorious - The Enemy of My Enemy Review
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| The CD cover for "The Enemy of My Enemy", designed by Lee Binding. |
Starring Paul McGann & Nicholas Briggs.
Written by Tracy Ann Baines.
As this is a story that isn't so plot-heavy as some Doctor Who stories, it relies more on its characters to drive the story forward. The Daleks, for example, possibly have the most individual character each than at any point in the show's history, with each one coming across with their own personality and aims. Some of these Daleks, such as the Strategist, we have met before, and I think this story actually adds a great deal to the Titan Comics strip "Defender of the Daleks". Without it, I think you'd have had to do more catch-up work in order to get the different Dalek ranks and personalities nailed down. As I mentioned in my "Defender of the Daleks" review, I absolutely love the Strategist: a Dalek so dedicated to composing strategy and calculating, that it doesn't bother about things like upgrading its casing, so it still has the original style of casing from "The Daleks". My worry was with bringing this character into the performed medium would be that Dalek voice artist Nicholas Briggs might have trouble differentiating it from other Daleks like the Time Controller and the Time Strategist especially. However, Briggs gives it a wonderful tone that really marks it out from the ranks of Daleks were are normally confronted with. We also encounter the Scientist, the Commander and the Executioner here as well, all of whom are less interesting, but still more distinctive than the Daleks of standard Doctor Who stories. I will say that some of these Dalek voices do slightly slip into the same tone, especially the Scientist and the Executioner Daleks, so it can be hard to tell which is which if you're not listening too closely. At least the writing of these Daleks is strong enough, and I look forward to seeing them doing more in future stories to come. The rest of the cast is minimal, but does make an impact: Rachel Atkins as Sarathin is the clear standout. She plays a hard and determined leader, who the Doctor has to win over, despite the terrible things that she's done. Her chemistry with Paul McGann is electric: made all the more fascinating by the fact that, due to the pandemic, this story was remote recorded with the actors in isolation. Raj Ghatak rounds out the cast as the slimy Boros, who comes across as a combination of Chinn from "The Claws of Axos" and Peter Mandelson. He's a great character, and its a shame he isn't a greater part of the story. Finally, Paul McGann is as excellent as ever, as he is forced into allying himself with the Daleks, despite his obvious dislike of such an alliance. He's wonderful as a Doctor who is possibly being wrong-footed, but we can't be sure, as Paul's performance makes it clear that the Doctor is keeping some things secret, and I'm looking forward to seeing him turn the tables in "Mutually Assured Destruction". In terms of post-production, Peter Doggart's sound design and Ioan Morris' music are the perfect compliment for the story, creating some incredibly realistic worlds and environments, but knowing when to pull back as and when it is needed. It all comes together to the same high standards you would expect from a Big Finish production.
Directed by Scott Handcock.
Picking up directly where "He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not" left off, "The Enemy of My Enemy" begins with the Doctor getting to grips with the hierarchy of the Dalek Time Squad, in a scene that wants to introduce lots of new versions of Daleks, but ends up sounding like the Doctor being introduced to the in-laws. Once the formalities are out of the way, however, we get some great scenes of the Doctor running rings around the Daleks, as he works out what the Daleks want from him, and why they are so concerned about the changes in history. From there, the story proper begins, with the Doctor and the Daleks investigating the supposedly dead world of Wrax, and instead finding it home to a thriving and prosperous civilisation. As I mentioned above, this story does some interesting things with the Daleks, one of which is to, essentially, make them the Doctor's companions for the story. Now this is an incredibly strange idea, one that, in the wrong hands, could fall apart, and mischaracterize both the Doctor and the Daleks. However, writer Tracy Ann Baines just manages to make it work, and make it work incredibly well. Because neither side totally trust each other, you're always on tenterhooks, waiting for the moment where the Daleks' mask will slip, and they will attempt to betray the Doctor. However, because of the nature of the arc, this never happens, which increases the excitement for the upcoming "All Flesh is Grass" and "Mutually Assured Destruction", because it will be here that either the Daleks turn on the Doctor, or the Doctor turns on the Daleks. This story, meanwhile, does a good job of muddying those waters, as both the Daleks and the Doctor are depicted as hiding their true thoughts, so you're never quite clear who's going to betray who. The Doctor is playing a lot of his cards close to his chest, despite being thrown into the deep end with regards to the Daleks. What's interesting about this story is that Tracy Ann Baines has managed to come up with a threat that matches the Daleks in terms of destructive horror, while being very different in approach and outcome. While the Daleks are rampaging monsters, the Wraxians are something even more horrifying: they're utterly reasonable. The Daleks scream and shout, but the Wraxians totally believe they are in the right. They believe that what they are doing, and what the Eye of Wrax does to others, is justified. The story wrestles with concepts like genocide for the good of all, and even cultural appropriation in the name of preservation, something which is a hot topic at the moment. All of this leads to a fascinating discussion between the Doctor and Rachel Atkins' Sarathin, which, at times, mirrors the Fourth Doctor's 'Do I Have the Right?' speech from "Genesis of the Daleks", as well as foreshadows both the Eighth Doctor's attitude to the Time War in "The Night of the Doctor" and the War Doctor's torment in "The Day of the Doctor". It manages to find something new to say about some key Doctor Who scenes, without raking up too much old ground, something that is quite a struggle with such a pivotal moment in the show's history.
With Time Lord Victorious now in full swing, the second story in Big Finish's Eighth Doctor trilogy sees the Doctor collide head first with the Daleks, as he attempts to get to the bottom of the changes to history. And like the previous installment, "He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not", this is a fun, well-thought out installment that pushes the Eighth Doctor story forwards considerably, and does some interesting things with the Daleks, which, considering how many Dalek stories we have in cannon, is quite the achievement.
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| Various members of the Dalek hierarchy, including the Emperor, the Scientist and the Strategist, in a piece of artwork for the Doctor Who website. |
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| The Eighth Doctor, in a piece of artwork for the Doctor Who Website, designed by Lee Binding. |
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| A piece of artwork promoting Time Lord Victorious, with the Eighth Doctor and a number of the new Dalek characters who appear in the event. |
Overall then, "The Enemy of My Enemy" is a fine middle story in this Eighth Doctor trilogy. An intriguing, multi-layered story, combined with some wonderful acting, direction and post-production was always going to be a winner, and "The Enemy of My Enemy" is a very good story that manages to do some interesting things with the Doctor and the Daleks. Setting the stage for the multi-Doctor extravaganza "All Flesh is Grass", "The Enemy of My Enemy" may not really work as a story in its own right, but in the context of this huge, sprawling arc, it is a key piece of set-up, and a dam enjoyable story too. Expect the unexpected with "The Enemy of My Enemy", because I was pleasantly surprised.
You can get "The Enemy of My Enemy" from Big Finish Productions' website here:
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