A New Dalek Threat: Masters of Earth Reviewed

Meredith Burdett is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

It’s a peculiar thing that the worlds of Doctor Who have never really paid all that much attention to the Dalek invasion of Earth that the First Doctor and his friends helped to overthrow. This is of course a guiltier trait of the television series rather than Big Finish who have returned to the Dalek-ruined Earth a few times over the years.

But with such a lavish history and the entire planet of human beings with interesting stories and scenarios to endure, why isn’t there an entire mini-series based on survivors of the Dalek assault?

Whilst that question starts to percolate through your mind, this reviewer would like to offer Masters of Earth as evidence that the story of Earth’s endurance and triumph is far from over and far from told.

When settling down to listen to the story, remember  that this is no set-piece-for-an-action-packed-Dalek-story. Masters of Earth is not simply a means to an end to shoehorn in Skaro’s finest and get them shouting a bit. This is a well-paced, character based play, with oodles of time to let the performers breathe and build a colourful world full of intrigue, heartbreak and of course, betrayal.  The fact that it’s set during the Dalek invasion of Earth is merely a happy coincidence, one to allow newer listeners to hop on board and discover the rich history of Doctor Who and all it has to offer. The Daleks make appearances and certainly have a nefarious scheme to play out but they are second in the list of monsters in this story. The real enemy is closer to the Doctor and Peri than they realise, and this only helps to embellish the qualities that human beings contain and the means that they will go to in order to ensure their survival.

With the Doctor trying to not get actively involved in events as they play out, his previous self will soon appear to help the Earth and he does not want his actions now to affect that in any way, his cautiousness does not pay off as he and Peri are dragged into events despite trying not to be. Nicola Bryant and Colin Baker continue to shine, clearly delighted to be working together once again. Bryant is also providing us with possibly her strongest ever performance as Peri that we’ve ever had. Neither too old or too young and naïve, this is a Peri that knows her mind, that has less fear, that has seen things that have changed her forever. With this, Peri is able to question the Doctor in an entirely different way; it’s incredibly refreshing to listen to these two back and forth and also incredibly rewarding.

At its heart, Master of Earth shows how far people will go: how far the resistance will go to fight the Daleks, how far this learned Sixth Doctor and tougher Peri will go to help one another and what happens when the need for survival outweighs anything else. This may well be a story with the Daleks in it but it is by no means a Dalek story. It’s rich, layered, glorious and above all, wonderfully human.

Another belter from Scott and Wright and a must listen for fans of the Sixth Doctor.

Master of Earth is available on CD or via download from Big Finish now.

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