The last story I listened to in the post-Susan era (After “Here There be Monsters” and “The Alchemists”) is ironically the first one. Taking place immediately after her departure, it shows the role Susan plays in rebuilding the earth.

Sadly, also just like the other stories, it is a waste of potential.

It’s a story that feels very hollow. Like it’s going through the motions. It has several concepts and ideas, but seems unsure in how to actually handle them. The biggest plot thread it has is Susan deciding her role in this new world. This story tells us that Susan is conflicted in how to continue now that she’s stuck on earth. Sadly, it does this not by introspection on Susan’s end, but by making the side characters push her to the front when she doesn’t want to. It feels very impersonal and quite distant.

This uncertainty also continues in the main conflict of the story. It feels unsure in how to present it’s plans, which clashes with the world that we know from the original story. This can be shown with a simple question: If earth was freed from invasion after 10 years, what is the first thing you would do? What would have your attention first? Food? Water? Helping the converted or grieving? Or… would it be immediately reinstating the democratic process and allowing the nation to vote again?

Because this story picks that last option and it feels so incredibly forced and unrealistic. It’s a poorly chosen means to an end. We want to show Susan as capable, so we put her in a political race. But also, we want to be the first story after Dalek Invasion of Earth, so everything has to bend aside for that election. One moment we are in a field, harvesting crops for a minute, the next, voting machines are put back online. It’s feels incredibly odd.

We get our main threat in the way of a almost cartoony Ex-mayor, who tries to claim victory in this political race. His introduction is fine, not mindblowing, but interesting. After that, he quickly dwindles and becomes routine. Trying to win by campaigning and destroying the competition, while people around him struggle to survive.

On the other side, Susan isn’t doing that much better. She gives a speech that inspires people, but sounds awfully Trumpish, to the point of actually using the term “Make the UK great again”. The people eat it up though, so I don’t know what to think of that. She’s our hero, meant to present her case from the heart, but I am just reminded of some of the worst politics the world has seen. Politics that were also definitely a factor when this story was released in 2019.

David also mingles hard in the political side. He is never shown as a love interest, but as a campaign manager. There is 0 romantic interest between him and Susan. Just some situational talk and politics. Considering how close it all is to their original meeting, the story could stand to show them a little more involved with each other. It, once again, feels impersonal.

The other parts of the story are mostly focused on a robo-men trying to restore to his human self and a kind of burrowing slug with memory powers. These are, in the grand scheme of things, presented quite wishy-washy. They play second fiddle to the main story and feel like padding to the larger narrative, rather than meaningful in any way. They could be seen as sweet I suppose, but they didn’t do much for me. We’ve seen better conversion stories.

So that makes “After the Daleks” a rather weak recreation of elements from the original. It wants to connect to the previous story so hard, but also do its own thing. Sadly, it fails to connect and its own thing is rather unrealistic and weirdly impersonal. It’s all a neat idea I guess, but its focus is so off that it feels insincere and flat. Listening to this, I got the impression that Carol Ann Ford was bored, which I have never experienced with her before. If that was actually the case, I’ll join her in her boredom, because this story is not exciting in the slightest.