Dalek War has been a pretty bumpy road overall, hell, Dalek Empire so far has been, but there's one thing that's always kept me coming back to this series (apart from the TARDIS Guide Clubs): Karlendorf.

Here, Karlendorf truly comes to center stage, we learn more of his motivations, his reasonings, he's never presented a bastion of morality, but his morals are clear and unshakeable. Honestly from the way he's presented, he sometimes feels more like a force of nature than a character, an oncoming storm, if you will, and the way this story is told, being uncovered by historians as a tale from thousands of years ago just adds to that larger than life character he builds up for himself.

Albie's death here surprisingly kind of just doesn't affect the story, almost proving how much of a secondary character he really was in Dalek Empire. It's almost a shame, but also yeah, I just don't really feel anything about it at all.

But back to Karlendorf, I think the two best scenes in this story are him talking to the leaders of the two dalek factions. His conversation with The Mentor especially is really interesting. The way The Mentor is characterised here, not as a good dalek, still a monster in the way that she and her daleks have treated planets that didn't join the war, but still somewhat reasonable. There's a cruel logic to her actions, and you can really see how the differences between her and davros ended up creating such similar yet different daleks. Her and her daleks, to me at least, feel like what you would get if you replaced the rage and fury of N-Space's daleks, with a cold pragmatism. I love that they choose to leave, not because they think they'd loose, but because they can forsee that the conflict would lead to death for everyone, and that Karlendorf would let that happen rather than give in.

And then the final confrontation with the Susan-Emperor. The tale that the historians are telling in the future of the story that inspired Karlendorf, Karlendorf's plans all coming together, forcing Susan to the forefront and using her connection to the emperor to the daleks, to kill them all in one fell swoop. Karlendorf killing countless millions of lives, dalek and otherwise as all dalek technology is destroyed. Where the Ninth Doctor refused to kill all people on earth to wipe out the daleks, Karlendorf doesn't hesitate to wipe out solar systems.

Victory or Death.

How else was a Dalek War meant to end, I suppose.

A spectacular finale to the series, and I'm so glad I stuck with it for that.