📝9.6/10 → FAVOURITE!

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS: “JUBILEE”

Robert Shearman is back writing for the Main Range, this time with the oft-lauded Jubilee, a Dalek story with Six and Evelyn. He kicks off the story with a fun fake trailer for a Dalek movie before dropping Six and Evelyn in London in the early 1900s, where they exist on two time tracks at once (a bit like The Space Museum). From here, Shearman begins slowly unravelling this strange alternate timeline, with a British Empire ruled by a president and America ruled by a prime minister, and with contractions in speech strictly forbidden.

Shearman adapted Jubilee for TV in 2005, when he wrote Dalek for Series 1 of Doctor Who. Having seen the episode before listening to Jubilee, I immediately recognised some of the common elements between the two versions, such as the initial mystery of a prisoner the President keeps torturing in hopes of making it speak in time for the jubilee celebrations or the special bond between the companion and the prisoner.

Even though I guessed it was coming, the Dalek reveal in the cliffhanger to Part 1 is fairly effective. What I didn’t see coming was the brilliant shock cliffhanger in Part 2. Shearman keeps hinting about someone in a wheelchair locked up in jail who is responsible for creating the Daleks, making us believe it's Davros, only to then reveal that it is, in fact, the Doctor himself.

Much like Holy Terror or Spare Parts, Jubilee builds an effectively eerie and tense atmosphere strengthened by dark humour and complex but meaningful narrative beats. The Doctor remembers how he’s already been to 1905 to save the world, yet knows nothing of it—still, both he and Evelyn are celebrated figures because of that. All of this feels very unnerving and adds to the tension.

It’s interesting to follow a story playing around with a timeline where the Daleks have been defeated and are then belittled and made fun of, similarly to the Nazis after WWII in our timeline. This is all played about against the backdrop of the Doctor and Evelyn somehow existing on two time tracks at once, constantly living their present and their past. In the second half, we realise that the Doctor has become a fascist totem, his actions directly leading to the creation of the current, dark times.

Colin Baker and Maggie Stables are magical, as you'd expect. Evelyn, in particular, is used well as a counterbalance to the Doctor, as she refuses to stay put and wants to do whatever she can to solve the problem at hand.

The Daleks play a different role here; they are seemingly friendly, but with a presence that still makes them feel creepy and dangerous. This is easily the most effective use of the Daleks in early Big Finish—not too big and bombastic, but with genuine depth and character. The conversation between Evelyn and the Dalek in Part 2 is a great example of this new way to write and characterise the pepperpots—a Dalek with an existential crisis. I also love how the human characters try to control and use the Dalek for their own ends, only to notice that the Dalek slowly but steadily takes control of the situation.

The supporting cast is superb.

The latter half of this story takes a brilliantly dark turn, with some brutal violence introduced as the Dalek begins to realise its potential. We also fully realise the psychopathic tendencies shown by Miriam, who becomes the biggest villain of the piece.

Part 4 unleashes the Dalek threat after great buildup but also gets weighed down somewhat by it. The nature of the Doctor and the Daleks are explored, and this is the most enjoyable aspect of the final episode.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• The Daleks movie advertised at the beginning stars Plenty O’Toole, who we know better as the name of one of the Bond girls in Diamonds Are Forever (1971).