This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Sandman

It's an incredible challenge to make a Dalek story truly great, particularly on audio, so much so that whenever I see one coming up I typically write it off. Needless to say, Robert Shearman has made a genuinely fantastic Dalek story, maybe the best Dalek story of all time. Finally, we have an adventure where the Daleks are actually explored as characters, rather than mindless robots that only exist to make loud explosions.

From listening to this and The Holy Terror, it seems Rob Shearman likes his bizarre and absurd societies. The idea of an English Empire in which contracting words is illegal is utterly ridiculous but it makes an incredibly entertaining backdrop for this story. The President was a very fun character, Martin Jarvis really sold his absolute lunacy. The President's wife was similarly insane, but very much a different brand of it. She was also excellently played by Rosalind Ayres.

The way the characters kept flip-flopping between good and evil was fantastically written and performed. I was kept on the edge of my seat trying to guess who was secretly evil and who secretly good. Maggie Stables as Evelyn had some great moments with the lone Dalek and I love how this story actually went through with the "good Dalek" idea and didn't cheap out by having it betray Evelyn at the end. Overall, a fantastic story that definitely lives up to the hype.

Next Story: Doctor Who and the Pirates