Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures

#007. The Genocide Machine ~ 9/10

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◆ An Introduction

I think it’s fair to say that BigFinish’s early attempts to create Dalek stories were pretty inconsistent. I’m sure many of you will have seen my review of ‘The Apocalypse Element’, where I claimed that listening to it was about as enjoyable as being held hostage by a band of Somalian pirates! Mike Tucker had the privileged job of writing the genocidal pepper-pots initial audio adventure. And you know what? It isn’t half bad!

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◆ Publisher’s Summary

The library on Kar-Charrat is one of the wonders of the Universe. It is also hidden from all but a few select species. The Doctor and Ace discover that the librarians have found a new way of storing data – a wetworks facility – but the machine has attracted unwanted attention, and the Doctor soon finds himself pitted against his oldest and deadliest enemies – the Daleks!

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◆ The Seventh Doctor

Sylvester McCoy puts in a really solid performance for ‘The Genocide Machine’.

The Doctor doesn’t get much time to sort the TARDIS library out. He starts every fifty years or so, but always forgets how he’s organising things; sometimes it’s by author, sometimes it’s by planet… he might organise it by colour next time. He’s always preferred Kar-Charrat to the Matrix; there’s a lot to be said for old-fashioned books. The Doctor has encountered wet-works facilities before, but the size of the one on Kar-Charrat astonishes him (most of them can only handle a few gigabytes of information, but this one must contain all knowledge in the universe)! Upon discovering the truth of the wet-works facility, he is absolutely disgusted that Elgin could imprison the native Kar-Charratans in a device he compares to a gulag.

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◆ Ace

‘The Genocide Machine’ sees Sophie Aldred deliver another great performance.

Ace thinks the advantage of a time machine is that you don’t have to be late with your library books. She also claims that everybody has nicked a library book at some point (I can attest to that – when I was back in primary school, I may have forgotten to return a copy of the Tenth Doctor novel ‘Autonomy’). She is utterly dumbfounded that the Kar-Charrat library isn’t open to the public, and that the librarians don’t want anyone to touch their books.

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◆ Bev Tarrant

‘The Genocide Machine’ also introduces us to the amazingly talented Louise Faulkner. She makes a really good first impression here as art thief Bev. It’s also worth mentioning that the character would go on to be a key-player in the ‘Bernice Summerfield’ range.

Bev instantly establishes herself as a no-nonsense team leader, the sort of person who believes it’s her way or the highway. She paid good money for her team to act like a professional salvage crew, not a bunch of sweaty, whinging oiks!

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◆ Story Recap

Hoping to return some long overdue library books, the Doctor and Ace find themselves on the rainforest world of Kar-Charrat, where a library displaced in time has a data storage system that could rival that of the Matrix on Gallifrey.

The Daleks have caught wind of the aqueous data storage system (more commonly known as a wet-works facility) and have been in cryogenic hibernation on the planet for centuries… biding their time and waiting for a time sensitive to arrive and give them access.

The Daleks want to download all the data from the facility into one of their own species. With knowledge like that, universal domination would be more than achievable!

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◆ Liquid-state Drives

I think it’s fair to say that ‘The Genocide Machine’ is nothing ground-breaking, but it’s definitely a fun little Dalek romp. The vast majority of listeners will take one look at the title for this play and assume it’s referring to the Daleks, but it actually refers to the wet-works facility… because the water inside of it is sentient!

The librarians literally committed genocide so that they could use the souls of native Kar-Charratans as solid-state drives in a computer (or should that be liquid-state?) and that’s actually so gruesome. The thought of a wet-works facility does make me scratch my head from a real world perspective though, because I was always taught not to douse my electronics in vast amounts of water… that’s how you end up electrocuting yourself and getting frizzier hair than Bonnie Tyler!

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◆ Future Art Thief

Before I begin chatting about this adventure’s sound design, I’d just like to thank Mike Tucker for creating one of the best characters this franchise has seen. I’m a massive fan of the ‘Bernice Summerfield’ range, and Bev Tarrant has become a real force of nature there by Series Seven (I’d recommend listening to ‘Summer of Love’ if you want to hear how much she’s changed over the years). Louise Faulkner is a true credit to BigFinish, and I would love to hear her character return some day soon.

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◆ Sound Design

The gorgeous rainforest landscape of Kar-Charrat is brought to life with much style by Briggsy.

Water trickles from the dense trees, as Bev and her salvage team squelch across the rainforest floor. Buzzing bugs accompany the mechanical joints of a salvage robot, as Bev’s team attempt to steal the famed ziggurat. As the stone door of the ziggurat grinds open, a Special Weapons Dalek emerges and begins firing (eliminating nearly the entire salvage team in the process). Given that this was the genocidal pepper-pots first appearance with BigFinish, it’s not surprising that their voices are a lot more rough around the edges. The warbling of Kar-Charrat Phantoms; their voices are relaxingly whispery and sibilant. The bubbling of the Kar-Charrat wet-works facility. Freela birds shriek, as they fly above Ace and Bev in the rainforest. That familiar electronic heartbeat fills the interior of the Dalek’s ship. A bleeping ECG monitor in the library’s medical bay. Screaming librarians, as the Daleks begin their assault; death rays firing in rapid succession of each other. The booming voice of the Dalek Emperor, as it transmits orders to its troops on Kar-Charrat. The second Dalek to be imbued with all the wet-works knowledge glitches when it speaks, as thought it’s on the verge of a complete mental breakdown! A sentient waterfall floods the circuitry of Ace’s Dalek duplicate.

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◆ Music

Nicholas Briggs is also behind the score for ‘The Genocide Machine’. Considering I’m in a pretty good mood, I can forgive the fact this story has some pretty average music. It’s nothing bad, it just does nothing to stand out.

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◆ Conclusion

“You could acquire the wisdom of a million years from a billion worlds in the time it would take to read a bus ticket!”

A temporally displaced library could be the key to giving the Daleks universal domination… but the wet-works facility is built on lies, and dark secrets kept by the librarians.

‘The Genocide Machine’ wont be setting the literary world ablaze, but I can’t deny that I had a really fun time listening to it. There are no massive continuity shattering events, no moments of huge and dramatic character development, but I don’t mind that. Mike Tucker was told to write a fun Dalek adventure, and he absolutely met the brief.

McCoy and Aldred continue to work well with each other, and I must mention for the umpteenth time that this story introduced us to the brilliant Bev Tarrant. To conclude, it’s a really fun way to kill two hours.