With The Human Factor, Dalek Empire takes a sharp turn inward. After the blitzkrieg momentum of the opening episode, this second instalment slows the pace, tightens the focus, and digs into the ethical compromises that define Susan Mendes and her increasingly complex position in the Dalek-controlled galaxy. It’s a bold structural shift, and it works. This is the most emotionally resonant chapter of the series, where the horror comes not from the Daleks’ exterminations, but from the silence and surrender that surround them.

The strength of The Human Factor lies in its bleak, claustrophobic atmosphere. Most of the action takes place in just a few occupied zones, allowing us to watch Susan at work: using her ‘Angel of Mercy’ status to save lives, negotiate freedoms, and, slowly, lose her grip on what she’s actually achieving. Sarah Mowat is phenomenal here. Her performance captures a woman just starting to realise that even the smallest wins come at enormous cost. She isn’t naïve, but she’s desperate to believe that compromise is still resistance. Gareth Thomas’ Kalendorf, meanwhile, simmers with unspoken judgement, keeping his true agenda carefully obscured.

Alby’s subplot—trapped behind enemy lines, desperate to reconnect with Susan—doesn’t always carry the same weight, and at times it drifts a little into generic sci-fi territory. But even these scenes have an undercurrent of urgency. We’re watching a resistance movement begin to fracture before it’s even fully formed. Briggs’ script is tight, the pacing precise, and the sound design restrained. By the end, The Human Factor has set up not just a war, but a crisis of identity. If rebellion means working with your oppressors, is it still rebellion? And if survival is the goal… what are you actually surviving for?