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

Previous Story: Circular Time: Summer

I was really concerned going into this story that it would be another generic "______ of the Daleks" story but I was gladly surprised. I can definitely see why people wouldn't like this one but I thoroughly did. It's extremely silly and that's why I like it. I appreciate Dalek stories that don't try and make them some ominous near-unstoppable threat only them to get defeated anyway because they always do.

Besides the silliness, there are actually some really good elements in this. The supporting cast that act as the Doctor's companions are really interesting and I wouldn't have minded them as a TARDIS team. It's a very refreshing mix of characters and the way they interact is good fun. They all share something in common being soldiers but are otherwise completely different. A medieval knight, a confederate soldier and an American soldier from the Vietnam war. I really like how they don't question their surroundings too much and jump straight into action.

To compensate for the large and diverse cast of characters though, the Doctor and Nyssa are generally quite bland in this which is a real shame as they've been on an excellent streak of stories. I also find it odd that this is their second story set during the events of The Daleks' Invasion of Earth with the Daleks trying to change the events of said story so that they win. Atleast this one is better than The Mutant Phase but not by that much.

Next Story: Circular Time: Autumn

The Monthly Adventures #92 - “Renaissance of the Daleks” by Christopher H. Bidmead

Christopher Bidmead, for me, represents the failings of Classic Who’s second half, being the progenitor of the hard sci-fi elements and tonal disparities that would eventually tank the show in the 80s. Whilst I think there is a lot to love in Season 18 and even in some Bidmead scripts (I unironically think Castrovalva is good fun), he’s still become a figurehead for Doctor Who’s failings in my opinion, and nowhere does that feel more evident than Renaissance of the Daleks. From a turbulent production to a thoroughly weak script, I find Bidmead’s only contribution to the Main Range to be a distillation of his worst qualities and, unless my opinion softens on this with hindsight, one of my least favourite Dalek stories ever.

A ripple in time and the emergence of a bizarre toy line lead the Doctor and Nyssa on a trans-temporal adventure, where a plan of epic proportions is being set into motion by one of the Doctor’s oldest enemies.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

The reason this story is credited as “based on a story by Christopher H. Bidmead” is because apparently, there were some behind the scenes issues and Briggs had to come in and rewrite a lot of the story, to the point where Bidmead disowned it. Now, when I first learned this, I thought I had found out why Renaissance of the Daleks is such a mess, hasty rewrites often being the death knell of otherwise healthy scripts. But then I found out just why it was changed, and I realised this was doomed from the beginning.

Easily, Bidmead’s best quality is his ability as a sci-fi writer. The alien worlds and concepts he uses are all pretty damn good and even quite charming. I loved the scenery of the new Dalek homeworld, especially the city literally made out of Dalek casings shaped into walls, that’s a super fun idea I haven’t seen before. And even in places I didn’t like, I can admire the ambition. The Daleks turning themselves into toys to secretly invade Earth is an idea that should’ve been explored so much more than it was. Same thing with the nano-Dalek stuff, these could be relatively quaint plot points but they’re all presented in really haphazard ways. If this script had been a little cleaner, I could even say it felt similar to some speculative 60s fiction but unfortunately, the rest is too much of a let down for me to really think that.

But why does the script not work exactly? Well, I think its biggest problem is that it's cumbersome. There are a lot of ideas in this one and practically none are well explored. Not to mention the huge cast of nobodies that we’re constantly having to juggle. So, we have a general from an alternate Earth where the Daleks didn’t invade, his nephew, a Knight’s templar, a former slave and a Vietnam veteran all running around and Bidmead does a really bad job at fleshing them out. Apparently, there were going to be more characters before the impromptu rewrites, so I can only imagine how clumsy that would’ve been. Also doesn’t help that our cast is pretty awful; I really struggled to buy into a lot of the characters, especially when they’re speaking in god awful fake American accents. Even Sarah Sutton is doing pretty badly here with a lot of Nyssa’s lines being delivered very flatly.

The story really isn’t much better either. The first half is like a worse version of Castrovalva’s TARDIS tag, with our cast chasing after dumb little toy Daleks and picking up random side characters every now and again. It’s mind numbing by the halfway point and it’s an absolute godsend when we finally get to the actual, full sized Daleks. But then it’s at this point that Renaissance of the Daleks completely loses the plot because Bidmead starts trying to manage all of his different narrative threads at once and it utterly crushes the story. I will say, I liked the pace a lot better in the final part and there were a few moments I really liked, such as General Tillington and his nephew Will being wiped out of history by the Doctor stopping the Daleks; it was a great moment delivered with appropriate gravitas. Unfortunately, there’s very little else about this climax I’d complement, mostly because I barely remember it. There’s a lot going on and by this point I had mostly checked out, utterly destroyed by the first hour and half of aimless running about.

Just to give you an idea about how overbloated this third act is, you have: the alternate timeline, the nano-Daleks, the Dalek hybrid thing called the Greylish, the TARDIS getting weaponised, time anomalies everywhere, about half a dozen little details that came and went in seconds, it’s incredibly difficult to keep up and I’m still not entirely sure how everything wrapped up. It also doesn’t help that I was distinctly uninvested for a majority of the story. Sure, it feels cinematic and I can buy into the stakes of the episode but the pacing is abysmal and the Daleks feel lifeless. It’s one of those stories where they turn into a miscellaneous ton of robots instead of being genuinely threatening and their weird “seed Dalek” takes precedent for the climax, further nullifying their involvement. Tonal issues also affect my rating because it acts like it wants to be some dramatic, tense epic with the whole world at stake but then has such goofy ideas like the miniature Daleks or the array of cartoon characters we have as a side cast. If Renaissance had tried to be a little more like The Chase in tone, it might’ve been a lot better.

As it stands however, this is just the absolute lowest lows of Bidmead. An indecipherable, overbloated chore with too much going on and no way to handle it all. Everything from the barren cover to the miserable cast makes it feel like nobody wanted to do this story, resulting in a toneless, unimpressive and miserable experience. This is an audio I am in no way enthusiastic for, either positively or negatively, it’s just a bit crap.

3/10

Pros:

+ Some really unique and interesting imagery

+ The scope feels very large and cinematic

+ The climax picks up the pace a little

Cons:

- Both incredibly dense and lacking in depth

- The entire sidecast is made up of poorly-acted caricatures

- The structure and pacing is haphazardly thrown together

- The Daleks are a non-threat

- Mind-numbingly dull for most of its runtime

Better the devil you know, Wilton. Better the devil you know.

Renaissance of the Daleks is the last story I have to experience from Christopher H Bidmead. Frankly, I didn't know what I was in for, but I'm glad I've finally had the opportunity to listen to this one. Because by god was this great, probably another hot take I know, but Bidmead's writing is just so suited for Doctor Who that it's a shame he wasn't given more opportunities to write for the franchise… if he even did write this one altogether, for that is one of the mysteries of this audio.

A random landing in London and a trip to the Savoy Hotel yield unexpected results for the Fifth Doctor. Tea, scones, an American general who knows far too much, and the threat of a Dalek invasion of Earth. Meanwhile, the Doctor's companion Nyssa is in Rhodes during the time of the Crusades, where her position proves to be distinctly precarious. It seems the Doctor's deadliest foes have woven a tangled web indeed. And in order to defeat them, he must cross the forbidden barriers of time and walk into the very centre of their latest, most outlandish scheme of conquest.

From what I gather, Bidmead's original scripts were about half-an-hour too long, had twice as many characters and didn't make a lick of sense to director John Ainsworth and Nicholas Briggs. Nick then cut down the script and eliminated or combine many of the characters to cut costs and enable the two of them to make sense of what Bidmead had written. Aside from some minor touch ups to the script, Briggs rewrote the entire climax of the story due to the apparent destruction of the TARDIS not making much sense, which even after listening to the finalised story it still doesn't quite work and I highly doubt Bidmead would have made it work. It essentially boils down to what the Chase wanted to be combined with a dose of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, saying that I highly prefer this story to both of those former ones.

Vietnam, Crusades, alternative realities, PTSD, deadly toy Daleks, the Omniverse junction, wormholes to different times, a City made of Daleks, conditioned human Daleks – you certainly cannot accuse Renaissance of the Daleks of not being ambitious! I honestly don't see what is so confusing about this story since everything (the time tracks, the toy Daleks, the whispering voices) is explained and tied up in the last episode and with some swagger I might say! Like the Hollows of Time, this is a massively overhated story that threatens to do something vastly different with the Daleks for once. The cast are great, with Peter Davison being on top form as always, even if the side characters are a little undeveloped at points, with one of the major highlights being the Greylish and the very reserved performance by Briggs. Andy Hardwick's score is much darker than his usual foray into the world of audio, there's some really poignant use of drums as the story goes on, there's some definite stirrings of what the TV Movie's music is here and it's easily one of the more interesting scores I've heard in a while.

Overall, a very overhated story that cements to me that Bidmead was a squandered gift when it came to Doctor Who. Renaissance of the Daleks is great and one I would gladly re-listen to soon.

What am I thinking? Well, I've got a TARDIS full of strangers and… yes, the TARDIS has been locked on course to an undisclosed destination by a couple of toy Daleks!