Great Dalek story, invested fully. That chief librarian was annoying as hell, but a testament to the writing that I hated him so much. A planet I would have happily seen on screen, with beautiful soundscapes and dark plots. Brilliant ideas that make a good story.

This isn't the worst Dalek story put there, but considering the general quality of Dalek stories that doesn't say much. I think there were some interesting concepts (such as the library and water-based lifeforms) and some fun moments (like the character who never got to speak and Ace getting to blow things up, as usual) but it's a pretty middling story for the most part.

What really dragged it down for me was the sound design. While the voice acting for the Daleks is quite good, their voices are extremely grating in this story. On top of that, there's this terrible high-pitched whine in every scene in their statis chamber that gave me quite a headache. The beeps and chirps used for almost every machine in this audio were also very annoying. It made it very difficult to get through.

It's ok, perfectly serviceable - but nothing so special to talk about. Solid performances all round, and this is enjoyable, and its nice to have the Daleks in audio, even if a stronger introduction would have been nice.

Some good ideas throughout, and they're introduced throughout to maintain some interest, however, even these aren't strong enough to carry the story.

It's ok, but could have been much better.

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

Previous Story: The Fearmonger

If it weren't for their horrendously grating voices Dalek stories would be perfect to put yourself to sleep. Ok, so there have been a few times where they're genuinely good. This, however, is not one of those times. It's quite possibly the most banal, boring Dalek story there is but with so many others competing for that title I'm not sure I'm ready to give it out so easily.

There's the odd idea or two in this story that's actually fairly interesting like the library that "rivals the Matrix on Gallifrey". That's really not enough to redeem this story whatsoever. At the very least, it's fitting for this to be their first story on audio - a perfect distillation of everything to come. It really sets a precedent huh?

Next Story: The Grey Man of the Mountain

Pretty good story from Mike Tucker (who I think is a somewhat underrated writer). I like a lot of the ideas used in this one though it might have went on a bit too long. Briggs does some of his best Dalek voices while the rest of the voice cast are pretty good.
Viewed this through Josh Snares' animation, which I think is a bit too reliant on real-world models but still quite impressive for something made by what I assume is one or a few people.