Ao vasculhar a biblioteca da TARDIS, Ace se deparar com livros que não foram devolvidos, assim o Doutor e sua companion seguem rumo ao planeta Kar-Charrat para efetuar a devolução. No meio desse processo os dois se deparam com os Daleks que por mais simples que seja o plano das criaturas, tanto é que inicialmente muito provavelmente você vai se pegar dizendo "Owww boy...e lá vamos nós para mais uma história Dalek genérica". Não se engane, pois "The Genocide Machine" é um áudio recheado de ideias bem diferenciadas, como os Daleks clonando a Ace (os chamados "Daleks Duplicated"), os Fantasmas de Kar-Charrat, o mistério por trás da Biblioteca e etc etc. Nem sempre histórias que possuem ótimas peças e ótimos conceitos correspondem aplicando as tais de forma satisfatória, o que não vem ao caso de "The Genocide Machine" - O áudio corresponde fazendo ótimo proveito delas por mais que em alguns momentos apresente uma narrativa um pouco arrastada. As vozes dos Daleks não são as da melhores, mas se tratando da primeira história Dalek da BIG FINISH é algo que dá para relevar muito. Em resumo, o enredo de "The Genocide Machine" é bem simples, mesmo estando longe de ser um dos melhores áudios do 7° Doctor, ela também está longe de ser algo descartável.

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

"The Genocide Machine: A Library of Mystery and Missed Opportunities"

Big Finish's The Genocide Machine, part of the Dalek Empire arc, offers a mix of atmospheric tension, intriguing concepts, and uneven execution. Written by Mike Tucker, it reintroduces the Seventh Doctor and Ace into an audio world of mystery, with Daleks lurking in the shadows.

The story starts strong, setting a moody and tense atmosphere reminiscent of Mission to the Unknown or Tomb of the Cybermen. The library planet Kar-Charrat is an evocative setting, filled with rain-soaked landscapes, ghostly whispers, and a clever touch of humour as the Doctor returns overdue library books—despite owning a time machine!

Unfortunately, the suspense of Part 1 is undercut by spoilers: the Daleks are revealed on the cover and in early scenes, robbing their later "big entrance" of its impact. The cliffhanger of Part 1 feels a bit lacklustre as a result.

The Doctor immerses himself in Kar-Charrat’s technical and educational systems, while Ace befriends Bev Tarrant and predictably stumbles into trouble. Sadly, Ace’s strengths—her resourcefulness and emotional depth—aren't utilised effectively here. However, Sylvester McCoy shines as the Doctor, commanding the narrative with his enigmatic style.

The Daleks’ plan centres on yet another clone subplot, which, while adding some tension, feels derivative. Worse, the Daleks themselves are underutilised for much of the story, appearing sporadically and failing to fully integrate into the plot until the latter half. The pacing suffers, with Part 3 bogged down by slow developments, before Part 4 brings a flurry of action and twists. While the climactic moments offer excitement, they also feel cluttered and occasionally overwhelming due to muddled sound design.

Despite these flaws, there are highlights. The concept of the native population existing in raindrops as a living information storage system is fascinating, even if it’s only explored meaningfully in the final act. This idea adds a unique layer of sci-fi ingenuity to the narrative.

Performances anchor the story. Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred effortlessly recapture their classic dynamic, with Aldred delivering a particularly strong performance as Ace’s Dalek duplicate. Louise Falkner’s Bev Tarrant debuts as a confident and tough ally, though she’s sadly underused. Bruce Montague’s librarian character adds charm with a twist of betrayal, while Nicholas Briggs makes an official debut as the voice of the Daleks, solidifying his future iconic role.

The sound design, while occasionally messy, does enhance the setting with its rainy ambience and ominous tones. The score adds to the atmosphere, though it sometimes competes with the dialogue in busier scenes.

📝Verdict: 6/10

While The Genocide Machine delivers moments of tension, clever ideas, and solid performances, it struggles with pacing, sound design, and making the Daleks integral to the story. Still, it offers enough intrigue and nostalgia to appeal to fans of the Seventh Doctor and Ace, even if it doesn’t fully capitalise on its potential.

Random Observations:

• The Sun and The Mirror as future literary classics? A wonderfully absurd touch that adds to the humour.

watched the Josh snares animation last night very fun

05.04.2022

Very meh. The cool ideas a surface-level, beyond that there's nothing really going on thematically. You could claim that the Wetworks Facility is a commentary on the state of academia and learning useless information, but that would be a major stretch.
Daleks are Daleks. Nothing new here either. I don't think you would get anything out of it. 1/5

MR 007: The Genocide Machine

This one was pretty meh. I'll be honest, I kind of checked out about halfway through it. This is BF's first Doctor Who use of the Daleks though! So that's exciting I guess.

There's a library with all the knowledge of the universe in it and the Daleks are after it. They want to assimilate all of that knowledge into one single test subject Dalek. That said, most of this story is just standard Dalek faire.

I did enjoy the inclusion of an Ace duplicate so we get to hear Sophie Aldred playing her evil clone. I wasn't too sure what the point of the theives trying to steal the zigguarat that the Daleks came out of was. Just to have other people in the story to get killed off I suppose.

There were a couple actually interesting things here. Firstly, when the test subject Dalek actually comes out, having assimilated all knowledge in the universe it comes to the opposite conclusion of the Daleks' fascist philosophy. It believes that all life must be preserved. I like this a lot. It has a real "reality has a liberal bias" feel to it.

The other thing I liked was that the librarian has been systematically genociding an entire species of natives to this planet the entire time the library has existed. It created aqueous storage facilities for knowledge, but every drop of water is a sentient being. The library has been erasing their minds and using them to store data without knowing or caring that they were sentient. That's wild.That means that these beings are inherently nomadic. They have to be with the water cycle. Goodness knows what happens if you drink water on this planet.

Definitely not the greatest Dalek story of all time, but it's pretty ok. I liked McCoy's reaction to finding out about the water people genocide and how he chastises the librarian.