The Genocide Machine

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.

the concepts explored were really great, and whilst overall pretty solid, one part less would've done it the world of good. the comedy aspects with prink were really funny, but i did not expect the twist about the librarian towards the end.

The Monthly Adventures #007 - "The Genocide Machine" by Mike Tucker

I have listened to The Genocide Machine three times in my life. The first was years ago, when I first found out about Big Finish. I got The Sirens of Time for my birthday, listened to it, mildly enjoyed it, before discovering it was free on Apple Music and Spotify. At that point, I decided to listen to the first of the Dalek Empire arc, a little story called The Genocide Machine. I listened to it, didn’t think much of it, and promptly forgot it entirely. The second time I listened to it was about a year and a half ago, when I first really got into Big Finish. Listened to it in the car, didn’t think much of it, enjoyed the Daleks, and promptly forgot about it again. The third time I listened to it was today, and I have no idea how in god’s name I enjoyed any part of it the last two times. At least I know why I kept forgetting about it, this is one of the most tired, pointless executions of a Dalek story I have ever had the displeasure of sitting through. Let’s get into it.

On a mission to return overdue library books to the universe’s largest store of information, the Doctor once again finds himself up against the Dalek Empire, as they try to assimilate all knowledge known to man.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

There are a few ways a story can get this low a score for me. 4/10 is about the lowest I can go whilst still getting some enjoyment out of the story, 3/10 I enjoy a few elements but nothing that helps the rest of the plot, 2/10 is reserved for real dumpster fires with maybe one redeeming element and 1/10 are stories that genuinely make me livid. The Genocide Machine offers me next to nothing, it is a vacuous, pointless slog through a tired, rehashed Dalek scenario that has been done time and time again. Its biggest claim to fame is inventing the character of Bev Tarrant, who I understand becomes important in the Bernice Summerfield range, which I have not listened to. I have, however, listened to Dust Breeding, a better story with Bev in it, so despite liking her here (she’s not the greatest character in the world and I kept mixing her and Ace up since the actress sounds pretty similar to Sophie Aldred but she’s fine), I could just find better audios with her in. Seven and Ace are good, I suppose, but really, when aren’t they? Honestly, my favourite thing here is the concept of the Kar-Charratans, a race that has assimilated with the water on the planet and are in the rain and “wet-works”, a liquid data storage complex. It’s certainly an interesting idea and a race living in the water of a planet is a cool idea (an intelligent civilisation, not a parasite like The Flood), trouble is it’s stuck in the world’s most boring Dalek story.

I was bored out of my mind from ten minutes in to the very end, there is literally nothing here of note. One good character that’s in other stories and a good idea smothered by a by the numbers narrative. The Daleks are trying to steal all the knowledge in history, an idea that is neither innovative nor interesting. If you’re writing a Dalek story, you’ve got to do something new with it, there have been too many of them to just do the same old thing and The Genocide Machine is the most basic a Dalek outing could possibly be. Besides Bev we have a supremely annoying librarian getting lugged around with us and a character who… doesn’t speak. In an audio only story. Whose idea was this? I don’t know if I’m just stupid but I genuinely thought Prink (the aforementioned mute member of our cast) was a delusion by another character, since he was rarely spoken to by anybody else but them and never made a sound; this caused me to be very surprised when he gets killed off and we’re meant to feel sad about the death of a character we’ve never heard speak. I understand the joke they were trying to make, constantly calling him “very chatty”, but it’s, one, not funny in the first place and, two, really doesn’t work without a visual aid. As for the setting, it’s also really dull. We never really spend time exploring this supposedly grand library and we spend most of the runtime in a generic jungle setting. It reminded me of the setting of Alien Bodies - which I also found to have quite a dull backdrop - but without the insane alien auction carrying the rest of the narrative, just leading to a bland and forgettable locale.

Sitting through this bore again was hellish and I was counting down the seconds to when it finished. The Daleks are dull as they possibly could be, there are some frankly ridiculous creative choices muddying the proverbial waters and the only positives are not even unique to this release, making it a pointless waste of time that you would do yourself a favour in skipping.

3/10

Pros:

+ Bev was a welcome addition to the cast I’d like to see in better stories

+ Seven and Ace, were, as usual, fantastically written and acted

+ The Kar-Charratans had a wonderfully novel concept behind them

Cons:

- An utterly by the numbers Dalek story that does nothing new with the infamous pepperpots

- Chief Librarian Elgin was an incredibly annoying bit of baggage for our cast

- Makes the infinitely confusing choice to feature a nearly entirely mute character on audio

- Has an incredibly generic and dull setting

- Trudges along with no action or excitement through the first act to and into the climax

Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures

#007. The Genocide Machine ~ 9/10

◆ 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!

◆ 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!

◆ 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.

◆ 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.

◆ 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!

◆ 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!

◆ 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!

◆ 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.

◆ 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.

◆ 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.

◆ 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.

The story has a lot of very interesting ideas but few if any are fully realized. A library engineered by Time Lords? That's cool. Daleks, Ace, and the Seventh Doctor are all cool. This is apparently Briggs' first time voicing the Daleks, and that's extremely cool. Water-based ghosts victims of a librarian-based genocide scheme? Not cool, but good sci-fi, sure! Unfortunately it never seems to come together and is a very rough listen overall.

For one thing, there are far too many ideas here and so the plot feels scattered and underdeveloped. I was really hoping for something cool out of the library but found it mostly was just a background thing. The Daleks are doing their thing but when one of them gets sick and just won't stop screaming about it, the experience is pretty infuriating! And while Briggs is good as the Daleks, I could instantly tell without having to look it up that there was another person also voicing them (Alistair Lock) and oh boy, those lines were extremely rough to hear and Lock does not make for a good Dalek voice actor, in my opinion.

But the Seventh Doctor is fantastic here and does have a really good moment. McCoy is still in form even after the big gap between the show and his return on the Main Range for Big Finish. That's true of all the Doctors but it is impressive how strong he is out of the gate with audios like this and The Fearmonger. On the other hand, I was kind of bored with Ace's role here. She goes through that thing where an evil version of her is created by the Daleks. A fun reference to The Chase, I think, but a pretty flat role for any companion. And that should NEVER be true of Ace. So, yes, very middling, probably worth skipping, but bursting with potential.

A bit of refinement could have made The Genocide Machine great, but it is instead oh so barely passable. This is the first Big Finish audio edited digitally, apparently, and you can definitely tell. The sound effects are a lot better blended, and although there is an awful lot of them, it largely works in service of telling us stuff - like a Dalek entering and exiting the scene - so I think it generally works quite well. Didn't get much of anything out of the music, but I can appreciate the company slowly refining itself in these early days.

This is very much one of those "growing pains" of early Doctor Who Big Finish stuff, the kind of thing I worry puts off potential new fans. It has its moments but I do wish The Genocide Machine didn't have this sort of false allure of being a potential jumping on point for Big Finish content - I definitely don't think this story works at all in service of that or any newcomer. This is more something for a curious fan well-versed in Doctor Who, at this point, nothing more. That type of person will probably get a kick out of it with lots of cool references and the introduction of a Bernice Summerfield character, but I think the average new listener would not be left with the same positive impression at all.

The Genocide Machine is a fine story, but it does drag on a little too long. That being said, there are quite a few things that I enjoy. The main concept is interesting, with a good twist, and made for an interesting element of the story. My MVP for this story was Sophie Aldred. She had a lot to work with, even if I don't think she managed to stick the landing on one main thing. Also interesting that we get to hear Nicolas Briggs as the Daleks for the first time in an official capacity, and the first appearance of the Daleks at all in Big Finish. Some of the voices he uses still appear in Doctor Who to this day, which is a nice piece of continuity. This is also the first part of a 'soft' prequel to what will be called Dalek Empire. It'll be interesting how this story impacts it. While not the best, this story has enough to keep you entertained for the most part.

Unfortunately I really struggle with the sound design of this story, particularly the Kar-Charratans which give me a headache, and I mean that very literally. Is it otherwise good? I don’t know because through no fault of the story itself the audio causes me physical pain. It certainly starts off fine, fairly intriguing and engaging once it gets going, if nothing particularly special, but once characters are having conversations with the Kar-Charratans, I am unable to judge the story as I can no longer follow it due to the sound design, and the headache it causes.

This is very much a personal problem, I’m sure most people will not have this issue, so probably worth a try

An OK outing for Sylvester McCoy against the Daleks, though not without its faults. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. There are some beautiful and interesting ideas at the center of The Genocide Machine, and the audio landscape is fantastic. It's just a bit dull, to be honest. And the method of Dalek defeat is a little convenient for me. After the much more interesting Fearmonger, this felt like a step backward.