The Genocide Machine

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.