There are rarely Audios where I remember my Listening Experience as vividly as with this one. I remember I listened to this one fairly recently (well, if 5 Months ago is recent) and I remember not feeling good at all, so I am not quite sure if my Opinion on this might be formed that much by this experience.

In many ways, this Story present plenty of Things that I like. As always, Molloy doesn't disappoint and his Report with Colin is a delight. Similarly, Mel is quite a strong Character in this one, she gets a lot to do here and Bonnie does deliver what she is given, if anything she is the Standout here. How the Story uses the Mechanoids was an interesting Twist, but, and that's a big but, their Voices are just  ■■■■■■■ Awful. And I am sorry for saying this, but they really hard to listen to and at best just come off as annoying, at worst make my Listening Experience much worse.

There is also the pacing, which feels at times all over the Place. And the Side Cast. Oh well, the Side Cast is tricky, but frankly I don't really have much of an Opinion on them, at best I am very indifferent about them to put it kindly.

And yet while I gave it plenty of Praise and there is a lot to like here, I am not sure if this one that I put comfortably on my "Hey, I like it"-Tier. Again this might very well deserve another shoot from me, I can see why it's well-liked (at least I've seen it being parted with the more liked Monthlies from the Streak 51-100), but for me? It just kinda doesn't connect with me at all.

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

“THE JUGGERNAUTS: DAVROS, DALEKS A CRASH LANDING INTO A FAMILIAR TERRITORY”

The Juggernauts opens like a modern Doctor Who episode – all chaos and high-stakes spectacle, with Six and Mel trapped on a crashing spaceship surrounded by alarms, fire and failing systems. It’s a punchy start that immediately grabs your attention and promises big things to come. The Doctor stays behind to stabilise the vessel while Mel escapes to safety in a pod, landing on the mining colony of Lethe. From here, the two leads are split for nearly half the story, and the plot sets up a double-pronged mystery as both separately try to uncover what’s going on – and eventually, how to reunite.

At first glance, this feels like a standard “Doctor and companion separated” setup, but what gives it its unique flavour is the fact that The Juggernauts is actually a Dalek story in (a thinly veiled) disguise – with Davros pulling the strings from the shadows and a reimagined take on the Mechanoids thrown into the mix. There’s also a certain dramatic irony baked in: we know more than the characters do, and that knowledge creates a simmering tension… at least, in theory.

DAVROS IN DISGUISE: PROFESSOR VASSO’S SHAKY SCIENTIFIC STINT

The core twist of the story – that Davros is alive, surviving the crash, and now hiding under the alias “Professor Vasso” – is blown by the cover and synopsis, so there’s little suspense in his true identity. That said, Terry Molloy plays the initial role with an unusually measured and benevolent tone, ditching the rasping megalomania for a calm, collected scientist voice that actually makes you wonder: is Davros faking this, or has he turned over a new leaf?

It’s a compelling idea, but one that the story doesn't fully commit to. The façade is dropped far too soon – as soon as the Doctor shows up, Davros reverts to his usual villainous posturing. A subtler reveal might have made for stronger drama, especially since the “what if Davros went good?” angle could’ve provided some juicy ethical ambiguity. Instead, the story treads familiar ground: Davros pretending to work for peace while secretly creating his own new race of war machines.

MEL GETS A JOB AND THE DOCTOR GETS A MISSION

One of the most interesting elements is Mel’s position on Lethe. She integrates into the colony, uses her programming skills, and unknowingly helps bring the Juggernauts to life – Mechanoids reengineered as part of a cutting-edge project. It’s a rare story that foregrounds Mel’s technical aptitude, and that’s genuinely refreshing. Her refusal to leave when the Doctor comes to “rescue” her also gives her some welcome autonomy. She thinks she’s doing good work under a reputable scientist – and why wouldn’t she? Davros’ mask hasn’t slipped yet.

Meanwhile, the Doctor’s storyline feels more by-the-numbers. Having been “rescued” by the Daleks, he’s conscripted to help prevent a disaster – an idea we've seen before in stories like Revelation of the Daleks and The Stolen Earth, and which doesn't hold much tension here because the Daleks' motives are so transparently sinister. There’s no real urgency to his predicament, and the story tends to forget about it until the script needs a jolt of drama.

PACING PROBLEMS AND A LACK OF ENERGY

For a story with so many moving parts – Daleks, Davros, Mechanoids, mining colonies, ethical dilemmas – The Juggernauts unfolds with a surprisingly sedate pace. The first half especially suffers from a lack of dramatic thrust. We spend a lot of time with Mel and her colleagues, but these supporting characters aren’t fleshed out enough to invest in. The day-to-day life of the Lethe colony is sketched in vague terms, with little in the way of world-building or tension.

Even when the Doctor and Mel are finally reunited midway through Part Two, there’s a strange lack of chemistry – not due to the performances, but due to the script. They share precious little time together until Part Three, and for a Doctor/companion pairing that’s still relatively new in the Big Finish range (this being only their second main range outing after The One Doctor), it feels like a missed opportunity. There’s very little spark or banter between them until the plot absolutely demands it.

DALEKS, MECHANOIDS, AND AN UNINSPIRED CONSPIRACY

There’s potential in the central conflict – Davros attempting to create a new species to surpass the Daleks, using the Mechanoids as a base. This recalls Genesis of the Daleks, with Davros positioning himself as a creator once again, tired of being betrayed by his own creations. The Mechanoids’ redesign as “Juggernauts” – partially organic, partially robotic – is an unsettling twist, especially when we learn they’re being built using harvested body parts.

But even this horror element feels undercooked. The idea of cyborg slaves, stitched together by a half-mad scientist, should be chilling – but the script only brushes against it. The Juggernauts never come across as fully realised threats. They’re clunky, slow-moving, and their climactic role lacks any real punch. For what’s meant to be the Mechanoids’ grand comeback after nearly 40 years, they’re surprisingly forgettable.

And of course, there’s the inevitable “twist” that the Daleks and Davros were working together all along to trap the Doctor. It’s meant to be shocking – but let’s be honest, would anyone be surprised if they weren’t conspiring? It’s such a familiar beat in Davros stories that it lands with a sigh rather than a gasp.

MEL’S MOMENT AND A MUDDLED ENDING

Despite the story’s many shortcomings, Mel does get one standout moment: when she uses her programming expertise to override and control the Juggernauts, turning them against Davros. It’s a great payoff for her arc and the one moment where she truly takes the lead. Even better is her moral challenge to the Doctor – asking why he didn’t destroy the Daleks when he had the chance back in Genesis of the Daleks. These are big questions, and it's a shame the story doesn’t do more with them.

Unfortunately, the ending feels overextended. The final act should wrap with the defeat of Davros and the Daleks, but the story lingers for a while afterwards, seemingly unsure of how to land. Mel’s guilt over having helped Davros – and her brief desire to leave the TARDIS – doesn’t feel earned, because the script never gives this theme of culpability any real depth. It’s just one more idea briefly raised and then discarded.

FAMILIAR FACES AND FORGOTTEN POTENTIAL

One quirky delight is the unexpected return of the stuttering Dalek from The Chase – a strange little Easter egg that long-time fans will appreciate, though it does little to impact the story. In general, The Juggernauts is full of good ideas that never quite cohere into a satisfying whole. The performances are solid across the board, especially from Colin Baker and Terry Molloy, who bring energy and gravitas to even the flattest scenes. But the plot beats are tired, the direction is flat, and the sense of menace never quite lands.

📝VERDICT: 6.3/10

The Juggernauts has all the ingredients for a tense, dramatic, and morally complex Dalek tale: a shady Davros, a divided Doctor/companion team, and a twisted new take on the Mechanoids. But it never quite cooks. The pacing is sluggish, the stakes never feel high, and most of the interesting ideas – Davros hiding in plain sight, Mel unknowingly aiding evil, the ethical cost of programming machines to kill – are skimmed over rather than explored in full. It’s a functional, competently made audio, but with Big Finish’s high bar for Dalek stories this one feels like a missed opportunity.

The Monthly Adventures #065 - “The Juggernauts" by Scott Alan Woodard

Is there a greater task for a Doctor Who writer than writing an interesting Dalek story? Possibly not. If I’m being honest, the show needs to retire these things, send them out with a bang, not a one season absence gimmick. But why? These things are the literal reason the show still runs today, why would I want rid of them? Because at this point, every Dalek story has been written. Short of some dreadfully dull twist such as “It’s the Daleks, but in Groundhog Day!” or “It’s the Daleks, but in Fantastic Voyage!”, we’ve pretty much seen every facet of these things and their creator. Now, what we're left with is a sea of identical beings, every Dalek-centric episode stagnating in just-alright territory with little to set them apart. This was my main problem with The Juggernauts because, once I’d finished it, all I could think of was why there was any reason to listen to it.

Stranded after a crash, Mel takes up work in remote scientific colony, Lethe, whilst she waits for the Doctor to rescue her. However, the Time Lord has his own agenda; forced to work with the Daleks, the Doctor arrives on Lethe with the intention of facing down Mel’s new boss: Davros.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

The Juggernauts is one of those stories that I find endlessly annoying to review because what I have to say on it isn’t much. It falls through the cracks and I could probably sum up the majority of my thoughts in a sentence. However, I will try to spin something out of this, beginning with perhaps my biggest takeaway - Terry Molloy. Molloy is always fantastic, Davros (the story, not the character) can attest to that, but he’s absolutely carrying this story on his shoulders. Great both as the cruel and twisted Davros and the kindly Professor Vaso, you can tell exactly how ranged Molloy is here and every scene between him and Baker was a delight. I also love stories that don’t skimp on his cruelty and the scene where he murders an entire room of executives in order to aid his master plan was fantastic.

As for the story itself, I’ll get onto why it’s nothing to write home about but I should mention Woodard’s style here, which I found highly enjoyable. For as much as I think this story is nothing special, Woodard injects an energetic, quick-witted and altogether very mature stylishness into the story that at least makes it not as great a chore as it could’ve been. However, this is mostly carried by our lead performers Bonnie Langford, who’s always a delight, and the forever indomitable Colin Baker. They’re both fantastic here but especially Mel, who gets some, if not exemplary, decent character work done that I did appreciate, along with the amount of agency she had in the story.

However, the script itself is where the audio begins to struggle because I am simply not impressed by what I’ve got. The thing that jumps out to me immediately is just how awfully paced this thing is. It began somewhat strongly, with a small timeskip and Mel having integrated herself into this colony - it was an interesting set up the story could’ve masterfully built off of, especially with the reveal that her boss is a disguised Davros. Think about it: the tension as Davros tries not to be revealed, Mel struggling with having to let go of the friendships she made, that horrible feeling of a good life falling apart the inevitable become inevitable. And that is what we get, for the first half at least before the story goes from 0 to 100, this is all mostly dropped and we’re left with subpar Dalek shenanigans instead. There’s very little build up to this change in tone and it honestly feels like two different stories. Once the Doctor shows up, Davros doesn’t even try to hide who he is and everything begins all at once in a truly unsatisfying way.

It also doesn’t help that the sidecast is this dull - there is an attempt at playing off of the relationships Mel has formed in the three months she’s been away from the Doctor but unfortunately that relationship is with Geoff, who has uncharacteristically terrible dialogue for this story and is lumped with a very stilted performance. Other than that, the other character came and went; there was some interesting stuff with substance-abusing, cowardly suit Kryson but his storyline didn’t really go anywhere. For a story so reliant on its characters, it really struggles to give anybody for our main duo to play off besides Davros.

But that’s not why I think The Juggernauts is something to sleep on, no, my biggest problem with The Juggernauts is that it is categorically, unequivocally, astoundingly generic. It is formula to the max, everything here is in other, better Dalek stories. We literally just had a Davros/Six story that is a thousand times better and we’re about to get an Eight/Davros story that is a million times better, so really, what was the point of this audio? The Daleks feel like a generic robotic bad guy, the mechanoids are interchangeable and used purely as plot devices, the Daleks working with the Doctor are not followed through on, Davros wanting to change has already been done. The Juggernauts falls into the common trap of just rewriting better Dalek stories into something more derivative and for that, I can not bring myself to recommend this story.

I feel sorry for The Juggernauts. It was doomed from the beginning by its nature,  a fool’s errand that resulted in exactly what it was. It’s not offensive, it’s not embarrassing, hell, it’s not that boring, but when you get a story that feels like a worse version of other episodes, I find little point to it all.

6/10

Pros:

+ Yet another fantastic performance from Terry Molloy

+ The style is quick and witty

+ Brilliant performances from Langford and Baker

+ Gave Mel some great characterisation

Cons:

- Horribly paced

- Generic and derivative story that didn’t expand on the ideas it had

- Dull and often irritating sidecast

I do think about this story a lot actually it has SO many wonderful character moments for Mel and it used Davros in a very interesting way. It puts all the characters in very interesting predicaments and it's so fun to listen to.

The Sixth Doctor and Davros are just a fantastic match for each other. This is the third meeting I've heard on audio and all three have been great stories. Terry Molloy is such a good actor, and infuses Davros with the right amount of evil and morals. Davros stands as the definitive work on the character, but this is another excellent showing. (A tiny note on the Davros redesign controversy - the Doctor does say once you see how hideous Davros is on the outside Mel will realize he's evil...not ideal).

Mel features prominently here as she is given a love interest and also gets to put her computer programming skills to work. Davros has stumbled upon Mechanoids and is putting dead human parts in them to create the titular Juggernauts. He's also disguised himself as a doddering professor. Mel is so horrified at him by the end of the story she leaves the Mechanoids to kill him, but naturally Davros survives (only to self-destruct even though we know he survives - weird call).

All around great and fun performances and character development for largely Mel and a bit for Davros too. Good stuff!