The Mutant Phase

13.05.2022

Entertaining enough, but mostly just fills the space. You're not bored listening to this, but there's nothing to hold onto and savor really. A perfectly fine 3/5 story. Not the worst Dalek outing.

MR 015: The Mutant Phase

😴 😴 🛌 💤

Wha... what was that? Oh there was an audio here? Oh right. Uh... Daleks have a mutation that makes them into scary flying killers. More than they already are anyway. The Daleks and Thals are working together to try to stop the mutation at its source which turns out to be a wasp stinging a badly damaged Dalek during the Dalek Invasion of Earth.

It's wild to me, though, that this audio is the follow up to Holy Terror, the BEST audio so far, an absolute masterpiece. And then this one comes along and is dull as hell. The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa continue to be pretty boring here. Nyssa retains some of her combative personality with the Doctor from her previous audios, which is nice, but it's all so bland and formulaic.

The mutant phase itself is an interesting concept, but it quickly gets subverted in favor of a "changing time bad" story which then changes into a "paradox" story. The Doctor says "fate, never heard of it," which is a cool line... except for the fact that he constantly argues in favor of maintaining history as he remembers it in history books. So he absolutely does believe in fate.

The paradox is just as uninteresting as the rest of the plot around it. The Dalek Emperor went back in time with them to stop the mutant phase, but his using the pesticide to kill the wasp is what triggers the mutation. Because the Daleks had already identified it and were going to get rid of it themselves. Or something. Honestly, I checked out a long time ago.

I think, at this point, BF is kind of floundering with both the Fifth Doctor and the Daleks. The Fifth Doctor himself is hard to make interesting, clearly. They had an interesting story in Winter for the Adept, but not becasue of the Doctor or Nyssa. And their Dalek stories thus far have been pretty dull and formulaic. They don't really know yet what to do with them, I think. They don't have the Time War to play with either. We'll see if that trend continues.

The Monthly Adventures #015 - "The Mutant Phase" by Nicholas Briggs

Going off one of the most unique and fascinating stories I’ve ever experienced, I was not happy to see I was going into yet another instalment of the utter thrillride that is the Dalek Empire quadrilogy, now penned by Nick Briggs himself, who did just such a stand up job on his last script. I’ve listened to The Mutant Phase before and when I did, I remember liking some ideas in it, but finding the story and characters all together lacking. Listening to it again, I can say I was very, very much right the first time around, The Mutant Phase is another very dull story, although, I can certainly say it does try.

Chasing a strange fluctuation in the vortex, the Doctor and Nyssa find themselves stranded in a universe ravaged by the Mutant Phase, a genetic disease that turns Daleks into insectoid abominations

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

As is common for these Dalek Empire stories, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about with The Mutant Phase, it’s not as bog-standard as its two predecessors but it certainly doesn’t do well at filling its time. I’d actually call this the best of the quadrilogy so far because I actually quite liked what it was going for, the idea of it is genuinely really interesting. A parasitic wasp has caused a genetic fault in the Daleks that has resulted in a mutation that leaves the pepperpots as ravenous, unstoppable beasts, which has caused history to change and the universe to end. The mutant phase is a terrifying force to be reckoned with for one thing but I also like the sci-fi angle of the paradox; I always love when Doctor Who utilises its concept as a time travel show to create a conundrum. Mainly I just admire this story - The Genocide Machine and The Apocalypse Element were both so generic I could barely keep my focus up but The Mutant Phase actually has a good idea behind it, and I really can’t fault it for that. Other positives? I don't know, a lot of this story is just fine. The acting's fine. The sound design's fine. A lot of it's fine.

However, there are some major places where it slips up. The script is too long and too boring, none of the characters are memorable in any respect, the narrative is a mess. It jumps location about three times in the first two parts, changing characters along with settings and it makes the plot both jarring and underdeveloped. Eventually, all this meandering leads to an incredibly convoluted ending that feels as messy as Briggs’ previous work. So, the paradox began when the Dalek Emperor hidden in the body of a human scientist (doesn’t really make sense for a Dalek to willingly do this, given the whole superior species mantra and all plus the scientist never has a hint of acting like a Dalek, even after the reveal of his true identity, I’m off topic now) convinces the Daleks in the past to use a pesticide to kill the mutant phase, which would end up not working when, if he had left it alone, they would’ve successfully removed the parasite. This is not explained clearly enough and when the credits rolled, I was just left confused. Briggs’ strong suit is not in the exposition that’s for sure.

The Mutant Phase is one of the weird stories where I just feel like half of it was missing; I am certain more happened than I remember because I recall so little going on and it’s two hours in length, so I must be forgetting the finer details. I’m getting very tired of these dull as anything Dalek stories, even if this one entertained a good idea.

5/10

Pros:

+ The idea of the Mutant Phase is a very interesting concept

+ The paradoxical storytelling was a nice touch of sci-fi

+ Tried something new and I can admire it for that

Cons:

- Extremely forgettable sidecast

- Jumps from plot thread to plot thread too quickly

- Convoluted and overwritten ending

- The Emperor didn’t act like a dalek at any point

- Overly drawn out

The Mutant Phase was one of the best free gifts given away with Doctor Who Adventures (the children's Doctor Who magazine) back when I was a child. Of course, it was also released separately from the magazine through Big Finish as a slightly longer version (the DWA take is cut down) but it was a nice change from the free notebooks and pens.

The Mutant Phase sees the Doctor (Peter Davison) and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) find themselves trapped in a time corridor where they find out the Daleks are mutating into something due to an infection. Meanwhile, they find themselves at the mercy of some dangerous wasps who have been made more aggressive by a pesticide chemical.

One of the things I like about this serial is the decision by writer Nicholas Briggs to have the companion (in this case Nyssa) be infected by the illness/mutation of the serial. She actually becomes infected pretty early on, when she is stung by a wasp in the 42nd century. It's a great move by Nicholas Briggs as it raises the personal stakes for the Doctor and eliminates the problem of 'Oh, the Doctor and his companion will always be safe because it's not the main series'. I wish TV Doctor Who would put the Doctor and his companion into peril like this; whilst I love the main series, there are very rare examples where it feels as though the companion is in as much danger as the supporting cast.

It's also nice to see the Daleks infected by the Mutant Phase. It's great to hear these powerful, booming hate machines become weak and vulnerable towards what is basically a disease. In fact, you almost feel sorry for them - especially when it makes the Daleks basically mindless. We're too used to seeing the Daleks as being the powerful evil species they are so its nice for it to be stripped back to reveal what the Daleks would be like if they weren't in control.

It's amazing how Nicholas Briggs manages to achieve different voices with the Daleks and the Dalek Emperor too. The Dalek Emperor sounds has a much more booming and God-like voice compared to the more robotic metallic Dalek voices. It's the same with the new series too; you never feel like you're just watching or listening to another Dalek with the Dalek Emperor but he has his own distinguishable voice despite being voiced by the same person.

The great thing with these audio dramas is that the main cast never sound like the actual age they are now. It's like listening to a lost classic series serial. Peter Davison sounds perfect as his Doctor despite now being in his 50s when this was recorded and Sarah Sutton doesn't sound any older either (this was recorded in the early 2000s) even though two decades had passed since she was in the show with Peter Davison. You would never convince the audience on TV that they are in their 30s and 20s but on audio on the other hand it's harder to believe they were in their 50s and 40s here.

Overall, The Mutant Phase is a magnificent Doctor Who audio drama and one that any Whovian should listen to whether they have listened to Big Finish before or not. It features incredible performances from Nicholas Briggs, Sarah Sutton and Peter Davison, the latter which convince you they are much younger than their ages at the time of recording. I do wonder how it went down at the time with other kids who bought Doctor Who Adventures though. Did they dismiss it because it was audio or did they give it a go and find they actually enjoyed it? I'm really not sure.

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

Previous Story: Winter for the Adept

A generic but otherwise solid Dalek story. It's a sequel to The Dalek Invasion of Earth. I like that in this story, the Daleks are vulnerable and actually need the Doctor's help. Nicholas Briggs does an excellent performance of the Dalek Emperor and makes him feel like a tangible threat.

The Dalek Emperor taking human form is a neat idea, executed well. I found the rules of time travel a bit muddled in this story, I'm still not sure exactly what events were being changed and why that really matters or what that will impact in the future. At the very least this story wasn't at all boring, the action was great and not difficult to follow and the mutated Daleks were a fairly large threat that really upped the stakes.

5 and Nyssa are a TARDIS team with a lot of potential that just isn't realised here. I'm not sure why Big Finish seem so afraid to expand on their dynamic as it could be really interesting. That coupled with the fact that we haven't really had any stand-out stories with this team so far is a real shame.

Next Story: Primeval

🙏🏼56% = Average! = Skippable!

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

FIVEY AND NYSSA FACE THE DALEKS!

Big Finish’s early Dalek stories have been average at best, and they’ve also struggled to make Fifth Doctor stories interesting, so I am not particularly excited when heading into The Mutant Phase, the third release in the Dalek Empire arc and a remake of an older Audio Visuals release from the 90s.

Part 1 eases us into the story by harking back to past Dalek adventures (it feels a bit like The Dalek Invasion of Earth, infused with Planet of the Daleks) and setting Five and Nyssa to explore their new time and place. The atmosphere is perfectly interesting to begin with, as Nicholas Briggs slowly builds the main mystery and makes this adventure a sequel to the superb The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

The middle parts reach a standstill and barely move the plot along, so it's easy to lose focus. The second part introduces more erratic elements, which further complicate the story in a traditional Big Finish Dalek Story fashion.

What annoys me somewhat is the fact that the script is a mishmash of ideas and concepts previously explored in Terry Nation-penned scripts. The entire concept of the Mutant Phase virus is similar to the main plot points in The Evil of the Daleks.

But the base ideas are interesting: mutation, time travel, the Daleks requiring help to avoid getting wiped out, and the Doctor having to go through a Genesis of the Daleks moment when deciding what to do.

Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton are pretty good together here, but I’m still not a fan of this small TARDIS crew, and their performances don't convince me I should. Nyssa isn't that interesting, and it's annoying how the plot point of Nyssa getting stung at the start is stretched out to the point where you believe it's going to be very important later on, only for it to be brushed off quietly.

The most notable guest actor is Mark Gatiss, who plays Karl Hendryk with a strong accent and does it pretty well. Nicholas Briggs is also really good as the voice of the Dalek Emperor. I also like the idea of the Dalek Emperor in a human body on paper, even if it is a bit silly and makes little sense.

There's a perfectly fine, tense atmosphere throughout this that keeps it going, even if it's hardly scary or exciting. The Dalek-ravaged future Earth comes alive pretty well, and the Daleks have a steady presence. The audio isn't quite as messy as The Apocalypse Element or The Genocide Machine, but as we get closer to the end, everything becomes a bit more muddled.

The final few moments of Part 4 are pretty exciting, as the Doctor attempts to stop the Dalek Emperor from changing the future.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

This story features a Commander Ganatus and a Starship Dyoni, both named after characters from The Daleks.

We also find references to the TARDIS jumping time tracks (The Space Museum) and activating the HADS (The Krotons; Wild Blue Yonder).