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The Kaled and Thal races are at war. No one really remembers
why, but generations of people on both sides have lost so
very much. Born into an influential family is Davros. Now
aged 16, he is being pulled in various directions. His father
wants him to follow tradition and go into the military - his
sister has joined the Military Youth - but his scheming mother
wants him to pursue a life of science. No one seems terribly
interested in what Davros himself wants. So he must begin
to assert himself, take control of his own life, and work
towards his destiny...
This
new four-part miniseries tells the story of Davros's early
life and the events that shaped the man who would become the
creator of the Daleks.
The first play might be summed up as "Davros as Harry Potter",
if you can imagine such a combination, dealing as it does
with the formative events that shape the 16-year-old Kaled
(played by Rory Jennings from the recent Doctor Who
episode The
Idiot's Lantern). Jennings doesn't sound much
like Terry Molloy, the actor who once again portrays the adult
Davros, but he succeeds in combining a Daniel Radcliffe style
aura of gifted youth with some unsettling moments of emotional
detachment and cruelty.
Molloy
(who previously played the crippled scientist on television
in Resurrection,
Revelation
and Remembrance
of the Daleks and in the Big Finish audio dramas
Davros,
The
Juggernauts and Terror
Firma only stars as Davros for the first few
minutes of the play. The opening scene has Davros preparing
for his trial by the Daleks (Nicholas Briggs) following the
events of Revelation and The Juggernauts, prompting
him to recollect his past.
Despite
the relative lack of Molloy and the Daleks, writer Gary Hopkins
throws in plenty of Genesis
and Revelation-style intrigue, duplicity and backstabbing,
particularly when it comes to the scheming of Davros's mother,
the cold and calculating Lady Calcula (Carolyn Jones). He
also includes subtle allusions to earlier Dalek stories. Davros's
sister Yarvell (Lizzie Hopley) is described as being "no longer
a child, not yet a woman", which was Alydon's description
of Susan in The
Daleks. Her very name is reminiscent of Yarvelling,
the humanoid Dalek scientist in the 1960s TV21 comic
strips.
Meanwhile,
Steve Foxon's sound design and music evoke the ambiance of
Skaro around the time of Genesis of the Daleks. The
wind and door sound effects, the Dudley Simpson style instrumentation
of the incidental music, even the acoustic treatment of the
voices to emphasise the sibilants, all bring to mind that
classic 1975 serial. Which is appropriate enough when you
consider that the story was, back in 1979, the first
commercially released Doctor Who audio adventure
of them all.
Great
stuff - and this is only the beginning.
Richard
McGinlay
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£7.25
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£7.99
(Play.com) |
All prices correct at time of going to press.
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