COMMENT  

THE DALEK CONQUESTS is a stunning and, even though fans will know the history of the Daleks through the clips from the CLASSIC SERIES, thoroughly engaging, demonstrating the power and destiny of Terry Nation's incomparable Daleks.

This is in no doubt to the laconic and swan-like presentation of Nicholas Briggs, whose aural dissertation attempts (and succeeds) to define why the Dalek and Time Lords consume themselves in the (yet unseen) epic Time War.

With thanks to the "Archive Records", it is 1964, and here we first encounter Terry Nation's incomparable metallic war machines. Travel to the Dalek home world, Skaro, where all life is contaminated by neutronic radiation released throughout centuries of war between the Thals and the Kaleds.

From their first appearance, Daleks were focussed, ruthless and highly intelligent creatures seeking, like all species, to survive by all means necessary. This is their DNA; to survive. A single goal, all consuming and at the very heart of all their encounters with the Time Lord known simply as the Doctor.

Sequentially, Briggs explores the singular relationship between the Doctor and the Dalek race. A symbiotic one that feeds upon one another, to a point where one could assume that one could not live (happily?) without the other. As the Fourth Doctor surmises, in the 1975 story, GENESIS OF THE DALEKS; ".although the Daleks will create havoc and destruction for millions of years, I know also that out of their evil must come something good." Wherever there has been a Dalek there has been a Doctor, waiting to thwart its mechanical machinations.

We learn that the Daleks are relentless tacticians bent on wilful subjugation. Whether an invasion of planet Earth (one of many), or a pursuit through time (yes, the Daleks have the power of time travel - first seen 1965's THE CHASE ), or constructing the ultimate weapon (The Time Destructor), or withholding vital medical aid to a plague-ridden galaxy, or instilling war between two vast humanoid Empires (Earth and Draconia) only to pick over the resulting decaying carcasses, or in securing a Time Lord designed stellar device (known as 'The Hand of Omega').

In later adventures, we witness that the Doctor's relationship with the Daleks change with focus shifting to their creator, Davros. A Kaled scientist that envisaged that, due to the neutronic radiation enveloping Skaro, his race will eventually mutate and require life support machines to survive; a life support machine that he termed 'dalek'. And it is at this point in Dalek history, if Briggs is correct, that the seed of animosity between Time Lord and Dalek are sown. The Doctor's compatriots have surmised that the Dalek will become the Universe's dominant species and asks him (and as he willing accepts, should we pity the Ninth Doctor's dilemma in 're-destroying' the Daleks with a Van Cassadyne Delta Wave device?) to avert or delay their creation. Added to this the eventual destruction of home, Skaro (in REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS), can we be surprised that the Daleks have a very large Time Lord-shaped chip on their shoulder rings? They have a lot to be annoyed about, and there is nothing more dangerous, more malicious or hateful than an annoyed Dalek.

The result is the Time War. With equally matched time travel capabilities it was inevitable that space/time's supreme powers were to clash in a titanic struggle with the certainty that mutual extermination.

At the time, only one soul survived. The Doctor. Or so he thought. A vast Dalek fleet had survived, falling through time until resting within Earth's solar system to rebuild and restock.

After two and half hours, it makes sense; cleverly weaving the disparate Dalek TV adventures into a complete, plausible explanation and chronicle of their televisual existence. If this wasn't fiction it could be fact, and we would be afraid. Very afraid.

THE DALEK CONQUESTS is essential listening for new fans, and recommended listening (as a reminder) for established fans. With this success, it is hoped that Briggs attempts another story to tell; THE CYBERMEN ASSIMILATION.