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A review by kmccubbin
Doctor Who: Davros by Wendy Padbury, Terry Molloy, Colin Baker, Lance Parkin, Bernard Horsfall
3.0
Coming up on Big Finish's 50th story, Zagreus, the ramp up was a series of three stories featuring classic (arguably in the first case) arch villans. I decided to listen to all three before reviewing them.
These three, either by design or because that's just sorta the way you do this kind of thing now, had some common factors. They all revealed something about the past of the baddie that fleshed out the character (and occasionally The Doctor as well) in a way that we'd never seen before. They all had some discussion about the nature of evil (usually one on one with The Doctor). And finally, they all mentioned Zagreus in passing.
Davros - Much like in Omega, it's the long scenes of cat and mouse debate between Davros and the Sixth Doctor that make this worth a listen. And the scenes of pre-Travelling Machine Davros on Skaro work really well.
But this story is WAY too long. It feels padded. There is so much juicy insight into the creator of the Daleks and Terry Molloy is so astonishingly good that I am unsure why there was such a need to draw out the triumphs and tribulations of the TAI corporation so. One could argue that it's Davros and he needs a master plan to define him for each story, but his plan seems a little haphazard. He's just winging it and staying alive until a sort of Deus Ex Financia is dropped into his lap. And even then I'm not exactly sure how he's planning to get to his end run.
But there is much to recommend this story. It's a step up from Omega and Molloy gives the best performance as Davros since "Genesis of the Daleks". And the new history added to the Dalek creation story is surprisingly bold and adds on wonderfully to the previous story's musings on evil being a result of one's legacy being challenged.
I'd love to 3 1/2 this bad boy because it should truly sit right between "Omega" and "Master", but let's round up.
These three, either by design or because that's just sorta the way you do this kind of thing now, had some common factors. They all revealed something about the past of the baddie that fleshed out the character (and occasionally The Doctor as well) in a way that we'd never seen before. They all had some discussion about the nature of evil (usually one on one with The Doctor). And finally, they all mentioned Zagreus in passing.
Davros - Much like in Omega, it's the long scenes of cat and mouse debate between Davros and the Sixth Doctor that make this worth a listen. And the scenes of pre-Travelling Machine Davros on Skaro work really well.
But this story is WAY too long. It feels padded. There is so much juicy insight into the creator of the Daleks and Terry Molloy is so astonishingly good that I am unsure why there was such a need to draw out the triumphs and tribulations of the TAI corporation so. One could argue that it's Davros and he needs a master plan to define him for each story, but his plan seems a little haphazard. He's just winging it and staying alive until a sort of Deus Ex Financia is dropped into his lap. And even then I'm not exactly sure how he's planning to get to his end run.
But there is much to recommend this story. It's a step up from Omega and Molloy gives the best performance as Davros since "Genesis of the Daleks". And the new history added to the Dalek creation story is surprisingly bold and adds on wonderfully to the previous story's musings on evil being a result of one's legacy being challenged.
I'd love to 3 1/2 this bad boy because it should truly sit right between "Omega" and "Master", but let's round up.