Doctor Who - Plague of the Daleks - Review

Stockbridge preserved in metaphorical formaldehyde on a burned world, zombie cricketers on the green, evil robot crows, a horror in the very rain, and the Doctor witnessing the end of his home-from-home.

There was an incredible story to be had here, but it didn't involve daleks.

That said, whilst I think things would have been better without the daleks, I'm not sure that it would cure everything. Ultimately I think Mark Morris just isn't an audio writer. I'd be willing to bet his novels are much stronger pieces of work; many of the flaws in the writing here seemed like they might come from someone who was at home in prose struggling to work as well in script. A lot of the time characters are describing the action, and in part one Nyssa is mostly relegated to asking the Doctor questions.
I also think there's an issue with pacing. I felt like very little had happened at the end of each of parts 1-3. In particular, part 2 seems mostly to involve Nyssa, Lysette, Alexis and Rinxo having an argument and watching the rain.

Plotwise, the story starts alright, throwing up mysteries which seem to consciously ape the Eternal Summer before swinging sideways into a different explanation. The first part feels Stockbridge-y and maintains the feel of a throughline to the trilogy. Once the rains start, however, the importance of the setting is rather lost, and the story no longer feels like it has any link to the past two in the way Summer felt linked to Castle. An attempt is made to recoup the unity of the three by ending the story on the destruction of Stockbridge, but it's dealt with too fleetingly, and it doesn't really succeed. I'm not sure this is entirely Morris' fault - all of the plays could have emphasises the theme a little more. Castle actually did this well, creating a sense that we were witnessing the origins of the traditions and folk of the village. Eternal Summer mostly succeeded by creating a very believable contemporary rendering of the village, but it could have brought out the threads from Castle a little more, and more could have been set up there to appear in Plague. We get a scene here in which a genealogist examines the graveyard that provides links back, but to really generate the sense of continuity the links should have ran throughout the whole story.

As to the self contained story, I felt that the zombified villagers weren't used properly. They're never really a threat or the crux of any action, just figures milling about outside whilst the characters watch from doorways. This, at least, is probably the daleks' fault, as their arrival at the midpoint of the story puts paid to the more interesting horror premise to give us a dalek runaround.
Much has been said about the overuse of the daleks in the past year of stories, and by now they really are very tired, actively detracting from the story. More than anything the problem here is that they do nothing specifically dalek. They are completely replaceable, and whilst that's never desirable, its particularly wearisome when we're seeing so much of them. If they must appear so frequently, at least make their appearance matter. (Patient Zero achieved this.)

After that the plot unfolds along predictable lines. The Doctor is mind controlled and it plays out exactly as you would expect it to, with nary an interesting angle to be found. A little bit of mileage is gained from the conflict of the human servitors, and this is probably the best element of the story, but its gone in a flash. Similarly, we see the ultimate end of Stockbridge, but it's only given a moment's thought. It's just not very exciting. None of it has any sort of tension or pace. The biggest thrill is the coming of the rains at the end of part one, but it's soon defused by an excessively long time spent cowering in the doorways.

As for the cast, it's a mixed bunch. They haven't got the best characters to work with - some are very plain, and the remainder are over the top. Sarah Sutton is doing well with some poor dialogue, but Davison seems a bit bored, in particular failing to sell his reaction to Stockbridge's end. Keith Barron plays a very standard somerset everyman, which, in fairness, is all the story asks of him. When it finally throws in a little extra conflict at the end, though, he doesn't really live up to it. Richard Cordery isn't bad as Rinxo, but he's essentially just comic relief and fodder, so he never has the chance to shine. Special mention goes to Lisa Tarbuck, who is rather good as Lysette. She prevents the pessimism of the character from turning her into an irritating misery and she's pretty good in her final-part torment.

There's not much to say about the rest of the production work. It's functional, but not notable. A nice piece of music in part four is reminiscent of the great sound work on the previous stories, but ultimately there's none of that vibrance here.

Ultimately, it's a bit of a washout. Needless daleks hurt it a lot, the dialogue is clunky, and it's just very dull. In its defense, it doesn't do anything really clankingly bad, so there are far worse stories. But there's plenty better, too. 5/10