"Dalek Empire Chapter 2: The Human Factor" Published in CT Number 288

After the opening chapter of this mini-series reached such high acclaim from myself, it was always going to be hard to equal. And sadly this chapter fails to do that. Don’t get me wrong, I still like it a lot, but as a stand-alone story it doesn’t meet the heights of Chapter 1 (Invasion of the Daleks). However, it is not supposed to. By the very nature of this mini-series, each story is an individual chapter, rather like a long episode of Doctor Who, and must be reviewed as such.

We start with a brief recap of the last chapter, and then the plot develops. In this, there is rather a long time until the action builds-up, but when it does it works rather well. Basically, Suz (Sarah Mowat) and Kalendorf (Gareth Thomas) are travelling the Dalek front lines, building up support for her plans and making production better. However, Kalendorf is stirring up rebellion, waiting until the time is right to strike at the Daleks. Morebi (a slave leader) misinterprets this and rises too early, and is ruthlessly crushed, betrayed by Suz who orders the Daleks to kill them all for the safety of the plan.

And it is here an interesting concept is raised. Suz is working for the Daleks, but will betray them in the long-run. However, she is thinking and acting like a Dalek more and more, as Kalendorf points out several times. She is losing her humanity, hence the chapter’s title.

Alby and Pellan have only a minor part in this chapter, but they are fairly well used and provide a great ending for the story.

Onto the reason you got this then, the Daleks themselves. They are still terror incarnate, but they now mostly obey Suz, lessening that effect somewhat. Their speech seems more broken-up than before too, which is not an improvement I feel. We don’t hear too much of the Dalek Emperor and Supreme, concentrating instead on Suz. Whilst this makes for a good moral story, it detaches from the Daleks themselves. Personally, I would prefer hearing more from the Daleks, but that’s just my own view.

So then, a good story but not as good as the original chapter. It nevertheless is well worth buying and it sets the scene very well for the third instalment. I rate it at 84% overall.

By Peter Witney