Paradox of the Daleks

What Lies Inside? #1

Released: 2 November 2022

Listened: 1/23/23

It’s time for a change. The Eighth Doctor Adventures had been basically 16-part epics for over 10 years of production time. With the other Doctors switching to boxed sets, the feeling was that the Eighth could use some more self-contained adventures. This coincidentally allowed Big Finish to switch from four-part boxes to three-parters, at least for the moment consisting of a two-part story and a one-parter. Add in the fact that the Eighth Doctor hadn’t seen Daleks since Dark Eyes wrapped up, meaning Helen had never met them, and guess who’s back? And yet, this is a small, tight story, as much as a Dalek story can be. John Dorney is known for his timey-wimey plots, but he hadn’t written one in a while, in Production terms, so this one…wow, this one. This is one heck of a time-loop story, where cause and effect and cause and effect are piled on top of one another in a Mobius strip Jenga tower. There’s no way you can follow this one on the first listen; you’ll have to go back and do it again. It also features a spectacular cliffhanger, which Dorney is also becoming known for. And he pulls it off without ever resorting to “it never happened, time was rewritten.” To be sure, what you see (or hear) isn’t what you think you’re seeing, often on multiple levels, and it would be criminal to say more than that. Just go with it the first time, and then listen to it again later.