Return to Skaro

First Doctor Adventures #4.1

Released: 18 March 2020

Listened: 3/21/20

These stories were released a couple of months after I was at this point in the chronology, and it’s a welcome return. Either the actors are relaxing into their roles and toning down the RP a bit, or I’ve just gotten used to it. This story is an interesting one to place in the chronology, because it’s made clear that the crew haven’t encountered Daleks since the first time, and think they were all destroyed at the end of that adventure. It’s also the first time they’ve explicitly returned to a place they’ve been before (courtesy of the Fast Return Switch) although many years later. The Thals have apparently taken over and all the Daleks are gone...except ha-ha, of course they’re not. Susan gets bullied into going to the Dalek city...except she’s the one who wants to explore once they get there, so that’s a nice twist. There’s also the scientist who’s gulled into believing that the Daleks want to be nice this time, except none of the listeners are going to buy that, so the plot dispenses with it early. The TARDIS crew split up and recombine often, allowing everybody to get a chance to play the hero. The Daleks, for their part, get the idea to investigate time travel, and the Black Dalek is introduced. However, the crew leaves things pretty much as they found them, believing that the Daleks are gone for good. On the whole, it’s not as exciting of a story as I would have hoped.