Emancipation of the Daleks
Audio Novels #3
Released: 19 July 2022
Listened: 1/18/23
The first Big Finish product featuring Bill is this audio novel, which like the other novels is six hours long, divided into three parts, so at least there’s plenty of Bill to go around. It’s written by Johnathan Morris, who’s a good fit for the Twelfth Doctor, and narrated by Dan Starkey, who does a very nice Capaldi impression, possibly a touch better than Jacob Dudman’s. He also manages to catch Pearl Mackie’s speech rhythms, without trying to directly imitate her. Which is good, because Bill was particularly skilled at asking questions with her eyes, and that’s tricky to capture on audio. And she’s got plenty to question. A version of Bill from 20 years in the future turns up, which catapults them and the TARDIS into an alternate 2017 where a Dalek saucer crashed on Earth in the 1990s…and humanity ended up enslaving the Daleks instead of the other way ‘round. The second part starts with an extended flashback that details the life of this timeline’s Bill Potts, from the moment it diverged from the main one. It’s reminiscent of the Monks trilogy in a way, although for Bill, that hasn’t happened yet. And wow, is it grim. Probably grimmer than almost all but the darkest full-cast audios. And the third part takes place in yet another timeline, as the Daleks try to fix what went wrong, from their point of view. It’s very much Bill’s story, taking advantage of the fact that we never got to learn much about Bill on TV, specifically her relationship with Moira, her foster mother, and any friendships she had as a child. Jonathan Morris takes advantage of the fact that the listener understands the rules of changing history, and anticipates several of our questions, such as what happened to the Doctor and Nardole of the divergent timeline, or can we grab Missy from the vault to help (no, that’s a terrible idea). And the listener knows Bill’s eventual fate, so you’re wrong-footed at least part of the time. The more villainous, or at least amoral characters are fairly two-dimensional, although there’s a case to be made that while they may have been merely unpleasant in the original timeline, the opportunities provided by Dalek tech cause them to become full-blown evil, which seems a little bit forced. Of course, ultimately it’s a divergent timeline story, so you know how it has to end, but the getting there is a decent amount of fun. I’m looking forward to more Bill stories in the future, because she really is awesome.