The Conquest of Far

En route back to Earth after leaving Spiridon, the TARDIS is thrown off course and lands on the planet Far. The Doctor and Jo investigate and find a civilization in ruins and the Daleks in control. Jo is captured and the Doctor falls in with an Earth Alliance fleet on its way to liberate Far from the occupation, but it will be no easy feat. The Daleks are entrenched with an army of a million, they have a secret weapon which when unleashed will mean ultimate victory, and worst of all, they are expecting the Doctor and the liberation forces.

The third volume of third Doctor adventures debuts with a guarantee of success - the Daleks are here! Interesting thing about them this time is they are clearly the new series Daleks as they can be heard moving, and the Doctor even comments that they must be of an advanced design when he sees what they are capable of. their firepower, however, is classic sound effect all the way. Interestingly enough, though, these Daleks do not recognize this incarnation of the Doctor, and they have to submit Jo to mind analysis to determine if he is the genuine article. They are certainly harsher sounding than the ones they just beat on Spiridon - courtesy of Nick Briggs and his voice modulations.

The Doctor may not be known to the Daleks but the Earth Alliance military certainly know who he is; they have a full back history on him over the years and through several incarnations (again they never decribe who they are looking at and we get no soundbytes). Their initial reaction is of course to distrust and lock him up on their ship before they realize he might be useful to them. Typical military, as the Doctor would say.

There's something not quite explained in this one, though; the TARDIS obviously makes some kind of slip in time as well as when the Doctor and Jo left Spiridon Earth had an Empire and female president, and here it's an Alliance with other races and a male president. And the ante is totally upped now, going from ten thousand to one million Daleks in hiding in an ultimate "mine's bigger than yours" kind of way.

Stunning as it is to hear the third Doctor back in action against the Daleks it's not really a complex story at all, and the secret weapon is a bit far fetched when it is revealed. They can't all be the same calibre of course, and the strength of this one might not be plot complexity but in the rich sound design that has been created to bring Far to life in ones ears. Some of it gets a bit lost in layering when on a 5.1 surround system though - normally these I hear on headphones or in the car. There were a couple moments where Tim Treloar didn't sound as Pertwee as he could but we're not after perfection here - if we were there'd be the usual observations of Katy Manning's voice which this time actually holds up really well. These things just keep getting better and better.

NEXT EPISODE: NIGHTDREAMERS