“Come on, Ace, we’ve got work to do!” That was the last words said in Who on December 6th, 1989, the final episode of Doctor Who. The show wouldn’t return until March 2005, and the film of 1996 would be Sylvester McCoy’s last hurrah as the Doctor. However, like most things in Who, we’ve gotten more and more of the characters through audio dramas and books. Those mediums are the only place you can put an aging cast after their face draws a few extra lines post-regeneration/T.A.R.D.I.S exit. If Alexx were to be believed, I’m old enough to have seen the galaxy form, but I honestly, was never around when Perivale was at the height of alien activity.

It is only fair that after Sophie Aldred and Sylvester (loveable cat that he is) left the T.A.R.D.I.S that I went back to view some of their plights. The less we say about The Candyman, the better, I think. However, over the times I’ve had the chance to catch up with the Doctor (7) and Ace, I’ve mostly loved them both because they are everything I want from Who. Fun and adventurous: He’s the wise old teacher for which the original series was meant to be, while Ace is the energetic and violent teenager held back from doing the wrong thing by “the Professor.” I like a woman with explosives!

One of the stories that have stuck in my head the most is The Genocide Machine, a Big Finish story from the early days of the main range. A rather interesting little story that revolved around a library, and I think we all know what the Doctor is like around libraries; You might find a wife in there. There is a planet with a library built specifically to hold all of history ever recorded on every planet in the galaxy, holding every wonder of the universe. Vashta Nerada? Never heard of them!

Kar-Charat is a far-flung planet off the beaten path that is hardly habited. It is untouched aside from the library and the Ziggurat, one thing that has been there for quite some time and the other made to look like it is dead and crumbling to pieces. It is Time Lord trickery you see. During a time before The Last Great Time War, the one that 9 is quite sad about, it was aimed to disguise the library as if it were hundreds and hundreds of years in the future. Though the Ziggurat is just a hibernation chamber for something, a scout listening for the sound of a time-sensitive, Time-Lord or otherwise.

Is it another one of those Dalek stories? Yes. Ok, I will happily say that the show relies on them too much, and that maybe over time the entire series (books, audios, show, and otherwise) do too. As a first in the Big Finish range, they are a little, wooden? Nicholas Briggs, Doctor Who-superfan; the voice of the Daleks, Cybermen, and every monster with a voice that’s a little robotic or strange; and co-founder of Big Finish, he’s quite a big part of Who history. That said, I think even now Nicholas would agree that at this point his Dalek would need some lozenges before 2005 rolled around.

This is only the 6th episode into the run, with some production issues (according to the series wiki), and a cast just finding their feet. As a result, The Genocide Machine is another one that puts you into the world of Kar-Charrat. A damp and unpleasant world of undergrowth, with copper pots of tyrannical mischievousness lurking in the shadows, and the large and echoing halls of the library of Kar-Charrat. From Bev’s team being slain by pepper shakers with an inferiority complex, Sophie Aldred’s two Aces’, and Sylvester McCoy’s comforting and minuscule stature commanding the power of a leader and the man of mystery motif. I can’t help but enjoy it.

I’m not coming in without criticisms, of course. As I said in our little pilot of doing some Big Finish reviews, I did mention the limitations of the format. The clunky or ham-fisted nature of referencing characters does, of course, show up where ultimately needed. It is a tiny issue, I know. That said, some of Ace’s Dalek synthetic moments do feel a little, flat? The obviously prosthetic-ness of the character is meant to be emotionless and cold, much like her Dalek creators. Despite that, something about the writing isn’t quite jelling for me. It is rather constricted by moving the plot along without the fun of other sections.

Librarian Elgin’s little bits of Prink, are a fun example. Another example is the fun and joyous nature the Doctor has about seeking out the danger and what makes him question the world around him. All of it makes Elgin a little exasperated. Prink never getting a word in edgeways is brilliantly silly and Doctor Who to the bone. Elgin’s rather homebody demeanor and upper-class fastidiousness for not only his library but himself, it is just right. By contrasting that light and fun frivolity with the dry and almost nothing that is part of Ace’s story throughout, I’m left feeling nothing for it.

If anything, beyond the friend/work-mates of Bev’ being killed off, I should at least feel something for the danger Ace is in. Then again, there is a rule of thumb when it comes to Doctor Who: One Dalek with our main character, you should feel worried. If there is a whole ship of the little Hitlers with our main character, there is nothing to be bothered about. Going by the questions hurled around Ace when she’s captured, there are at least a few voices Briggs has pulled out of the hat.

All this said, I do think Ace fighting Ace is great fun. On one hand you have the no-nonsense Dalek that is quite German, doing everything efficiently and to the utmost. On the other hand is the aggressive, quippy, and teenage young woman making light of her capture. “You should get some Duracells, last longer than most ordinary batteries,” as she quips to herself after it is determined that voice duplication is no longer required/wastes energy. It is a silly little line, but a very Ace line nonetheless. That’s what I think I mean by the lack of something, a lack of character, or something breaking through the Dalek synthetic. Or as the Doctor puts it, “Yes, she does lack your natural charm.“

I think it is obvious now that I’m going to be running through a couple of the early episodes that I quite enjoyed from my first experience of Big Finish. So it shouldn’t surprise you to find I quite enjoy The Genocide Machine. It is a dark and twisted little story, one that is quintessentially Doctor Who. The Daleks seek knowledge, the Library of Kar-Charrat holds all of that, it requires a time-sensitive to gain access. Bish, bash, bosh, you have yourself a nice little story on the good.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it time and time again, I do love a bit of Ace and the 7th. They get a bit of a bad rap, as they were the ones to close out the Classic-era of Who. All the same, I don’t think you can really blame them for what was apathy from the BBC at the time. The chemistry between McCoy and Aldred is one you can’t really create. You can see that with a few documentaries or clips with the two even now; they are just lovely and wonderful together. There is none of that bitterness that 6 has with Evelyn as his stiffness kicks in.

The wonderful little clown and his teenage companion, the great cosmic space hobo and his 80s punky adventurer friend, the Doctor and Ace. That is what I think makes The Genocide Machine so great. Something as pedestrian as returning a book to a library spools into an adventure in a damp jungle. It is nothing of great and cavernous depth, but it has the joy of Doctor Who at its heart.

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Doctor Who "The Genocide Machine"

£2.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• A great little Ace and 7th adventure.
• Prink just won't shut up!
• I genuinely do love a woman with explosives.

Cons

• Rough sounding Daleks.
• The Dalek created Ace is a lacking character, of sorts.