Doctor Who review: The Mutant Phase is a very complicated alternate timeline story
By James Aggas
The third Doctor Who story of the Dalek Empire arc, The Mutant Phase, presents an interesting alternate history story for the Daleks.
Out of all the stories in the Dalek Empire arc, The Mutant Phase is definitely the most standalone story. Compared to The Genocide Machine or The Apocalypse Element, it feels very unconnected to the other stories in the arc, even on re-listen. Most likely because this wasn’t originally written to be a part of the arc, but was in fact a remake of an earlier, completely unofficial audio production of the same name.
That doesn’t mean that The Mutant Phase isn’t an enjoyable listen. On the contrary, it’s actually a very interesting take on the classic alternative history genre.
The key idea of The Mutant Phase asks a simple question: what if there was a much bigger threat than the Daleks out there in the universe? One that wouldn’t just wipe out the Doctor’s most dangerous enemies, but everything else? That’s what Nicholas Briggs asks with this story, as he both writes and voices for the iconic pepper pots.
While Briggs is keen to explore the morality of such a difficult situation – as some people are forced to work with the Daleks to prevent the destruction of all life in the universe – he never forgets the golden rule: that the Daleks are monsters. In every key sense of the word.
They will stop at nothing to get what they want, including murdering innocent people. With the Daleks in an unusually vulnerable position, there’s a danger of making them more sympathetic. Thankfully, Briggs avoids that trap nicely.
You can listen to an edited version of the entire story below.
Very complicated time travel
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Along with exploring alternative history, Briggs is also keen to explore some real Doctor Who history by bringing the Doctor and Nyssa to the time period of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. We get a slightly different perspective of the invasion, both due to where they land and when, as it’s set a few years before the First Doctor’s arrival.
It’s interesting getting this glimpse of early Dalek history from a later Doctor’s perspective, especially since The Dalek Invasion of Earth is still a classic story.
One thing I need to warn listeners about – and admittedly, this is something I actually enjoyed about the story – is that The Mutant Phase features a lot of complicated timey-wimeyness.
How complicated? Enough so that it makes Steven Moffat’s entire arc involving the Silence seem completely straightforward by comparison. As I said, I liked the timey-wimey hijinks, but it does get difficult to follow sometimes. Especially during the resolution of the whole story.
Overall, The Mutant Phase, while not as connected as other stories in the Dalek Empire arc, is still an interesting “what if?” story. Not my favorite Dalek story on audio, but it still uses the Doctor’s iconic foes rather well.
Next. Time tracks and why they need to be explored in the New Series. dark
Would you like to see more alternate histories explored in Doctor Who? How about a deeper exploration of some of Doctor Who‘s established history? Let us know in the comments below.