Doctor Who spin-off review: How strong is the ending of Dalek Empire: The Fearless?
By James Aggas
Battles, betrayal and madness. Is the final episode of Doctor Who spin-off series Dalek Empire: The Fearless a strong one?
Part Four of Dalek Empire: The Fearless is more than just the final episode of this particular series of the Doctor Who spin-off. It’s also the last Dalek Empire episode we’ve had since 2008.
Not that this episode deliberately acts as some kind of huge finale to the series that wraps everything up. If I’m honest, we kind of got that ending with the final episode of Dalek Empire III. Don’t get me wrong, it was very open-ended. But it was so dark and so bleak that it felt like Nicholas Briggs’s final word on the series. At least, chronologically speaking.
At the same time, he still had plenty to write about, especially if The Fearless was anything to go by. It may have been set during the era of the first series, but there was a lot that was definitely fresh about The Fearless. This remains true of the final episode, which resolves the main story of Kade and Landen.
These two very different characters have essentially been the heart of this series. Kade is the real warrior, a man with a lot of anger in him who’s ready to take it out on plenty of Daleks. Landen, on the other hand, is the planner. She wants the best possible result, no matter what it takes.
Kade has known that he can’t trust Landen for a while now. Ever since he first met her, in fact. But, at the end of the previous episode, even he was shocked to discover just how far she’ll go to win the war. Or even to gain a good soldier. Which is where part 4 comes in…
The Fearless has been a rather strong story in Dalek Empire. Is the fourth episode a strong ending for the series?
(Image credit: Dalek Empire/Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
Strong drama and action
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this episode has a large number of dark moments. Kade goes through a lot in this one. He even gradually starts to lose his mind. So when he’s finally alone with Landen, there’s no knowing what he’ll do.
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The scenes between Noel Clarke as Kade and Maureen O’Brien as Landen are fantastic to listen to. They’ve built up quite the interesting relationship over the past few episodes. It’s never been a close one, but you still feel the agony and rage that Kade feels at Landen’s betrayal. There are some really tense moments between the two, especially when all hell breaks loose. These scenes give us some fantastic drama, and are a real highlight of the episode.
On top of that, we also get some great and truly thrilling action sequences, as Kade and his forces go up against the Daleks one more time. Action scenes are, unsurprisingly, tricky to get right on audio, but thanks to strong writing and excellent sound design, the action works and really draws you in.
The last episode of Dalek Empire (though hopefully not the last one ever) may feature a great deal of darkness. But perhaps not as much as previous finales in the series. Certainly not as much as Dalek Empire III had. It’s not that it ends optimistically, but neither is it super depressing, either. For a series that was more action-focused than what we got previously, that’s a fitting way to end this series on.
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Have you listened to the final episode of Dalek Empire? Are you hoping for more series at a later point? What Dalek stories would you like to see explored in the Doctor Who spin-off? Let us know in the comments below.