Doctor Who: After the Daleks

This story follows on directly from the ending of The Dalek Invasion of Earth - but from Susan's perspective not the Doctor's. Indeed, it's worth noting that, although he is often mentioned, the Doctor is not in it at all (unless you count the sound of the TARDIS dematerialising at the start). Exploring Susan's life after the TV story has been done before, most notably in the novel Legacy of the Daleks, but never, to my recollection has it been this immediate. So, if you want to imagine that novel, or any of the other audios, as occurring in the same continuity, you're probably fine. Although it is important to note that this is not a Dalek story in the normal sense, since it really is just about their legacy on Earth, not the murderous pepperpots themselves - for me, that's a plus, but it might not be for everyone.

Without the Doctor, Susan takes centre stage, supported not only by David but also Jenny, the resistance fighter from the TV story. (Here, given a surname, no less). As one might expect, this means that you will need a decent familiarity with the original episodes to get the most out of this, there being plenty of references to it. There are also ‘easter egg' references to various other TV stories set broadly in the same time period, both from the classic and modern show, which, nerd value aside, give it a sense of reality, fitting in with at least a broad history of the future. (And, it has to be said, doing so with far more subtlety than the fanw**k included in Legacy of the Daleks).

The story has three intertwining elements, exploring the fate of the Robomen, the attempts to establish a new government and society in the post-apocalyptic world, and an alien monster that's wandering around underground. Added to the ongoing threat that the Daleks might return, this gives the story plenty of scope to fill out its two-hour slot, and even then, there are jumps in the narrative in a few places to save time. Some of which are explained in the narration provided by Carol Ann Ford, but some of which are not.

At times, it might be biting off slightly more than it can chew and, while the monster does have relevance to what's going on elsewhere, it isn't really needed and doesn't make a lot of sense. But, well, I guess they wanted some action other than the political plot. One could also point out that Ford doesn't sound like a teenager any more, and the new actors playing David and Jenny don't have identical voices to the original... but all of that is unavoidable. The end result is a decent story that fills in some gaps and, for once, shows us something of what happens after the Doctor swans off having defeated the baddies and left the wider societal problems for someone else to fix.