Doctor Who: Daleks Among Us

The Doctor and Klein, with the hapless Arroswmith in tow, arrive on a planet where the very mention of Daleks is illegal... and, to the surprise of basically no-one, the Daleks turn out to be behind it all. That, at least, is what the cover blurb would lead you to believe this story is basically about.

And it's an element of the story, to be sure, but only one among many, and certainly not the main one. Instead, this episode concludes the “Second Klein Trilogy” with the TARDIS crew tracking down the source of the maguffin that they've been chasing through the first two parts. Along the way, we visit no less than three planets (one of them Earth), in a story that's rather more complicated than usual.

The Daleks themselves are no more interesting than usual, although it does at least turn out that they want the maguffin for reasons other than the obvious one. The story works in large part because it's more about the various people vying to control them, leaving the pepperpots as little more than extermination-hungry thugs, a role they're well-suited to. While the sudden appearance of Davros at the end of the first quarter isn't much of a surprise, given that his name is on the cover, his role in events is also not at first what it might appear.

More than this, the story also addresses Klein's background, or, more precisely, how she has been fitted into this reality, given that she wasn't originally native to it, yet still seems to have a life-story, parents, and so on. There's quite a lot here about identity, and the nature of who or what this version of Klein truly is.

In addition to a twisty-turny plot, there are a lot of good moments in the story. Lines from other franchises get quoted, Nazis argue with Daleks about which are really the “master race”, and we discover a surprising use for a bottle of ouzo. Arrowsmith, while still a bit of a twit (in a way you'd never dare to write a female companion these days), is nonetheless becoming rather more likeable, growing as the story does.

The story does end on a cliffhanger, although it's one that, as of five years later, has yet to be resolved. Overall, while it's not a flawless work, it deserves 4.5 stars, which rounds up.