Doctor Who: Order of the Daleks

The Doctor and Constance arrive on a pre-technological planet just as it is visited by... well the title's rather a give-away, isn't it?

The Daleks are so frequently used as villains that it's hard to ring any new changes on them. Which makes it all the more impressive that Big Finish have, despite the occasional flop, largely risen to that challenge. However, while the visual of Daleks with casing constructed by medieval artisans using the materials available to them is well-realised on the cover, it obviously has less impact in the audio itself.

Rather, what we have is the ruthless invaders restricted to using spears and armour made only from soft lead, forcing them to be less direct than usual. Perhaps more importantly, these particular Daleks have unusual abilities, the reasons for which aren't revealed until the second half. As a result, they manage to be menacing more by their implication and by the inherently revolting nature of their organic selves (there are, unusually, a few scenes where they're out of their shells).

The story is set in and around a monastery, so almost all the guest characters are men. The sole exception falls into the stereotypical role of ‘competent female assistant to a male buffoon' and doesn't get much more development than that, although to be fair, the buffoon is quite entertaining. For this reason, among others, I think this is really a 3.5 star story that had some room for improvement, but it felt to me an unusual enough way of using Daleks that I'm comfortable with rounding up.