The Healers (audio story)

The Healers
Main character(s):	Siy Tarkov Georgi Selestru Galanar
Featuring:	Frey Saxton Kaymee Arnod Dan Culver Susan Mendes
Main enemy:	The Daleks Provost Carneill The Dalek Supreme
Main setting:	Graxis Major, the 67th century Galactic Union HQ Planet Nine, the 67th century Scalanis VIII, the 67th century
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Nicholas Briggs
Director:	Nicholas Briggs
Producer:	Nicholas Briggs
Release details
Release number:	10
Release date:	June 2004
Format:	1 CD
Production code:	BFPCDDE10
ISBN:	ISBN 1-84435-083-5
Dalek Empire
← Previous	The Exterminators
Next →	The Survivors

The Healers was the second instalment of Dalek Empire III, and the tenth release in the Dalek Empire series overall.

Publisher's summary

Siy Tarkov must convince a doubting Galactic Union that a Dalek invasion is imminent.

Agent Galanar is on a covert mission to find definitive proof of the menace of the Daleks. But the Border Worlds are being ravaged by a deadly plague infection. An infection the Daleks are offering to cure.

Meanwhile, the Graxis Wardens’ ecological paradise is about to be torn apart...

“Allow me to introduce to you representatives of the Dalek Empire...”

Plot

Agent Galanar is sent by Georgi Selestru on a covert mission to the Scalanis System. The system is one of the first recorded locations of the outbreak of the NFS plague in the Border Worlds. Siy Tarkov visited it more than twenty years earlier. There are rumours that a race of alien benefactors known as the Daleks are helping the inhabitants of that system develop Variant 7, the proposed cure to the plague. Galanar has adopted the pseudonym of Dr. Dennis Grentram, a graduate of the Academy of Medicine on Galactic Union HQ Planet Nine. On a passenger liner heading to Scalanis V, he meets a woman named Japrice. She had been tailing him for weeks. However, Galanar is unaware that she is working for the Daleks.

Selestru says that, due to the contentious political situation between the Galactic Union and the Border Worlds, the Border Worlds Confederation Cabinet will not allow anyone through to Velyshaa. This poses a problem for Selestru and Tarkov. The Galactic Union Council will not act without definitive proof of the Dalek threat as they are wary of beginning another war and triggering another Great Catastrophe.

Because he has been missing a long time, Tarkov has been declared dead. He is unable to find anyone to reverse the classification and, consequently, is still legally dead. His wife, who was named Elicia, has died in the interim. However, on returning home, he meets his now grown daughter Amur, who bears a striking resemblance to his late wife.

As the Daleks begin to extract information from the Graxis Wardens' data stories on Graxis Major, Sergic tries to stop them and is exterminated. To prevent further incidents, Provost Carneill suggests the other Wardens be confined to their quarters. He explains to Frey Saxton, Dan Culver, Kaymee Arnod and Telligan that the Daleks are helping the Border Worlds develop Variant 7. If the spread of the NFS plague continues unabated in the Border Worlds, all life on these planets will be wiped out within a century. Saxton believes Carneill is willing to sacrifice the Wardens' lives if it helps to develop a cure.

All of the planets in the Graxis system are to geoformed, a process similar to terraforming developed by the Daleks. This will involve the extermination of all existing life in the system. The Wardens are to be removed and reassigned.

Galanar awakens to find that he has been kidnapped by Japrice. He, or rather his alter ego Dr. Dennis Grentram, has been recruited by the Daleks to assist in the development of Variant 7. Japrice shows him the Healing Zone, a city of sorts built to treat the victims of the NFS plague on the formerly uninhabitable Scalanis VIII. The Dalek Supreme has ordered Variant 7 completed during the next work cycle. After observing the suffering displayed by the NFS plague, Galanar begins to wonder if they are truly as merciless as Tarkov has made them out to be.

After Saxton, Culver, Kaymee and Telligan make their escape, Saxton summons the rest of the Wardens back to the shack. The Daleks obliterate the Warden complex on Graxis Major. However, the four of them access the shack's service and maintenance tunnels and survive the explosion. Saxton has underestimated the Daleks' willingness to kill. Consequently, she believes she may have led the other Wardens into an ambush. This is proven correct; the Daleks exterminate each and every one of them. After examining the wreckage of the shack, Carneill determines there is no trace of Saxton, Culver, Kaymee and Telligan's bodies but has not yet decided to tell the Daleks that they have survived.

As the Dalek Supreme gives orders to its subordinates, it becomes clear that it is speaking in the modulated voice of Susan Mendes.

Cast

• Galanar - David Tennant
• Georgi Selestru - William Gaunt
• Frey Saxton - Ishia Bennison
• Siy Tarkov - Steven Elder
• Susan Mendes / The Dalek Supreme - Sarah Mowat
• Kaymee Arnod - Laura Rees
• Amur Tarkov - Claudia Elmhirst
• Japrice - Octavia Walters
• Dan Culver - Peter Forbes
• Provost Carneill - Oliver Hume
• Mivas - Dot Smith
• Telligan - Greg Donaldson
• Sergic - Jeremy James
• Seth - Sean Jackson
• Chauley - Philip Wolff
• Crewman Antani - David Sax
• The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

References

• The Border World Confederation has determined that, if the NFS plague continues to spread at its current rate, all life in the Border Worlds will be wiped out within a century.
• Sergic was born on Graxis Major and spent his entire life on the planet. His parents and grandparents served as Wardens before him.
• There are sixty Wardens on Graxis Major. They outnumber the Daleks ten to one.
• Kaymee copied the reasons for wanting to become a Graxis Warden from her grandmother's application word for word.

Notes

• Dot Smith (Mivas) previously played General Mariah Learman in AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks.
• David Sax (Crewman Antani) is a pseudonym of Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks).
• Sean Jackson (Seth Arnod) previously played George Crow in AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy.

Continuity

• Susan Mendes refers to the "Victory or Death" telepathic programming planted in her mind by Kalendorf, which resulted in not only the near complete destruction of the Daleks but the Great Catastrophe in the 42nd century, resulting in the collapse of civilisation throughout Mutter's Spiral. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Four)
• It has been well over twenty years since Tarkov set out for Velyshaa. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter One)
• The Daleks state that they come from the Seriphia Galaxy. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element, AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks)
• The Dalek Empire's representative on Graxis Major informs Provost Carneill that the Wardens destroyed a Dalek who had exterminated Harley, Davin and the native primates. (AUDIO: The Exterminators)

External links

• Official The Healers page at bigfinish.com
• The Healers at the Doctor Who Reference Guide