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{{Infobox Story SMW
{{Infobox Story
|image          = Genocide revised.jpg
|name            = The Genocide Machine
|range           = Main Range
|image           = The Genocide Machine cover.jpg
|number in range = 7
|series          = [[Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories|Big Finish ''Doctor Who'' audio stories]]
|series          = ''[[Main Range]]''
|number          = 7
|number          = 7
|doctor          = Seventh Doctor
|doctor          = Seventh Doctor
|companions      = [[Ace]]
|companions      = [[Ace]]
|enemy          = The [[Dalek]]s
|featuring      = [[Bev Tarrant]]
|setting           = [[Kar-Charrat]], the [[42nd century]]
|enemy          = [[Dalek Supreme (The Genocide Machine)|Dalek Supreme]]
|writer          = [[Mike Tucker]]
|setting         = [[Kar-Charrat]]
|writer          = Mike Tucker
|director        = [[Nicholas Briggs]]
|director        = [[Nicholas Briggs]]
|post production = [[Nicholas Briggs]]
|producer        = [[Gary Russell]] and [[Jason Haigh-Ellery]]
|music          = [[Nicholas Briggs]]
|sound          = Nicholas Briggs
|cover          = [[Clayton Hickman]]
|cover          = [[Clayton Hickman]]
|publisher      = [[Big Finish Productions]]
|publisher      = Big Finish Productions
|release date    = [[May]] [[2000]]
|release date    = April 2000
|format          = 4 Episodes on 2 CDs
|format          = 2 CDs<br/>2 cassettes<br/>Download
|production code = [[List of production codes#Big Finish production codes|7S]]
|production code = [[List of production codes#Big Finish production codes|7S]]
|isbn            = ISBN 1-84435-069-X
|isbn            = ISBN 978-1-84435-069-8 (physical)<br/>ISBN 978-1-84435-688-1 (digital)
|trailer        = {{StoryTitle}}.ogg
|trailer        = {{StoryTitle}}.ogg
|prev            = The Marian Conspiracy (audio story)
|prev            = The Marian Conspiracy (audio story)
|next            = Red Dawn (audio story)
|next            = Red Dawn (audio story)
}}
|series2        = ''[[Main Range]]'' ''[[Dalek Empire (audio series)|Dalek Empire]]''
'''''The Genocide Machine''''' is a Big Finish audio drama. It starts the first serial in the ''[[Dalek Empire (audio series)|Dalek Empire]]'' arc, which continues in the [[Sixth Doctor]] audio ''[[The Apocalypse Element (audio story)|The Apocalypse Element]]'' and the [[Fifth Doctor]] audio ''[[The Mutant Phase (audio story)|The Mutant Phase]]'' before concluding in the [[Eighth Doctor]] audio ''[[The Time of the Daleks (audio story)|The Time of the Daleks]]''.
|next2          = The Apocalypse Element (audio story)
|soundcloudtrailer = https://soundcloud.com/big-finish/doctor-who-the-genocide-machine
|epcount = 4
}}{{spotify|album=0MRcG5xKrBEDgOINUV3EJE|height=350}}
'''''The Genocide Machine''''' was the seventh story in [[Big Finish Productions|Big Finish]]'s [[Main Range|monthly range]]. It was written by [[Mike Tucker]] and featured [[Sylvester McCoy]] as the [[Seventh Doctor]], [[Sophie Aldred]] as [[Ace]] and introduced [[Louise Faulkner]] as [[Bev Tarrant]].


== Publisher's summary ==
It was the first serial in the ''[[Dalek Empire (audio series)|Dalek Empire]]'' arc, which continued in the [[Sixth Doctor]] audio ''[[The Apocalypse Element (audio story)|The Apocalypse Element]]'' and the [[Fifth Doctor]] audio ''[[The Mutant Phase (audio story)|The Mutant Phase]]'' before concluding in the [[Eighth Doctor]] audio ''[[The Time of the Daleks (audio story)|The Time of the Daleks]]''.
The library on [[Kar-Charrat]] is one of the [[wonders of the Universe]]. It is also hidden from all but a few select species. The [[Seventh Doctor|Doctor]] and [[Ace]] discover that the librarians have found a new way of storing data - a [[wetworks facility]] - but the machine has attracted unwanted attention, and the Doctor soon finds himself pitted against his oldest and deadliest enemies - the [[Dalek]]s!


== Plot ==
The story introduced the character of [[Bev Tarrant]] who would go on to be a main character in the [[Bernice Summerfield (series)|''Bernice Summerfield'' audio range]].
Part One


Bev Tarrant and her salvage team have come to the rain forests of Kar-Charrat, to dig up an alien ziggurat which Bev feels sure will make them all rich. Her partner Rappell isn't so sure that this job will be the easy money that Tarrant claims; it's hot, it's pouring rain, and something about the ziggurat makes him profoundly uneasy. It's supposed to be 1270 years old, but there is no vegetation growing on it, and it doesn't feel as though it's made of stone at all. Tarrant dismisses his concerns, telling him that he's been listening to too many stories about the phantoms of Kar-Charrat -- and unaware that her team is being observed by something. Something lurking in a hideout filled with the characteristic heartbeat sound of Dalek technology...
Behind the scenes, this story was notable, not just as the first Big Finish production to feature the [[Dalek]]s, but as [[Nicholas Briggs]]' first time voicing them in an official ''Doctor Who'' production. He previously voiced the Daleks for the [[Audio Visuals (fan work)|Audio Visuals]] in the 1980s. Briggs later went on to voice the Daleks throughout the [[BBC Wales]] series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', as [[Russell T Davies]] was a Big Finish subscriber and discovered him that way.


While trying to make sense of the TARDIS library, [[Ace]] happens across some particularly old and musty books which [[The Doctor]] borrowed from the library of Kar-Charrat long ago and forgot to return. Appalled, he sets off at once, telling Ace that the library on [[Kar-Charrat]] holds every scrap of information from every civilised planet in the Universe; it is one of the wonders of the Universe, and the Time Lords helped to install its defence grid, knowing that such knowledge could be terribly dangerous in the wrong hands. To Ace's disgust, the TARDIS materialises in the middle of a jungle, and the Doctor leads her through the pouring rain past a waterfall to what appear to be a set of ancient ruins. As Ace pokes around by herself, looking for something of interest, she hears an odd, wet bubbling sound -- almost like whispers in the rain. The Doctor seems to have vanished, but he steps out of nowhere before her eyes, and leads her through the temporal barrier -- to reveal the Kar-Charrat library in all its glory. Dismissing the sounds in the rain as her imagination, Ace accompanies the Doctor as he explains that the Time Lords hid the library behind a temporal projection of how it will appear thousands of years in the future. Only a time-sensitive can penetrate the barrier without the proper key, and since the library appears to have been destroyed centuries ago, nobody else knows that it is here.
Another first behind the scenes was the first use of {{w|Pro Tools}} to edit a Big Finish story, namely by Nick Briggs, who provided the post-production and music/sound design for ''The Genocide Machine''. The small 8-track device he previously used to edit Big Finish broke down mid-production, and he was forced to upgrade.


Elsewhere, the [[TARDIS]]' arrival has been detected, and the appropriate action is being taken. As Tarrant and her team prepare to unearth the ziggurat, it opens up by itself and something violent emerges -- something which guns down her team without mercy and sets off into the jungle in search of its primary target. But the target has been lost, and it therefore retreats into the jungle to wait for contact to be re-established. Tarrant slowly recovers from the shock of the attack, and her damaged service droid, detecting that Tarrant's leg is seriously injured, uses the last of its power to open its medical pouch before shutting down. Knowing that she's managed to get her friends killed leading them to what she thought would be easy money, Tarrant crawls off through the jungle, trying to get back to her ship. As she goes, she fails to hear the sounds behind her -- sounds like whispers, bubbling through the rainforest. Rappell is dead, and no longer needs his body. But others do...
== Publisher's summary ==
The [[Library on Kar-Charrat|library]] on [[Kar-Charrat]] is one of the [[wonders of the Universe]]. It is also hidden from all but a few select species. The [[Seventh Doctor|Doctor]] and [[Ace]] discover that the librarians have found a new way of storing data — a [[wetworks facility]] — but the machine has attracted unwanted attention, and the Doctor soon finds himself pitted against his oldest and deadliest enemies — the [[Dalek]]s!


The library lobby is larger than St Paul's Cathedral, and it's here that the Doctor and Ace are greeted by Chief Librarian Elgin and Cataloguer Prink. Elgin, an effusive and rather pompous old friend of the Doctor's, is delighted to see the Doctor again and looks forward to showing him about the library. It is all but empty now; the staff reside on the upper levels, dealing with agents for new data or passing time in the recreation lounges. The rather embarrassed Doctor returns his overdue books, and the scandalised Elgin blames Prink for not noticing their absence earlier and orders him to return them to their proper place. Ace, taken aback by the emptiness of the facility, asks Elgin whether anybody ever uses it, and Elgin is shocked and scandalised by the thought. If people were actually to read the books here, they would be damaged! Ace, irritated by his attitude, decides to go back to the TARDIS, and Elgin gives her a DNA tag so that she can get past the barriers when she wishes to return. The Doctor quietly tells Ace that although Elgin may be pompous he means well, and arranges to meet her on the second floor reading room later.
== Plot ==
 
=== Part one ===
As Ace departs, Elgin leads the Doctor to the greatest achievement of the library. At first glance it appears to be a huge chamber full of water tanks, but the Doctor recognises it as an aqueous data storage system -- a "wetworks" facility. This is the largest of its kind he has ever seen, and Elgin proudly claims that it houses the entire knowledge of the Universe. Fascinated, the Doctor bombards Elgin with technical questions, none of which Elgin can answer; all he knows is that it works. He shows the Doctor the retrieval unit, a simple chair and headset which enables the user to download any information into their brain almost instantly. Elgin mentions in passing that a number of races have inquired about the facility, and that some became quite aggressive about demanding access to it. This concerns the Doctor; knowledge can be dangerous in the wrong hands, and this much knowledge in one place makes the wetworks facility potentially the most dangerous weapon ever created. Elgin, however, assures him that the defences installed by the Time Lords are impenetrable. Only one race has ever seriously worried the security staff. A race of robotic creatures called the [[Daleks]]...
While doing some sorting in [[TARDIS library|the TARDIS library]], [[Ace]] finds some books from the library at [[Kar-Charrat]], which is widely regarded as one of the [[Wonders of the Universe|wonders of the universe]], and is said to hold all the knowledge of every civilised world. It's a fanciful claim, but [[Seventh Doctor|the Doctor]] takes it seriously enough; and he determines to return the books and own up to having unintentionally removed them—it's not a lending library, after all. Meanwhile, on Kar-Charrat an expedition of four individuals led by [[Bev Tarrant]] is exploring a [[ziggurat]] of more than a thousand years in age, hidden in the rain forest and the perpetual rain. The expedition — actually a mission of theft, aiming to steal the entire ziggurat — is cut down by a mysterious assailant. As Bev, the only survivor, crawls away, odd voices note that her now-dead partner Rappell no longer needs his body—but someone else does.
 
Ace emerges from the library, already regretting her outburst but unwilling to swallow her pride and return. As she approaches the TARDIS, however, she hears Tarrant nearby, calling for help. Ace helps her to an overhang where she can shelter from the rain. Tarrant isn't sure what it is that attacked her -- only that the rest of her crew are dead. She believes the planet to be deserted, and when Ace insists that there's a hidden library further up the cliff where she can get help, she thinks Ace is delusional. But they hear the shrieks of jungle birds in the distance, and, realising that something in the jungle has disturbed them, Tarrant decides it would be best to humour Ace. She nearly loses her temper when she sees that Ace has dragged her away from her spaceship to another set of ruins, but before Ace can get through the temporal barrier, the thing that attacked Tarrant's team emerges from the jungle and captures them. It's too late for them to run, and the [[Special Weapons Dalek]] reports its success to the mothership. Phase One of the plan is complete. The Doctor's companion is a prisoner of the Daleks...
 
Part Two
 
Elgin is convinced of the reliability of the Time Lords' defences, and doesn't understand why the Doctor is so concerned that the Daleks know of the facility's presence. They did try to attack the library once, but failed to blast their way through the barrier and gave up. When Elgin admits that the attack was not really a full assault -- it was more like a test, as if the Daleks were trying to prove to themselves that they couldn't get in -- the Doctor becomes even more concerned. It's not like the Daleks to give up, and it may not be safe for Ace to wander around outside. Elgin reluctantly accompanies the Doctor out beyond the barrier, where he is shocked to find Ace and Tarrant lying unconscious in the ruins. The Doctor has them both taken back into the library's medical facility, where Ace recovers and claims that they were both attacked by an animal which lunged out of the forest before she could get a look at it. There's something a bit off about her responses, and the Doctor, concerned that she may be suffering from delayed shock, tells her to rest in the medical bay for a while. He and Elgin depart, leaving Ace alone with the unconscious Tarrant. Or at least they would be doing so, if this were the real Ace...
 
[[Ace]] is a prisoner of Dalek Scout Seven, the special weapons unit which killed Tarrant's crew and hunted Ace to the library ruins. It has reported its success to a Dalek mothership which is now entering geostationary orbit and preparing to engage in battle. To Ace's shock, the Daleks reveal that they intended to capture her all along; she has been duplicated and her DNA tag has been given to her clone, who will penetrate the temporal barrier and shut down the defence grid, granting the Daleks access to the library at last. Ace is to be kept prisoner on the mothership, in case the duplicate requires access to her brain patterns to remain undetected. While Scout Seven reports on surface conditions and the battle computers are updated, Ace learns that the Daleks have used time corridor technology to plant agents on every planet in the sector, and have waited hundreds of years for a Time Lord to arrive. And now the Doctor has finally returned, and the Daleks' capture of the Kar-Charrat facility is inevitable.
 
The Doctor wonders why Tarrant is here, given that the library is supposed to be a secret. Elgin suggests that she's here to study the ziggurat, supposed to be the relic of an ancient civilisation. The Doctor, curious, sets off to examine the ziggurat himself, accompanied by the weary Elgin -- whose weariness gives way to shock when they find the bodies of Tarrant's crewmates lying in the jungle near the ziggurat. It appears obvious from their equipment that they were here to steal the ziggurat and sell it to a collector, but what's more interesting is the amount of human blood on the ground. There's more here than could have come out of Tarrant, but there is no human body nearby. The Doctor wonders whether something other than the Daleks is at work here, and recalls Ace's comment that she heard something in the ruins earlier. The last time he was here, he also recalls hearing tales about ghosts in the jungle, stories which Elgin dismisses as foolish spaceport rumours. Putting aside this mystery for the moment, the [[Seventh Doctor]] and Elgin continue on to the ziggurat, which to Elgin's horror has been opened from the inside. As the Doctor feared, it is not an ancient artefact at all, but a Dalek deep hibernation unit -- with activation sensors rigged to wake the hibernating Dalek when they detect the arrival of a TARDIS nearby. Elgin spots a cloning chamber in the corner, and the Doctor finally realises, to his horror, just why Ace was behaving so strangely in the medical bay. The Daleks weren't after him at all, but his companion -- and he has just left a Dalek duplicate alone in the library, with access to the defence grid!
 
The Daleks impatiently await word from Ace's duplicate. The test subjects have been prepared for data acquisition, and the scientific division is poised to access the wetworks facility and begin downloading. Ace-2 reaches the defence grid, activates her voice synthesiser and uses Elgin's voice to bypass the security protocols and shut down the barrier. The Dalek mothership detects fluctuations in the defence grid, and the Dalek Supreme orders his troops to attack. Meanwhile, the disoriented Tarrant wakens in the medical bay to the sound of alarms as the library's defences shut down -- but amongst the confusion she hears a bubbling sound like a whisper of her name. And her dead partner Rappell steps out of the shadows, begging her for help.
 
Elgin and the Doctor rush back to the library, but the pace is too much for Elgin and he is forced to rest and catch his breath. As the impatient Doctor waits for him to recover, he too hears the odd bubbling, whispering noises -- and the terrified Elgin suddenly finds the strength to carry on. The Doctor's interest has been piqued, however; perhaps the tales of the phantoms were more than mere legends. There's something else on the planet, something alive... but before he can investigate further, he and Elgin hear a roaring sound overhead, and see a Dalek battle cruiser coming in to land at the library. The temporal barrier has been shut down, all of the defences have been disabled, and there is nothing to stop the Daleks as they enter the library and prepare to seize control of the wetworks facility. Kar-Charrat is now under Dalek control.
 
Part Three


The Doctor and Elgin have no choice but to try to return to the Doctor's TARDIS and send out an SOS to the Time Lords. Dalek patrols have been sent out into the jungle to look for them, and they are forced to take a roundabout route to avoid detection. As they do so, the whispering, bubbling sounds become ever more urgent. There's definitely something else out here in the jungle with them. Something upset...
The Doctor and Ace arrive, but the library appears to be in ruins. The Doctor explains that this is [[Time Lord]] technology at work; he was here with others at the time of construction. The Time Lords created not only a defensive grid, but also a time barrier that projects an impenetrable illusion of the way the library will look more than three thousand years in the future. Only one who is time-sensitive—like the Time Lords—or specially identified in the system can pass through it. He brings Ace through, and introduces her to the head librarian, [[Elgin (The Genocide Machine)|Elgin]], and his assistant Cataloguer, [[Prink]]. The return of the books prompts a momentary scandal; but Elgin relents, and shows them around.


The Daleks exterminate all unnecessary life forms in the library -- in other words, everybody -- and prepare to link the first test subject to the wetworks facility. The Dalek Supreme reports the progress of the operation to the Emperor on [[Skaro]], but admits that the Doctor has not yet been captured. The Chief Scientist predicts a 70 percent possibility of failure if a Time Lord's neural pathways are not used as a buffer to filter the data download, but the Emperor will not tolerate any delays to its invasion plans and orders the [[Dalek Supreme]] to attempt the procedure without the Doctor. Tarrant is brought before the Dalek Supreme to explain her presence on the planet, and although the Daleks conclude that she is irrelevant, they decide to keep her alive in case a lure is needed to bring the Doctor out of the jungle. As Ace-2 takes Tarrant away under guard, the wetworks facility is brought on-line, and the first test subject is connected to it; however, when the Daleks try to download the knowledge of the Universe into its memory circuits, it is unable to handle the data flow. The Dalek's memory circuits overload, and it goes mad, breaks out of its restraints and hurtles off into the corridors, screaming in agony and firing at random as its fellow Daleks pursue it. Without the neural buffers of a Time Lord such as the Doctor, the Daleks can only survive the experiment by downloading the data at a slower rate -- which will mean a delay to the invasion. This is unacceptable. The Doctor must be captured immediately!
The library has a new achievement. It now contains a "wetworks", a huge array of water tanks that use the fluids as a complex form of memory storage. In this way, they have vastly increased their information capacity. The information can be retrieved via direct download to the brain. Elgin mentions that no one has access to the library—it is for storing information, not sharing it. This frustrates Ace, and she leaves to return to [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]]. Elgin tells the Doctor that the non-sharing policy has prompted a response from numerous races—including a semi-robotic race called the [[Dalek]]s.


The Doctor and Elgin find the TARDIS surrounded by Daleks, and the Dalek Supreme arrives and threatens to kill Ace, Tarrant and Prink if the Doctor does not give himself up. The Doctor, aware that these could be duplicates, is unable to take the risk and surrenders to save their lives. He and Elgin are returned to the library with the others, where the Daleks inform them that they intend to create a Dalek with the complete knowledge of the Universe -- a mobile data store with which they can conquer the Universe, one planet at a time. The Doctor, Ace and Tarrant are left under guard by Ace-2 while Elgin and Prink are forced to repair the damage caused by the rogue test subject. The Doctor tells Ace about the noises he heard in the rain, apparent evidence that there is another force at work on the planet -- and the shocked Tarrant realises that her dream of Rappell in the medical bay wasn't a dream after all. It appears that the phantoms of Kar-Charrat are real -- but if so, why do Elgin and the others dismiss them as nothing more than stories?
Outside the time barrier, Ace meets the wounded Bev; as she is taking her to the library to be cured, the duo are captured by the Daleks.


Elgin and Prink repair the damage to the wetworks facility, and are forced to stand by and watch as the [[Dalek]]s bring in the Doctor. The sickened Elgin has no choice but to connect the Doctor to the retrieval interface, and the Daleks prepare to download the wetworks' data into a second test subject. This time, the natural neural buffers within the Doctor's Time Lord brain are capable of handling, filtering and compressing the rapid data flow, and the Dalek test subject survives -- and acquires the accumulated knowledge of the entire Universe. But the agony has been too much for the Doctor to bear, and the grief-stricken Elgin discovers that the process has killed him. As the Dalek test subject assimilates the knowledge it has acquired, the [[Dalek Supreme]] returns to the mothership to report the success of the operation... and to prepare to destroy the Kar-Charrat facility behind them.
=== Part two ===
Unknown to Bev, Ace is copied into a [[Ace (Dalek duplicate)|human-form Dalek operative]]. As Ace has been given a security tag for the library, the duplicate is able to return and infiltrate the library. At the same time, an alarmed Doctor begins to interrogate Elgin, and discovers that the Daleks did attack once, but failed to penetrate the defences. Worried about Ace, the Doctor takes Elgin out to find her, deeming the situation unsafe in case the Daleks are still around. He finds her—or rather, the duplicate—and Tarrant, and has them taken to the library's [[medical bay]]. He then has Elgin take him to the nearby ziggurat, which has piqued his curiosity.


Tarrant admits to Ace that she intended to sell the ziggurat to a collector on Coralee; now that will come to nothing, and she's only gotten her lover killed and his body possessed by an alien entity. The door unexpectedly opens, apparently by itself, but it turns out to have been operated from the outside -- by the alien entities which inhabit Rappell's body. They apologise to Tarrant for the disrespect; but they struggle to save their race, and this was necessary. Ace refuses to leave the library without trying to rescue the Doctor, but as "Rappell" tries to guide them to the wetworks facility, they run into another problem -- the insane Dalek test subject is still at loose in the facility, and it stumbles across them, recognises them as humanoid life forms, and prepares to exterminate them all...
Near the ziggurat, they find the remains of Tarrant's crew, with some oddities about their corpses. Elgin tells him some unsettling stories about supposed phantoms in the jungle, dating from earliest colonisation. They then find that the ziggurat has been opened from the inside. Putting things together, the Doctor realises it's not an ancient artefact, but rather, a Dalek hibernation unit — and its inhabitants have now awoken! He finds a cloning chamber in the corner, and realises that the Ace he sent to the medical bay is a Dalek operative.


Part Four
Meanwhile, "Ace" has lowered the defence grid, and the Supreme Dalek orders its ship in orbit to send in attack troops.


Fortunately, the Dalek is completely unbalanced, and its weaponry is operating outside safety tolerances -- which means that it misses its aim completely and blows a hole in the library wall, through which Ace and Tarrant flee to safety. "Rappell" remains behind to hold off the Dalek, and the horrified Tarrant is forced to watch as her lover is blasted apart for a second time. But when the Dalek pursues them out of the library, the rainfall suddenly seems to concentrate itself over the Dalek -- and it drowns within its own casing. The voice of "Rappell" speaks to Ace and Tarrant, who realise that the sound is coming from the rainfall itself. The Phantoms are the true natives of Kar-Charrat, a living essence which can inhabit any form of water; the rivers and the oceans, the waterfall, the rain, everywhere water is to be found on the planet. Since the human body consists largely of water, Rappell's dead body was able to act as a host for the Phantoms' intelligence as they tried to contact someone who would listen to them -- someone who would understand the crimes the librarians have committed against the Kar-Charratians...
=== Part three ===
The Dalek's plan, it seems, is to seize control of the wetworks facility and its store of data. They kill everyone in the library except a few key individuals; they save Tarrant for use in luring out the Doctor if necessary, and send the real Ace to join her at the library. They require the Doctor for his Time Lord brain; without him, their download of the data in the wetworks will take far longer, delaying their invasion—in fact, a test run without the Doctor sends the test Dalek into madness.


The Doctor finds his mind floating disembodied in the wetworks facility itself, where the Kar-Charratians are finally able to speak with him. They saved him at the moment of his death by uploading his consciousness into the wetworks facility -- where they exist themselves in torment. To the Doctor's horror, the Kar-Charratians reveal that the wetworks unit is not a technological miracle, but a gulag where their species has been enslaved, their minds wiped clean. Each drop of liquid in the wetworks storage tanks is or was a living being, and as the librarians replace the living Kar-Charratian minds with the data from the library, they are wiping out an entire race. The Doctor, infuriated, promises to free the Kar-Charratians -- but they warn him that he will have to act quickly, for the Daleks intend to destroy the entire library when they depart.
The Doctor and Elgin try to return to the TARDIS, but are intercepted and captured by the Dalek Supreme. They are returned to the library; the Daleks explain that they plan to create a Dalek that can contain the data store, creating a mobile repository of information that can be used to conquer first the galaxy, then the universe. For this, they require a Time Lord brain. The ziggurat — and others like it around the region of space — was a trap set to spring at first detection of a time capsule of any type.


The Daleks detect the destruction of the rogue, and the Dalek Supreme orders the test subject to explain. With its new storehouse of knowledge, it understands that the native life forms of the planet are capable of invading Dalek casings and rendering them inoperative -- but to the Dalek Supreme's fury, it insists that the natives are non-hostile, and refuses to advise on the correct procedure for the natives' extermination. The "erratic" behaviour of the test subject suggests that a second may be required, and since the Doctor is dead, this means the Daleks will have to attach the remaining prisoners to the data retrieval unit, burning out their minds one after another until successful transfer is achieved. The Dalek Supreme reports the problem to [[Skaro]], but the impatient Emperor Dalek will brook no further delays. Infuriated that the [[Dalek Supreme]] has foolishly killed the Doctor before he could be interrogated, the Emperor orders it to return to Skaro and destroy the facility immediately. The Dalek Supreme has no choice but to obey.
The Doctor is plugged into the system, and the experiment succeeds—the second test Dalek acquires the data. However, the strain appears to kill the Doctor. The Dalek Supreme returns to his ship to destroy the library.


The Daleks leave the dispirited Elgin and Prink locked up in the wetworks facility, and once it's safe, the Kar-Charratians download the Doctor's mind back into his body. Elgin is overjoyed at first, until the furious Doctor accuses him of unspeakable crimes against the Kar-Charratians. He had counted Elgin as a friend, and all along he no better than the Daleks! Subdued, Elgin shows the Doctor the way out, and they manage to avoid the Dalek patrols and slip out of the library through the hole blown in the wall by the rogue Dalek. Their escape is discovered, and the chief scientist examines the remains of the rogue Dalek and determines that it was drowned within its own casing. The Daleks cannot venture out into the jungle to recapture the prisoners. But Ace-2 has no such weakness...
Ace and Tarrant are intercepted by the body of Tarrant's partner, Rappell, which is now animated by something. The entity says that it is a native of Kar-Charrat; its species is water-based, not just living in the water, but composed of water, which is what allows it to inhabit the body. It and its kind are fighting for survival, as the wetworks represents imprisonment and death to them. Meanwhile, they have saved the Doctor, by temporarily uploading his mind into the wetworks. They explain everything to him, and return him to his body, on condition that he keeps his promise to save them.


The Doctor, Elgin and Prink are reunited with Ace and Tarrant outside Tarrant's ship, which she doesn't dare power up in case the Daleks detect it. The Doctor takes them back to the TARDIS, planning to blow a hole in the wetworks facility and release the enslaved Kar-Charratians into the rainfall. Elgin claims that he never knew the natives were intelligent, but is forced to admit that he never tried to communicate with them; the library has been his life's work, and he long ago lost the ability to see anything beyond it. The Kar-Charratians kill the Daleks guarding the TARDIS, but before the Doctor can enter Ace-2 arrives and captures Elgin, threatening to kill him if the Doctor does not surrender. Prink finally snaps and attacks Ace-2, rescuing Elgin and shooting the duplicate in the chest. Ace-2 snaps his neck, but the Kar-Charratians flood into the hole in her chest and short out her internal circuitry. Elgin, stunned by Prink's death, offers no resistance as the Doctor prepares to take the TARDIS into the library, to destroy the wetworks facility for good.
=== Part four ===
Meanwhile, Daleks are dying mysteriously. The test Dalek, due to its newfound knowledge, deduces the truth about the natives, who are the source of the Kar-Charrat phantom stories. It realises that the natives can infiltrate Dalek casings and drown the mutants inside. It insists the natives are non-hostile except in self-defence; but the Supreme Dalek can't accept this, and orders their extermination. The Dalek Supreme reports to the Dalek Emperor on Skaro, and is ordered to continue the plan, including the destruction of the planet.


The Daleks detect the arrival of the TARDIS and are waiting for the Doctor when he emerges, but Ace pretends to be her duplicate, and claims to have taken the Doctor prisoner and killed his friends. The Dalek Supreme orders his followers to move the TARDIS to the Dalek Mothership, and to destroy the facility behind them -- but the test subject intervenes, claiming that the destruction of the library and the extermination of the Kar-Charratians serves no logical purpose. Since it has the superior intellect, its orders should be obeyed, not those of the Dalek Supreme's. As the furious Dalek Supreme orders the test subject to obey, Ace manages to plant explosives on the wetworks storage units, and when the Dalek Supreme notices what she is doing, the test subject opens fire upon it, refusing to let it harm Ace. Life must be protected, not exterminated. As the Daleks open fire on the rebellious test subject, the Doctor sets the data retrieval unit to download at the moment the explosives blow, and retreats to the TARDIS with Ace.
Back in his body, the Doctor castigates Elgin for the genocide that the wetworks poses to the natives. He then gathers Elgin, Prink, Ace, and Tarrant and takes them to the TARDIS, planning to destroy the wetworks and free the natives. Along the way, the duplicate Ace arrives and captures Elgin, prompting Prink to attack her. She kills Prink, but is killed in turn by the natives.


The Dalek Supreme retreats to the mothership and flees, and although the test subject is finally destroyed by a Special Weapons Dalek, the remaining Daleks have no time to defuse Ace's explosives. The data storage units trigger a download just as the tanks are smashed open by the explosives, and the Kar-Charratians are freed at last. The remaining Daleks are drowned within their casings by the vengeful Kar-Charratians. The [[Dalek Supreme]] is forced to retreat, and to report failure to the [[Emperor Dalek]]. The infuriated Emperor orders it to place the Chief Scientist in command and to self-destruct, which it does. This is only a setback, the Emperor insists; an alternate plan will be devised and the Dalek invasion will succeed. Nothing will stop them!
Inside the library, Ace bluffs her way past the Daleks by pretending to be the duplicate. The Dalek Supreme orders the destruction of the library, but is attacked by the test Dalek, who now sees no purpose in the destruction. During the conflict, Ace plants Nitro-9 explosives on the wetworks, and the Doctor sets up a final download which will remove the data load from the natives in the system. As the explosives detonate—and the Doctor and Ace escape in the TARDIS—the natives drown the remaining Daleks; after a final report to the Emperor, the Dalek Supreme self-destructs.


The TARDIS returns to the ruins of the library, which are now really ruins. Another wonder has been lost to the Universe, but Elgin now accepts that his life's work was criminal and that he was too blind to see what he was doing. Many of the Kar-Charratians require healing, and some will never recover, but at least now they are free to reclaim their planet. Tarrant bids farewell to the Doctor and Ace and returns to her ship, while a sadder and wiser Elgin remains in the ruins of his library, waiting for the Time Lords to arrive and hoping that somehow he can reclaim some of the lost knowledge. The Doctor and Ace depart, wondering whether the test subject would have ushered in a new age for the Daleks. They'll never know for sure; all they know is that while they may have delayed the Daleks for a while, they haven't stopped them, and that the Daleks remain a force for evil in the Universe -- spreading, killing, and destroying without mercy...
The library is now the ruin it always appeared to be. Elgin, repentant of his mistake, chooses to stay and await the next visit from the Time Lords, hoping to recover some of the lost knowledge from the ruins. Tarrant returns to her own ship. The Doctor and Ace depart the planet in the TARDIS; but they know that the Daleks have only been set back, not deterred.


== Cast ==
== Cast ==
* [[Seventh Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Sylvester McCoy]]  
* [[Seventh Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Sylvester McCoy]]
* [[Ace]] - [[Sophie Aldred]]
* [[Ace]]{{note|Aldred also plays [[Ace (Dalek duplicate)|Ace's Dalek duplicate]].}} - [[Sophie Aldred]]
* [[Bev Tarrant]] - [[Louise Falkner]]
* [[Bev Tarrant]] - [[Louise Faulkner]]
* Chief Librarian [[Elgin (The Genocide Machine)|Elgin]] - [[Bruce Montague]]
* [[Elgin (The Genocide Machine)|Chief Librarian Elgin]] - [[Bruce Montague]]
* Cataloguer [[Prink]] - [[Nicholas Briggs]]
* [[Prink|Cataloguer Prink]] - [[Nicholas Briggs]]
* [[Rappell]] / Phantom Voices - [[Daniel Gabriel]]e
* [[Rappell]]/[[Kar-Charratan|Phantom voices]] - [[Daniel Gabriel]]e
* The [[Dalek]]s - [[Alistair Lock]] and [[Nicholas Briggs]]
* The [[Dalek]]s - [[Alistair Lock]] and [[Nicholas Briggs]]


== References ==
== Crew ==
* Ace wanders around the [[the Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]] library. She finds a book from Kar-Charrat.
* Cover Art - [[Clayton Hickman]]
* Music, Sound Design & Director - [[Nicholas Briggs]]
* Executive Producer - [[Jacqueline Rayner]]
* Producers - [[Jason Haigh-Ellery]] and [[Gary Russell]]
* Writer - [[Mike Tucker]]
* Daleks created by [[Terry Nation]]
 
== Worldbuilding ==
* Ace wanders around the [[TARDIS library]]. She finds a book from [[Kar-Charrat]], from the [[Alpha Centauri system|Alpha Centauri]] collection.


=== Daleks ===
=== Daleks ===
* The Daleks were kept in [[suspended animation|cryogenic hibernation]] in what was thought to have been a ziggurat on the planet.
* The Daleks were kept in [[suspended animation|cryogenic hibernation]] in what was thought to have been a [[Dalek ziggurat|ziggurat]] on the planet.
* According to [[Bev Tarrant]], the Daleks' ziggurat is at least twelve hundred seventy years old, meaning that it was most likely built during the [[29th century]].
* According to [[Bev Tarrant]], the Daleks' ziggurat is at least 1,270 years old.
* The Daleks use a duplicate of Ace to bring down the Kar-Charrat library defences.
* A [[Special Weapons Dalek]], the [[Dalek Supreme (The Genocide Machine)|Dalek Supreme]] and the [[Dalek Emperor (The Genocide Machine)|Dalek Emperor]] are all present or are in contact during the course of events.
* The Kar-Charratans attack the Daleks by flooding their shells and drowning the mutants inside of them.
* A [[Special Weapons Dalek]], the [[Dalek Supreme]] and the [[Dalek Emperor]] are all present or are in contact during the course of events.
* The Daleks count in [[rel]]s.
* The Daleks count in [[rel]]s.


=== Technology ===
=== Technology ===
* The Doctor's consciousness/mind was used as a buffer to control data transfer from the wetworks facility to the Dalek test subject.
* [[The Doctor's mind]] is used as a buffer to control data transfer from the wetworks facility to the Dalek test subject.
* The Doctor blows up the [[wetworks facility]], freeing the captive natives.
* The Doctor blows up the [[wetworks facility]], freeing the captive natives.


=== Time technology ===
=== Time technology ===
* The Kar-Charrat Library is hidden behind a [[temporal barrier]].
* The Kar-Charrat Library is hidden behind a [[temporal barrier]].
== Gallery ==
<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true" widths="250">
The Genocide Machine cover.jpg|Original cover art
Lee Sullivan BF 7 3Genocide Machine.JPG|Art by [[Lee Sullivan]] from [[DWM 290]].
The Genocide Machine DWM preview clean.jpg|Textless version of the DWM preview.
</gallery>


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
[[File:Lee Sullivan BF 7 3Genocide Machine.JPG|thumb|Art by [[Lee Sullivan]] from [[DWM 290]] ]]
* [[File:007 The Genocide Machine credits.jpg|thumb|CD booklet credits.]]This is Big Finish's first [[Dalek]] audio drama, marked as "[[Dalek Empire (audio series)|Dalek Empire]] - Part One", voiced for the first time by [[Nicholas Briggs]], who continues the role to the present day in Big Finish audios and in the revived television series. [[Alistair Lock]] also provides Dalek voices in the story.
* This is Big Finish's first [[Dalek]] audio drama, marked as "[[Dalek Empire (audio series)|Dalek Empire]] Part One".
* This audio was featured in ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' [[DWM 290|issue 290]] with an accompanying illustration by [[Lee Sullivan]].
* This audio was featured in ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' [[DWM 290|issue 290]] with an accompanying illustration by [[Lee Sullivan]].
* This story marks the first appearance of the Daleks in an audio drama.
* This audio drama was recorded on [[13 November (production)|13]] and [[14 November (production)|14 November]] [[1999 (production)|1999]] at [[The Nu Groove Studios|Nu Groove Studios]].<ref name=":1">https://web.archive.org/web/20240726195907/https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-the-genocide-machine-625</ref>
* This audio drama was recorded on [[13 November (production)|13]] and [[14 November (production)|14 November]] [[1999]].
* The first two editions of ''[[AHistory]]'' dates this story to 4256, as this was the date given by the Big Finish website; however, the third edition redates it to circa 5256, since in ''[[The Judas Gift (audio story)|The Judas Gift]]'' (set in 2607), Bev Tarrant says she's from "three thousand years in the future".
* The first two editions of ''[[aHistory]]'' dated this story to 4256, as this was the date given by the Big Finish website; however, the third edition redates it to circa 5256, since in ''[[The Judas Gift]]'' (set in 2607) Bev Tarrant says she's from "three thousand years in the future".
* This story is set between [[Survival (TV story)|''Survival'']] and the [[Doctor Who (TV story)|1996 TV Movie]], and after [[The Fearmonger (audio story)|''The Fearmonger'']].<ref name=":1" />
* This story was originally titled ''Wetworks.''<ref>[https://x.com/bigfinish/status/1814252654756778430 https://twitter.com/bigfinish/status/1814252654756778430]</ref><ref>[https://x.com/bigfinish/status/1814253518095524350 https://twitter.com/bigfinish/status/1814253518095524350]</ref>


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
* This is the first appearance of art thief Bev Tarrant. She would later feature in [[AUDIO]]: ''[[Dust Breeding (audio story)|Dust Breeding]]'' and the [[Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series]].
* [[Ace]] recognises the [[Dalek]]s. ([[TV]]: {{cs|Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)|Remembrance of the Daleks}})
* The Dalek mission to the Kar-Charrat library would have important ramifications following the Dalek invasion of [[Mutter's Spiral]] in [[4162]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Invasion of the Daleks (audio story)|Invasion of the Daleks]]'', [[AUDIO]]: ''[[Project Infinity (audio story)|Project Infinity]]'')
* The Doctor hopes Ace ignored his [[the Doctor's rules|rules]] of not transporting [[Nitro-9]]. ([[TV]]: {{cs|Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)|Remembrance of the Daleks}})
* A [[Dalek Supreme]] of the same design as the one seen in [[TV]]: ''[[Planet of the Daleks (TV story)|Planet of the Daleks]]'' makes an appearance. It is subordinate to the Dalek Emperor.
* This is the first appearance of the art thief [[Bev Tarrant]]. She would later feature in [[AUDIO]]: {{cs|Dust Breeding (audio story)|Dust Breeding}} and the [[Bernice Summerfield (series)|Big Finish ''Bernice Summerfield'' series]], eventually (and somewhat ironically) running and protecting the [[Braxiatel Collection]], one of the largest collections of art in the universe.
* Bev mentions [[Coralee]]. The Doctor and Ace visited Coralee in [[PROSE]]: ''[[Storm Harvest (novel)|Storm Harvest]]''.
* The Dalek mission to the Kar-Charrat library would have important ramifications following the Dalek invasion of [[Mutter's Spiral]]. ([[AUDIO]]: {{cs|Invasion of the Daleks (audio story)|Invasion of the Daleks}}, {{cs|Project Infinity (audio story)|Project Infinity}})
* A [[Dalek Supreme (The Genocide Machine)|Dalek Supreme]] of the same design as [[Dalek Supreme (Planet of the Daleks)|the one]] seen in [[TV]]: {{cs|Planet of the Daleks (TV story)|Planet of the Daleks}} makes an appearance. It is subordinate to the [[Dalek Emperor (The Genocide Machine)|Dalek Emperor]].
* Bev mentions [[Coralee]]. The Doctor and Ace visited Coralee in [[PROSE]]: {{cs|Storm Harvest (novel)|Storm Harvest}}. [[Flinkstab]] murdered a dancing girl on Coralee in [[AUDIO]]: {{cs|Square One (Gallifrey audio story)|Square One}}.
* The Doctor picked up [[Bernice Summerfield|Benny]]'s [[diaries]] from the Kar-Charrat Library, and sent them to her on the Collection. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|A la Recherche du Temps Perdu (short story)|A la Recherche du Temps Perdu}})


== External links ==
== External links ==
* {{bigfinish|releases/v/the-genocide-machine-625|The Genocide Machine}}
{{bigfinish|releases/v/the-genocide-machine-625}}
* {{dwrefguide|who_bf07.htm|The Genocide Machine}}
{{dwrefguide|who_bf07.htm|The Genocide Machine}}
* {{tetrap|7/genocide.html|The Genocide Machine}}
* {{tetrap|7/genocide.html|The Genocide Machine}}
{{BFA monthly}}
 
== Footnotes ==
<references />
 
=== Notes ===
{{notelist}}{{BFA monthly}}
{{BFDE}}
{{BFDE}}
{{Dalek audio stories}}
{{TitleSort}}
{{TitleSort}}
[[Category:Seventh Doctor audio stories]]
 
[[Category:Dalek audio stories]]
[[Category:Dalek audio stories]]
[[Category:Doctor Who monthly audio stories]]
[[Category:Audio stories that use Delia Derbyshire's 2nd theme]]
[[Category:2000 audio stories]]
[[Category:Dalek Empire audio series]]
[[Category:Dalek Empire arc]]
[[Category:Seventh Doctor Main Range audio stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in the 42nd century]]
[[Category:2000 Main Range audio stories]]

Latest revision as of 05:09, 18 August 2024

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The Genocide Machine was the seventh story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Mike Tucker and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace and introduced Louise Faulkner as Bev Tarrant.

It was the first serial in the Dalek Empire arc, which continued in the Sixth Doctor audio The Apocalypse Element and the Fifth Doctor audio The Mutant Phase before concluding in the Eighth Doctor audio The Time of the Daleks.

The story introduced the character of Bev Tarrant who would go on to be a main character in the Bernice Summerfield audio range.

Behind the scenes, this story was notable, not just as the first Big Finish production to feature the Daleks, but as Nicholas Briggs' first time voicing them in an official Doctor Who production. He previously voiced the Daleks for the Audio Visuals in the 1980s. Briggs later went on to voice the Daleks throughout the BBC Wales series of Doctor Who, as Russell T Davies was a Big Finish subscriber and discovered him that way.

Another first behind the scenes was the first use of Pro Tools to edit a Big Finish story, namely by Nick Briggs, who provided the post-production and music/sound design for The Genocide Machine. The small 8-track device he previously used to edit Big Finish broke down mid-production, and he was forced to upgrade.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

The library on Kar-Charrat is one of the wonders of the Universe. It is also hidden from all but a few select species. The Doctor and Ace discover that the librarians have found a new way of storing data — a wetworks facility — but the machine has attracted unwanted attention, and the Doctor soon finds himself pitted against his oldest and deadliest enemies — the Daleks!

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]

While doing some sorting in the TARDIS library, Ace finds some books from the library at Kar-Charrat, which is widely regarded as one of the wonders of the universe, and is said to hold all the knowledge of every civilised world. It's a fanciful claim, but the Doctor takes it seriously enough; and he determines to return the books and own up to having unintentionally removed them—it's not a lending library, after all. Meanwhile, on Kar-Charrat an expedition of four individuals led by Bev Tarrant is exploring a ziggurat of more than a thousand years in age, hidden in the rain forest and the perpetual rain. The expedition — actually a mission of theft, aiming to steal the entire ziggurat — is cut down by a mysterious assailant. As Bev, the only survivor, crawls away, odd voices note that her now-dead partner Rappell no longer needs his body—but someone else does.

The Doctor and Ace arrive, but the library appears to be in ruins. The Doctor explains that this is Time Lord technology at work; he was here with others at the time of construction. The Time Lords created not only a defensive grid, but also a time barrier that projects an impenetrable illusion of the way the library will look more than three thousand years in the future. Only one who is time-sensitive—like the Time Lords—or specially identified in the system can pass through it. He brings Ace through, and introduces her to the head librarian, Elgin, and his assistant Cataloguer, Prink. The return of the books prompts a momentary scandal; but Elgin relents, and shows them around.

The library has a new achievement. It now contains a "wetworks", a huge array of water tanks that use the fluids as a complex form of memory storage. In this way, they have vastly increased their information capacity. The information can be retrieved via direct download to the brain. Elgin mentions that no one has access to the library—it is for storing information, not sharing it. This frustrates Ace, and she leaves to return to the TARDIS. Elgin tells the Doctor that the non-sharing policy has prompted a response from numerous races—including a semi-robotic race called the Daleks.

Outside the time barrier, Ace meets the wounded Bev; as she is taking her to the library to be cured, the duo are captured by the Daleks.

Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]

Unknown to Bev, Ace is copied into a human-form Dalek operative. As Ace has been given a security tag for the library, the duplicate is able to return and infiltrate the library. At the same time, an alarmed Doctor begins to interrogate Elgin, and discovers that the Daleks did attack once, but failed to penetrate the defences. Worried about Ace, the Doctor takes Elgin out to find her, deeming the situation unsafe in case the Daleks are still around. He finds her—or rather, the duplicate—and Tarrant, and has them taken to the library's medical bay. He then has Elgin take him to the nearby ziggurat, which has piqued his curiosity.

Near the ziggurat, they find the remains of Tarrant's crew, with some oddities about their corpses. Elgin tells him some unsettling stories about supposed phantoms in the jungle, dating from earliest colonisation. They then find that the ziggurat has been opened from the inside. Putting things together, the Doctor realises it's not an ancient artefact, but rather, a Dalek hibernation unit — and its inhabitants have now awoken! He finds a cloning chamber in the corner, and realises that the Ace he sent to the medical bay is a Dalek operative.

Meanwhile, "Ace" has lowered the defence grid, and the Supreme Dalek orders its ship in orbit to send in attack troops.

Part three[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Dalek's plan, it seems, is to seize control of the wetworks facility and its store of data. They kill everyone in the library except a few key individuals; they save Tarrant for use in luring out the Doctor if necessary, and send the real Ace to join her at the library. They require the Doctor for his Time Lord brain; without him, their download of the data in the wetworks will take far longer, delaying their invasion—in fact, a test run without the Doctor sends the test Dalek into madness.

The Doctor and Elgin try to return to the TARDIS, but are intercepted and captured by the Dalek Supreme. They are returned to the library; the Daleks explain that they plan to create a Dalek that can contain the data store, creating a mobile repository of information that can be used to conquer first the galaxy, then the universe. For this, they require a Time Lord brain. The ziggurat — and others like it around the region of space — was a trap set to spring at first detection of a time capsule of any type.

The Doctor is plugged into the system, and the experiment succeeds—the second test Dalek acquires the data. However, the strain appears to kill the Doctor. The Dalek Supreme returns to his ship to destroy the library.

Ace and Tarrant are intercepted by the body of Tarrant's partner, Rappell, which is now animated by something. The entity says that it is a native of Kar-Charrat; its species is water-based, not just living in the water, but composed of water, which is what allows it to inhabit the body. It and its kind are fighting for survival, as the wetworks represents imprisonment and death to them. Meanwhile, they have saved the Doctor, by temporarily uploading his mind into the wetworks. They explain everything to him, and return him to his body, on condition that he keeps his promise to save them.

Part four[[edit] | [edit source]]

Meanwhile, Daleks are dying mysteriously. The test Dalek, due to its newfound knowledge, deduces the truth about the natives, who are the source of the Kar-Charrat phantom stories. It realises that the natives can infiltrate Dalek casings and drown the mutants inside. It insists the natives are non-hostile except in self-defence; but the Supreme Dalek can't accept this, and orders their extermination. The Dalek Supreme reports to the Dalek Emperor on Skaro, and is ordered to continue the plan, including the destruction of the planet.

Back in his body, the Doctor castigates Elgin for the genocide that the wetworks poses to the natives. He then gathers Elgin, Prink, Ace, and Tarrant and takes them to the TARDIS, planning to destroy the wetworks and free the natives. Along the way, the duplicate Ace arrives and captures Elgin, prompting Prink to attack her. She kills Prink, but is killed in turn by the natives.

Inside the library, Ace bluffs her way past the Daleks by pretending to be the duplicate. The Dalek Supreme orders the destruction of the library, but is attacked by the test Dalek, who now sees no purpose in the destruction. During the conflict, Ace plants Nitro-9 explosives on the wetworks, and the Doctor sets up a final download which will remove the data load from the natives in the system. As the explosives detonate—and the Doctor and Ace escape in the TARDIS—the natives drown the remaining Daleks; after a final report to the Emperor, the Dalek Supreme self-destructs.

The library is now the ruin it always appeared to be. Elgin, repentant of his mistake, chooses to stay and await the next visit from the Time Lords, hoping to recover some of the lost knowledge from the ruins. Tarrant returns to her own ship. The Doctor and Ace depart the planet in the TARDIS; but they know that the Daleks have only been set back, not deterred.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Daleks[[edit] | [edit source]]

Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor's mind is used as a buffer to control data transfer from the wetworks facility to the Dalek test subject.
  • The Doctor blows up the wetworks facility, freeing the captive natives.

Time technology[[edit] | [edit source]]

Gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://web.archive.org/web/20240726195907/https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-the-genocide-machine-625
  2. ↑ https://twitter.com/bigfinish/status/1814252654756778430
  3. ↑ https://twitter.com/bigfinish/status/1814253518095524350

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ Aldred also plays Ace's Dalek duplicate.
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