Across the Darkened City (audio story)

Across the Darkened City
Main character(s):	Steven Taylor
Featuring:	First Doctor, Daleks
Main enemy:	Chaons
Main setting:	Shade
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	David Bartlett
Director:	Lisa Bowerman, Helen Goldwyn
Music:	Robert Harvey
Sound:	Robert Harvey
Read by:	Peter Purves
Release details
Release number:	11.2
Part of:	The First Doctor: Volume Two
Release date:	15 June 2017
The Companion Chronicles
← Previous	Fields of Terror
Next →	The Bonfires of the Vanities

Across the Darkened City was the second story in The First Doctor: Volume Two.

Publisher's summary

On the planet Shade, The Chaons, an invading race of strange, amorphous creatures that ravenously absorb energy, have reduced the city there to a desolate ruin. Separated from the First Doctor and Vicki, Steven has to join forces with an unexpected ally to find his way back to the TARDIS. Ahead, lies a nightmare journey through the dark - a test of endurance and trust.

Plot

Journey into Night (1)

Steven is among a group of prisoners held captive by the Daleks, separated from the Doctor and Vicki on Entropica after a failed attack. Despite Steven's protest, one woman is killed for being too weak to work. The rest are scanned prior to robotisation. A prisoner revolt instigated by Steven and Mettie sends the ship crashing on the planet Shade. One Dalek is damaged and so the other two destroy it because of its "deformity". One of them then proceeds to exterminate all of the prisoners, but is itself destroyed by the last Dalek, Genetic Variant Two-One-Zero, before it can kill Steven. Steven and Two-One-Zero are the only survivors and their only hope of escaping the planet is a transmat left by the Daleks on a previous invasion. Two-One-Zero knows the codes which can return him to Skaro, but with his drive units disabled in the crash, he needs Steven's help to traverse the ruins of the dark, vast city, which is swarming with vicious Chaons.

Steven loads Two-One-Zero onto a cart which he can pull, but the damage wrought by the Dalek invasion has left many roads impassible. They travel through a warehouse occupied by a Chaon to bypass one obstacle. At another, it begins to rain. A bolt of lightning strikes Two-One-Zero, leaving him immobile and unresponsive. Steven knows that without him, he will be trapped on the planet.

The Chaons (2)

Two-One-Zero revives, using the charge from the lightning to repair some of his systems. As they continue into a street of buildings full of Chaons, Two-One-Zero instructs Steven to turn off his torch, ostensibly to save its charge or not to attract Chaons. However, Steven is able to make out in the darkness a mass grave of Shade's inhabitants slaughtered by the Daleks. He realises this is the real reason he was ordered to turn the torch off. Disgusted and furious, Steven threatens to destroy Two-One-Zero with a magnobomb he salvaged from the ship, but Two-One-Zero returns a warning shot with his gunstick. He claims he is "better" than other Daleks, and Steven calms himself down. As Chaons catch up with them, Two-One-Zero abandons his casing, which the Chaons devour. Steven carries the mutant and its translator device in a tarpaulin across a body of water and into the transmat station.

Without life support, Two-One-Zero is dying. He pleads to be sent back to Skaro, instructing Steven how to work the dais. Steven demands Two-One-Zero stick by the terms of their deal and give him the code for Entropica first. When a Chaon attacks, Steven places the mutant into a disused Dalek casing left in the station. It fights off the Chaon. Then he betrays Steven. Steven seeks cover behind the controls, knowing the Dalek wouldn't dare risk firing on them, and demands the code for Entropica. Two-One-Zero gives the code as 02943764 and Steven actives the control before he is fired upon. As more Chaons arrive, Steven receives contact from the Doctor, who gives him the code for Entropica. Steven notes it is different from the one the Dalek gave him. Quickly inputting the correct code before the Chaons devour him, Steven returns to Entropica and arrives at the TARDIS where he is reunited with the Doctor and Vicki, his real friends.

Epilogue

Despite almost being destroyed for returning to Skaro in a different casing, making him difficult to identify, Two-One-Zero is the only surviving Genetic Variant. As such, he is declared the superior Dalek and is placed in the emergency container. He then declares himself Dalek Emperor and, intrigued by Steven's behaviour, orders that the Daleks' prime directive is to discover the Human Factor so that their enemies can one day be crushed and the universe conquered.

Cast

• Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
• Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

Uncredited cast

• The Doctor - Peter Purves
• Chaons - Robert Harvey (BFX: Across the Darkened City)
• Two-One-Zero - Nicholas Briggs

References

• The Daleks subjugated Shade and sent its humanoid population to work in another galaxy, but "withdrew to a place of strategic superiority" when the Chaons invaded.
• The Chaons have a constantly fluctuating genetic code and changed their physiology at will by absorbing energy from the environment.

Notes

• This is the second entry in The Companion Chronicles to feature the Daleks after Fear of the Daleks.
• Vicki is frequently mentioned throughout the story but does not actually appear.
• Writer David Bartlett claimed the psychological dynamic between Steven and the Dalek was inspired by the writing style of David Whitaker. The external threat of the Chaons was inspired more by Terry Nation's style. (BFX: Across the Darkened City)
• Peter Purves opined that there was scope for another story detailing the events prior to Steven's capture by the Daleks. (BFX: Across the Darkened City)
• Sound designer and composer Robert Harvey compared the Chaons to the Thing and Rathtars from Star Wars. (BFX: Across the Darkened City)

Continuity

• The Daleks scan their prisoners to see if they would make suitable Robomen. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
• Two-One-Zero becomes the Dalek Emperor and decrees the Daleks must distill the Human Factor. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)
• The Dalek Emperor is a genetically advanced Dalek. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)
• The Twelfth Doctor much later encountered a Dalek which claimed its nature had been modified. (GAME: The Doctor and the Dalek)
• The timeline becomes distorted as the Doctor prompts Steven into the TARDIS. (AUDIO: Fields of Terror, The Bonfires of the Vanities) The Time Lords fix the distortion, caused by the Daleks from the Time War as they invade the First Doctor's timeline. (AUDIO: Volume Two trailer)

External links

• Official Across the Darkened City page at bigfinish.com