The Dalek Conquests (audio story)

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The Dalek Conquests
Main enemy:	Daleks, Davros
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Audio
Writer:	Nicholas Briggs
Producer:	Nicholas Briggs
Release details
Release date:	1 May 2006
Format:	2 CDs
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-60283-313-5
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The Dalek Conquests is a BBC Radio-produced retrospective on the Daleks from their first appearance in TV: The Daleks in 1963 to their (then) most recent appearance in the television story The Parting of the Ways in 2005. It was released by BBC Audio as a 2-CD set in 2006, with a running time of approximately 2 hours, 35 minutes.

The documentary is narrated by Nicholas Briggs with audio clips taken from every televised Dalek story in both the classic and revived series (except for incidental references and the 1996 TV movie) up to the end of the 2005 season, which are used to summarise the events of the various stories (this includes audio taken from several stories, including Mission to the Unknown, which do not exist in complete film/video form in the BBC Archives (although most of the soundtracks have been released by BBC Radio and BBC Audio in the past)).

The documentary is presented in a partly in-universe style, as if the BBC have sent a crew to investigate Henry van Statten's now-sealed facility in Utah, the Vault, at some point after the year 2012. The fiction of the production holds that the BBC is also aware of such events as the Last Great Time War, the Doctor's ability to regenerate, etc.

Publisher's summary

The Daleks have a long and terrible history of aggression, and are among the most feared of all science fiction monsters. Ruthless, cunning, and utterly evil, they have no pity, no fear, and will stop at nothing to destroy all other forms of life. Now Nicholas Briggs - the voice of the Daleks in the BBC's Doctor Who TV series — goes deep underground to a deserted base in Utah to unearth the truth about the most nightmarish creatures in the universe. Packed with extracts from the Daleks' many TV appearances, The Dalek Conquests finds out where they come from, why they are bent on universal domination, and what part they played in the Time Wars. Above, all it explores their epic struggles with their nemesis, the Time Lord known as the Doctor.

Featuring clips from such classic stories as The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Day of the Daleks, The Planet of the Daleks [sic], Genesis of the Daleks, and the 2005 episodes Dalek and The Parting of the Ways, this CD pieces together the mysterious jigsaw that is the history of the Daleks.

This is essential listening for Dalek fans — and foes — new and old.

Plot

In the mid-2010s, a BBC Radio documentary crew visit the remains of an underground vault in Utah where a Dalek incursion took place several years earlier (TV: Dalek). A narrator describes the scene and discusses past recorded encounters between the Daleks and a mysterious individual known as the Doctor.

Cast

Nicholas Briggs narrates the documentary (which also includes sound clips of him performing the Dalek voice from the revived series). Sound clips feature the following major cast members (in approximate order of appearance; list is not complete):

• Ninth Doctor - Christopher Eccleston
• Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
• Henry van Statten - Corey Johnson
• Diana Goddard - Anna-Louise Plowman
• First Doctor - William Hartnell
• Ian Chesterton - William Russell
• Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill
• Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford
• David Campbell - Peter Fraser
• Marc Cory - Edward de Souza
• Mavic Chen - Kevin Stoney
• Second Doctor - Patrick Troughton
• Polly - Anneke Wills
• Ben Jackson - Michael Craze
• Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines
• Third Doctor - Jon Pertwee
• Jo Grant - Katy Manning
• Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
• Fourth Doctor - Tom Baker
• Davros (Genesis of the Daleks) - Michael Wisher
• Davros (Destiny of the Daleks) - David Gooderson
• Romana - Lalla Ward
• Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
• Lytton - Maurice Colbourne
• Davros (Resurrection of the Daleks - Remembrance of the Daleks) - Terry Molloy
• Kara - Eleanor Bron
• Orcini — William Gaunt
• Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker
• Natasha Stengos - Bridget Lynch-Blosse
• Arthur Stengos - Alec Linstead
• Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
• Ace - Sophie Aldred
• Jack Harkness - John Barrowman

Crew

to be added

References

• A Dalek Emperor sends the Master on his mission to divide humans and Draconians.
• The Daleks invaded Earth in 2157 as a means for Project Degravitate.
• The Dalek plot to start a war between humans and Draconians is known as Operation Divide and Conquer.

Notes

• The only Doctor not represented in this documentary is the Eighth Doctor, as only televised Dalek stories are included (the Daleks have peripheral involvement in the events of the 1996 TV movie, but it was not a Dalek story otherwise, and this production predates The Night of the Doctor)
• Continuity glitches between the various stories are rationalised as being the consequence of historical records being not 100-percent reliable over the course of centuries.
• Both the 1963 Delia Derbyshire and 2005 Murray Gold versions of the Doctor Who theme are featured, along with an original piece of music that ends the documentary.

Clips featured

The documentary includes sound clips (sometimes extensive ones) from the following stories (in order of first appearance as some stories are excerpted more than once throughout the production):

• Dalek
• The Daleks
• The Dalek Invasion of Earth
• The Chase
• Mission to the Unknown
• The Daleks' Master Plan
• The Power of the Daleks
• The Evil of the Daleks
• Day of the Daleks
• Frontier in Space
• Planet of the Daleks
• Death to the Daleks
• Genesis of the Daleks
• Destiny of the Daleks
• Resurrection of the Daleks
• Revelation of the Daleks
• Remembrance of the Daleks
• The Parting of the Ways

Continuity

• The discussion of the Doctor's exploits suggest that at some point after the events of 2012, they have become public knowledge on Earth (even including his ability to regenerate), as have the basic events of the Time War.
• The documentary indicates that at some point after the events of Dalek, the Vault is sealed and abandoned. This became a part of established continuity in the comic story Mystery Date.
• The documentary covers the Ninth Doctor's confrontation with the Metaltron, (TV: Dalek) the First Doctor's visit to Skaro, (TV: The Daleks) the 22nd century Dalek invasion, (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) the attempt to assassinate the Doctor, (TV: The Chase) the invasion of 4000, (TV: Mission to the Unknown, The Daleks' Master Plan) the crashed ship on Vulcan, (TV: The Power of the Daleks) the "Final End", (TV: The Evil of the Daleks) the attack on Auderly House, (TV: Day of the Daleks) Operation Divide and Conquer, (TV: Frontier in Space) the Dalek presence on Spiridon (TV: Planet of the Daleks) and Exxilon, (TV: Death to the Daleks) the creation of the Daleks, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) the Dalek-Movellan War, (TV: Destiny of the Daleks) the rescue of Davros, (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks), his work on Necros, (TV: Revelation of the Daleks) the Shoreditch Incident, (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) and the invasion of 200,100. (TV: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways)
• The documentary surmises that certain events in the Classic Series, such as the Daleks' ability to travel through time (TV: The Chase) and the Time Lords helping the Doctor navigate his TARDIS to Spiridon (TV: Planet of the Daleks) were early shots fired in the Time War, with the War beginning in earnest with TV: Genesis of the Daleks. This is consistent with comments made by Russell T Davies and others that the events of Genesis of the Daleks were part of the Time War. AUDIO: Ascension, the final chapter of the Gallifrey audio drama series, also suggests the war began with the events of Genesis of the Daleks.