The Daleks (audio story)
The Daleks was an audio story released by Century 21 Productions as part of a line of records tying in with the various series published in the magazine TV Century 21. Although nominally accompanying the comic series The Daleks, which did not feature the Doctor, this audio drama was instead an adaptation of the final episode of the TV serial The Chase, using an original mix of audio from the episode as well as newly-recorded narration by David Graham.
Publisher's summary
In their flight from the Pursuer-Daleks, Dr. Who and his friends land on yet another strange planet. Trapped on a city built on massive stilts which tower above a dangerous jungle, they fight their way to safety.
Plot
A narrator warns that the story he is about to tell may sound fantastical, but really happened. It begins after Dr. Who and his friends have been travelling in Time and Space for two years. They are being relentlessly pursued by the Daleks, "evil creatures" who mean to destroy them. On their own spacecraft, they have chased Dr. Who, Ian Chesterton and "the girls Vicki and Barbara onto a new and strange planet.
Around them, they find a huge jungle where "strange, carnivorous plants" try to devour them. In desperation, they flee into a cave, hoping to find shelter. Although initially thinking themselves trapped, they then see one of the walls slide open to reveal a robot who tells them to enter. Unable to do anything but obey, as the Daleks are "too close behind for argument," they follow the robot into a lift where the Doctor tries and fails to strike a conversation with the robot. Meanwhile, the Daleks reach the cave where they use seismic detection to figure out which wall to penetrate to chase the "Earth-people" further.
Arriving in a marvelous city, Dr. Who and his "party" are transported on conveyor belts through the "strange, unearthly place", discovering a completely mechanised civilisation without any human life. Led into a cell by the robot, they meet another human, Steven Taylor, who has been a prisoner here for two years and tells them they are all prisoners of the Mechonoids unless and until they can break the Mechonoids' code and make the robots believe they are the rightful human colonists the robots have been awaiting.
Meanwhile, the Daleks use an electrode unit to break through the barrier and call down the lift to their own level. They converse, agreeing that by taking the humans away, the "Mechons" have forced the Daleks to treat them as hostile elements and invade them. Although one of the Daleks is hesitant, noting that they are outnumbered by the Mechons, the leader of the squad shrieks that "the orders of the Dalek Supreme" must be obeyed at all costs. It orders an immediate attack.
Steven shows his new cellmates a ladder he fashioned, which leads up to the roof — which would be an ideal escape route, if not for the fact that the roof of the elevated city is hundreds of feet above ground level. Steven shows them that he does have a cable, but the others are horrified at the thought of climbing down such a height, assuming they even have quite enough cable in the first place (which they have no way to check). From their elevated position, they spot the Daleks, who begin attacking the Mechons. The Doctor & Co. decide there is no time to lose on getting away from the City now, and the Doctor decides to set an explosion behind them to further delay the Daleks should they emerge victorious.
Soon, the time-travellers make their way to the ground as a great battle rages between the Daleks and the Mechonoids in the burning Mechonoid City. They run through the jungle to find the TARDIS and also the Dalek spacecraft (which, to their relief, is not being guarded by anybody).
The Doctor remarks that the Dalek time machine must be extremely precise, to have been able to follow the Doctor's ship so accurately. This prompts Barbara and Ian to realise they could use it to get home. In hushed whispers, they agree that much as they might love the Doctor and their adventures, they may never get another chance to return home, and decide to take it. Dr Who is originally angered at the sheer idea, but Vicki convinces him to change his mind, and he helps them pilot the Dalek timeship to 1965.
After mournfully saying he will miss them, the Doctor sets off once more with Vicki in his TARDIS. The narrator notes that, although he has "for the moment" escaped the Daleks, there are countless more on the planet Skaro that he may yet have to reckon with...
Cast
- Narrator - David Graham
- Dr. Who - William Hartnell
- Ian Chesterton - William Russell
- Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill
- Vicki - Maureen O'Brien
- Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
- Daleks - Peter Hawkins, David Graham
- Mechonoids - David Graham
References
- The Daleks are described as "a humanoid race from the planet Skaro".
- The Mechonoids are also known as "Mechons".
- The Dales and Mechonoids are both armed with "advanced electronic weapons". The Daleks have "deadly radiation guns".
Notes
- Although not identified in any specific way, the narrator is a character rather than a dispassionate third-person voiceover, speaking in the first person on several occasions.
- As part of the soundtrack-mixing, a "Billy fluff" (one of the cases of William Hartnell flubbing a line) was eliminated. In The Chase, he cries out that Ian and Barbara "could end up as a couple of burnt cinders flying around in Spain!" before correcting himself: "…In space!". In The Daleks, he only says "in space!" and does not mention Spain.
Continuity
- The Doctor's TARDIS is being pursued through time by Pursuer-Daleks. (TV: The Chase)
- The Daleks are a humanoid race from the planet Skaro. (COMIC: Genesis of Evil)
- The Doctor claims that he never invited Ian and Barbara into his ship anyway, with them instead thrusting themselves upon him. (TV: An Unearthly Child)
