Davros (audio story)
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Davros was the forty-eighth monthly Doctor Who audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. It marked the first appearance in an audio story of Davros, played by Terry Molloy opposite Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor.
Publisher's summary
TAI stock has shot up by over fifteen percent on news that galaxy-famous scientist Davros, controversial creator of the Daleks, has been hired to work on unspecified technological projects.
Davros has been given the chance to redeem himself.
Humanity stands on the verge of a new era, but it needs the help of the galaxy's greatest ever scientist. But Davros is dead... isn't he?
From the bunkers and shelters of ancient Skaro to the gleaming domes of the future Earth Empire, Davros has always been a man of destiny. Now he's working for mankind's benefit. But how much do we really know about Davros?
Has Davros really turned over a new leaf? The Doctor certainly doesn't think so. But is the Doctor always right?
Plot
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Colin Baker
- Davros - Terry Molloy
- Arnold Baynes - Bernard Horsfall
- Lorraine Baynes - Wendy Padbury
- Willis - Eddie de Oliveira
- Kimberly Todd - Ruth Sillers
- Shan - Katarina Olsson
- Scientist Ral - David Bickerstaff
- Kaled Medics - Louise Falkner, Karl Hansen
- Pilot - Andrew Westfield
References
The Doctor
- The Doctor does not consider mass redundancies and labour relations to be one of his fields.
- The Doctor requires only one hour of sleep per night. However, he likes to lie-in and has a tendency to snore.
- The Doctor refuses to wear a tie as he believes that it would clash with his coat.
- According to Lorraine Baynes, there are hundreds of fleeting references to the Doctor in her historical sources but nothing substantial.
- Davros tells the Doctor that he is the closest thing that he has a friend.
Art by Roger Langridge in DWM 338
Individuals
- Lorraine Baynes has a degree in space medicine.
- Davros considers himself to be the greatest scientific mind in Skaro's history.
- Arnold Baynes is the richest man on this side of the galaxy.
- Davros was grievously wounded by a Thal bombardment of his laboratory in the Kaled Dome which cost him his eyes, left arm and entire lower body. As a result, he was forced to spend the rest of his life confined to a mobile life support system.
- The Doctor considers Professor Lorraine R. S. Baynes to be a Dalek apologist rather than a reputable historian. He has skimmed her two best selling books on the Daleks: Dalek Genius and The Dark Side of Skaro. Baynes considers his wife to be the foremost authority on Davros. She seeks to write the definitive biography of Davros. In her personal future, she will teach at Dawkins College in the University of Oxford.
- Davros considers the Doctor to be his intellectual equal.
- Willis is a member of the Galactic Press Association. He works for an independent news corporation.
- Baynes describes Willis as "an asteroid hugging halfwit."
- According to Davros, he was forced to relive his entire life experience during every second of his 90 year imprisonment in cryogenic suspension.
- Kimberly Todd is a delta grade technician.
- While on Skaro, one of Davros' fields was rocketry. However, they were designed to be fired at the Thals rather than into space.
- Davros has no eyes or taste buds. Even before his accident, he had only eaten food pills and the occasional rodent.
- Shan wrote a paper on the long-term effects of atomic shelling on the biosphere of Skaro. It was one of the few papers to impress Davros.
- The Baynes do not have any children.
- Davros describes as "beautiful, young, strong" and as having "a beautiful mind."[statement unclear] He claims that she was the first person whom he met who had a superior intellect to his own.
- Davros believes that he is incapable of love.
- Peri Brown is on the other side of the galaxy, attending a botany symposium.
Humans
- Humanity has colonised more than 60% of the habitable planets in the galaxy and are within a century of colonising the rest.
Astronomical objects
- Skaro is in the same galaxy as Earth, namely Mutter's Spiral.
- Skaro has two moons: Falkus and Omega Mysterium. Davros tells Lorraine Baynes that he has never seen them, though presumably he means that he has never seen them from space. In his youth, they could be seen clearly from his stepfather Colonel Nasgard's house on Drammankin Lake. Elsewhere on Skaro, they were obscured by the high levels of radiation in the atmosphere. (AUDIO: Innocence)
- There was no sunlight on Skaro from the beginning of the atomic shelling onwards.
- Willis reported on "that business on Stella Stora" and he "knows what [the Doctor] did there." (TV: Terror of the Vervoids)
Companies
- TransAllied, Inc (TAI) is one the largest corporations in the galaxy. It is owned and run by Arnold Baynes. It was founded by his ancestor Elias Baynes in the 38th century as a small robot production plant. TAI sells robots, starships, terraformers, medical equipment, explosives, foodstuffs, protective clothing, weft engines, computer brains, recreational narcotics, laser cannons and more.
Daleks
- The Daleks have not been active in this arm of the galaxy since the end of the last Dalek War a century earlier.
- Dalek regalia have become collector's items since the last war. Willis' grandfather served in the war. It took his entire squadron to destroy one Dalek and each member took a fragment of the Dalek's casing as a trophy. After his death, it was sold to a collector for a small fortune.
- According to the Doctor, humans have a saying: "A Dalek cannot change his bumps."
- Willis claims that almost every human has a grandparent or great-grandparent who was killed in the last Dalek War.
Conflicts
- By the time that Davros was born, no one on Skaro could remember how the Thousand Year War had started. The Kaled historians claimed that it was the Thals who started the war while the Thal historians claimed that it was the Kaleds.
- Skaro's economy was geared entirely towards the war effort.
Earth
- Earth's ecosystem collapsed during the 21st century. Baynes dismisses this as "ancient history."
Species
- Towards the end of the Thousand Year War, no Kaled had died of old age in ten generations.
- The Mutos engaged in cannibalism.
- The infant mortality rate among the Kaled population was four times what it had been a generation earlier.
- Davros refers to Neanderthals and homo sapiens.
Foods and beverages
- The Kaled food pills were processed from not only waste vegetable matter but the bodies of the dead.
Galactic Law
- The Treaty of Parlagon prevents private individuals from owning nuclear weapons.
Notes
- This story marks the first appearance of Davros in an audio drama.
- This was the first time that Terry Molloy had played Davros since TV: Remembrance of the Daleks in 1988.
- Lorraine Baynes' name is most likely intended as a reference to the 1985 science fiction comedy film Back to the Future as Marty McFly's mother's maiden name is Lorraine Baines.
- Chronologically, this is the earliest audio drama to feature the Sixth Doctor.
- This audio drama was recorded on 27 and 28 January 2003 at The Moat Studios.
- An illustrated preview by Martin Geraghty appeared in DWM 335.
Continuity
- Lorraine Baynes mentions that Davros himself created his life support chariot. (AUDIO: Guilt)
- Lorraine Baynes refers to the fact that the Daleks repeatedly betrayed Davros. She believes that the Doctor's presence at these events was incidental to his defeat. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks, Destiny of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks)
- Baynes mentions that Davros was seemingly killed by the Daleks only days after he created them. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
- Davros describes in detail how it felt when he was imprisoned in cryogenic suspension for ninety years. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks)
- The events surrounding the flashback sequences would later be revisited and explored in more detail in AUDIO: Corruption, in which Katarina Olsson and David Bickerstaff reprise their roles as Shan and Scientist Ral respectively. Councillor Valron, who is mentioned in this story, appears in Corruption as played by Sean Carlsen.
- This is Davros' first of four known encounters with the Doctor during his sixth incarnation. The others occurred in Tranquil Repose on Necros (TV: Revelation of the Daleks), in Waterloo, Belgium in June 1815 (AUDIO: The Curse of Davros) and on Lethe (AUDIO: The Juggernauts).
- The Doctor has already visited Stella Stora. This is the reason that Willis, who reported on "that business," has asked for his assistance. (TV: Terror of the Vervoids)
- Davros refers to the Fifth Doctor threatening to kill him on the Prison Station. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)
External links
- Official Davros page at bigfinish.com
- Davros at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for Davros at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
