Liberation of the Daleks (comic story)

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Liberation of the Daleks was a comic story published in Doctor Who Magazine, starring the Fourteenth Doctor, as portrayed on television by David Tennant.

In what was preemptively described by editor Marcus Hearn as an "unprecedented" move in the magazine's forty-three-year history,[source needed] the strip was the first full story in any medium to star the Fourteenth Doctor, being printed a mere two-and-a-half weeks after the broadcast of The Power of the Doctor. The story picked up immediately from his regeneration at the end of that episode, officially beginning a line of stories that were effectively "in lockstep" with the television continuity for the first time in the DWM comic series.

Additionally, it was the first DWM strip since Children of the Revolution, twenty years prior, to feature the Daleks as a major force, and the first strip to serve as a "post-regeneration story".

Plot

Part One: Liberation

From a sheer cliff face overlooking the sea, as a beautiful new day dawns, the Doctor has been born again. Returning to his TARDIS, the newly regenerated Fourteenth Doctor takes a look to see what the universe has to offer, before being distracted by a noise. Noting the changes in his new yet old body, the TARDIS suddenly dematerialises without his input; it is following Automated Protocol Epsilon Delta Rho, or in other words, is responding to a distress signal. The Doctor is only too happy to help.

With the TARDIS landing for the first time in this incarnation, the Doctor sees he is outside Wembley Stadium on Saturday 30 July 1966: the date of the 1966 World Cup Final. Wondering who is supposed to be in distress, he enters the stadium with the score at 2-2 by lying to a security guard and begins to ask the crowd one by one. Realising this method is futile, he starts discreetly scanning the crowd by pretending his sonic screwdriver is a microphone, not realising he is being watched by outside forces.

Suddenly, the sonic gets a signal three rows behind him, but not a distress signal. Instead, he spots a family of four glowing faintly blue. He confidently tells them that their psychic shields should be properly adjusted in public, and as they deny all knowledge, he sonics their disguises off, revealing them to be a group of four purple-skinned and space-suited aliens. The Doctor realises they are time tourists, there to see how "Hurst hits the crossbar, ball clips the line, referee says yes, England 3-2, Kenneth Wolstenholme, people on the pitch, Hurst again, 4-2", but they dispute this, pointing out that nobody is watching the match anymore.

Confused, the Doctor looks back towards the pitch where all the players have stopped. Hovering above Wembley is a giant, and terrifyingly familiar, flying saucer. As it opens up, the Doctor tries to herd the crowd out, telling them the game is over, but he cannot stop a fleet of several dozen Bronze Daleks from emerging and exterminating the players. With the Doctor stunned into silence and the time tourists looking smug, they question his assertion that the game was "all over", declaring that "it is now", as the Dalek invasion begins.

Part Two: Daleks' Invasion Earth 1966 A.D.!

With the Daleks landing on Wembley's field, claiming the human race to now be under Dalek control, a TV commentator tries to make sense of the events to the watching audience. They note that the British Royal Family has been safely evacuated from the Royal Box just as the Doctor dashes into it, drawing the Daleks to himself with the sonic and gaining the attention of the Supreme Dalek in their saucer.

The Doctor starts questioning whether it was them who sent the distress signal, calling them names and mocking them as he realises they simply wanted him to take notice. The Daleks aim their attention towards the Doctor and, right on his cue, start shooting exterminating rays at him. The Doctor begins to run, with the youngest time tourist noting the Daleks stopped caring about exterminating the football fans. The time tourists note that the Daleks are everywhere across Earth, and decide to visit other parts of the space/time zone to revel in the carnage.

The Doctor evades the Daleks' extermination attempts.

The time tourists go to all sorts of places, such as Carnaby Street in London, and the district between Haight Street and Ashbury Street and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, each time taking gleeful selfies in front of the Daleks and screaming humans for their tel•e•pixXx social media account.

Meanwhile, the Doctor runs off to the TARDIS, mocking the Daleks on their missed shots. As the Supreme Dalek orders his drones to seize the TARDIS, a woman shows up at the door, handing the Doctor the World Cup's Jules Rimet Trophy, claiming the security guards at Wembley neglected to take it with them when they ran off. Presuming he is a policeman, she attempts to give it to him for safekeeping before someone tries to steal it again, but the Doctor rushes her inside the TARDIS at the same time a Dalek on a hoverbout grabs the TARDIS with a clamp. As it takes off without him, he yells at her to close the door as he promises to talk his way out. The Supreme tells its fellow Daleks to not engage with the Doctor in conversation. The Daleks all direct their rays at the Doctor and start firing at him, and he faces his fate defenceless with his eyes closed and fists and teeth clenched.

Part Three: Dead Again

After the exterminations of the Daleks, the Doctor is shocked to find he is still alive and speaks to the Supreme Dalek. In return, the Supreme orders the Doctor's extermination again, and again, and again, with no effect. The Doctor points out that it is getting boring watching the rays pass right through his body, so the Supreme orders that the Doctor is to be brought up into the Dalek flying saucer.

Meanwhile in 1966, the time tourists visit Mount Rushmore and take a picture when the Daleks come and add the Supreme Dalek on the rock face. Inside the saucer, the Doctor continues to mock the Supreme Dalek, who orders that he will be taken to total physiological examination, but the Doctor does it right in front of them with his sonic screwdriver. Upon doing so, he notices that nothing has changed and that regeneration would not normally make him immune from Dalek fire. Knowing he cannot be harmed, he climbs onto the Supreme Dalek's casing. Knowing it wants answers, he promises to give them if they call off the invasion of Earth. The Daleks comply, temporarily halting their invasion. In front of the Great Pyramid of Giza and the destroyed Great Sphinx, the time tourists are worried because in their view it is not time for the Daleks to go; they call in demanding why the Daleks are leaving Earth.

Above Earth, the Doctor examines the Daleks and explains that the drones appear to all biologically identical, so they are fake, while he is real, explaining why they could not kill him. In response to that, the Supreme declares the Daleks are real and attempts to prove as such, ordering their saucers into Formation Red Icosahedron around the planet. It tells them to use pulsator beams, and with a colossal explosion, they seem to destroy Earth right in front of the Doctor, to his utter horror.

Part Four: Earth Shock!

The Doctor stares out of the window of the Dalek saucer, watching the Eiffel Tower float through the remaining debris of Earth in space, and promises to exact revenge upon the Daleks if the destruction turns out to be real. The Supreme Dalek orders his drones to leave for Skaro to take the Doctor for personal dissection, but the Doctor states that he will just find his TARDIS and leave. As he does, however, he smells a change in the air, like something is coming.

He is proven right when two heavy-set, body-armoured figures, one wielding a claw and the other an energy net, materialise on board, although the Daleks do not notice due to them using psychic shields like the time tourists did. Identifying them as "human-ish", the Doctor politely declines their insistence to come with them and removes their shields. The figures respond by immediately capturing him and teleporting away, alarming the Supreme Dalek. He declares that the Dalek Science Division will conduct a full sub-atomic analysis of their flotilla to prove if the Doctor was lying about them, then reveals the TARDIS itself, claiming it to be their "prize".

The Doctor is introduced to the Dalek Dome.

The Doctor and his captors arrive on a blue-lit ship, with the Doctor being allowed to move freely if he behaves. More confused than angry, he is left with even more questions upon realising that his captors are a pair of bipedal gorillas named Claire and Claudine. Suddenly, the exterior doors open into a wide room with lots of doors and a blue sky ceiling, revealing the woman from 1966 introducing herself to the Doctor as Georgette, albeit with shorter hair and modern clothes. Walking past the family of time tourists demanding compensation from another gorilla, Georgette promises to explain all, but the Doctor is distracted by a large door reading "main dome this way" in Dalek font. She describes it as "the biggest thrill you'll ever know [and] the greatest adventure you'll ever have", as he opens the door onto a massive multi-tiered observatory with hundreds of visitors watching famous moments in Dalek history, complete with direct views of Skaro: the Dalek Dome.

Part Five: The Atrocity Exhibition

In the kingdom of Albion, King Arthur receives word from Merlin that the Daleks are going to attack Camelot from the sky. After a short discussion with Sir Lancelot and a group of disguised time tourists, he decides to meet the Daleks in battle. Shortly afterwards, Arthur, his knights, and the tourists defeat a group of Imperial Daleks while riding on dragonback.

Georgette, having just shown this to the Doctor, asks what he thinks. The Doctor replies that he thinks it is "a tacky, tasteless tourist trap", sarcastically giving it a rating of nought out of five stars. However, the chief of the Dalek Dome, who resembles a bipedal lion, objects, feeling that the Doctor is overlooking the educational value. The Doctor denies that the Dalek Dome is at all educational, before questioning the chief's cross-species body-mod.

Georgette explains that the site used to be an animal park until clone safaris were banned. In order to stay in business, the staff modified themselves into animals to avoid unemployment. The chief then further explains that after the alien zoo was opened nearby, the park's visitor numbers plummeted and they had to sell it to the military. He then asks Georgette who the Doctor is, calling her "Lieutenant Gold". The Doctor realizes that it was Georgette who sent out the distress signal that led him there. She explains that after discovering the TARDIS' time/space signature, she sent out intelligent code to find him, and that she is surprised that it worked. The Doctor replies that it didn't and he turns to leave. Georgette tells him he cannot go back into "the 66-scape" because the psychoplasm needs venting first.

The Doctor questions what psychoplasm is, and Georgette begins to explain saying that the dome's zones are not holographic, but she is interrupted by a priority call. Merlin, the staff member who had played the role of the wizard in the Daleks Versus Dragons attraction, tells Georgette that she needs to come to surveillance due to an issue with Specimen Six Sigma. Georgette tells the Doctor that she cannot take him with her or else she would be atomised, but remarks that the Doctor should be able to get in on his own before going through a security door, which the Doctor opens a moment later with his sonic screwdriver.

As Merlin explains the problem to Georgette, the Doctor enters and deduces that psychoplasm is "the stuff dreams are made on", as Georgette previously claimed. He notes that what his TARDIS landed in was actually real, a dream made reality, with a Dalek mutant chained inside a tube as the dreamer; the problem now being that the Dalek has woken up.

Part Six: When the Sleeper Wakes

Georgette explains how she and her crew discovered Specimen Six Sigma, trapped inside its casing weeks or possibly months after its saucer crashed on an alien world. Georgette speculates that it survived from static electricity gathered from lightning; the Doctor, however, suggests it survived off of spite alone and claims they should have let it die instead of using it for entertainment. Georgette protests that he does not understand, which the Doctor rebukes. He explains that there are twelve Kaled mutants, each linked to one of twelve zones filled with psychoplasm. The Daleks each think they are the boss in a quantum simulation that the tourists are then teleported into, complete with visual monitoring and image capturing equipment so they can have their picture taken, similar to a flume ride.

Merlin calls Georgette again as Specimen Six Sigma is still spiking. Meanwhile, inside the 66-scape, a bronze Dalek reports to the Supreme that they had just finished a sub-atomic analysis of the flotilla. The Dalek reports that the Doctor was telling the truth: each and every one of them is molecularly identical. The Supreme refutes this, saying it outranks all others, and claims that its vision is no longer impaired. It then looks to a monitor that shows what Specimen Six Sigma is seeing in the real world.

As the Doctor wonders if Specimen Six Sigma knows where it is, Merlin informs Georgette that, despite having pumped it full of synaptic inhibitors, its cognisance continues to climb. The Doctor then remarks that might be his fault as he told the Supreme that it was not real. Georgette responds in shock and explains that the reason tourists wear psychic shields is to keep them from being perceived by the Daleks, thus keeping the Daleks from questioning their true nature. Georgette then hits the button to vent the psychoplasm and collapse the simulation. Inside the 66-scape, the bronze Dalek informs the Supreme that space-time is collapsing. The Supreme demands a special escape pod that can escape space-time, calling for its communications division to focus on a transmitter inside the Doctor's TARDIS.

The Doctor hopes that the venting will not damage his TARDIS, then realises that he left someone that looks just like Georgette inside it. Georgette explains that she was a simulacrum: the first time someone is teleported inside a zone, they are scanned so their likeness can be used for models, and these Psychoplasmic Avatars cannot exist outside the attraction. Georgette then receives a call from the chief saying that a 'blue eyesore' has appeared in the main concourse. The Doctor and Georgette head out as the insignia on Georgette's intelligent uniform disappears in the public space.

As they arrive, the TARDIS door begins to open, which the Doctor says must be Georgette's avatar, but she refutes this as impossible. Nonetheless, Georgette's 1960s avatar walks out of the TARDIS. The Doctor holds her, nicknaming her Georgy, and assures her she is safe now. She apologises, saying "they" had tricked her and made her open the door, just as the Supreme Dalek from the simulation emerges from inside the TARDIS.

Part Seven: The First Death!

One hundred and fifty rels earlier, Georgy is inside the TARDIS where a hologram of the Doctor angrily instructs her to open the door due to having misplaced his key. Though she is confused by the way the hologram speaks, she does as it instructs. With the door open, the Supreme Dalek appears, revealing it to be behind the hologram, and declares that only two Dalek guards will follow it, as if the TARDIS has crossed between universes once, it can do so again. Once inside the TARDIS, the Supreme states that at the moment of singularity, the crew of the Dalek saucer will be the last remaining life forms in the universe, which it declares to be the ultimate triumph. At that same moment, the crew of the saucer are destroyed as the simulated universe collapses.

Back in the present, the Supreme Dalek attempts to inquire about the dimension they are currently in from a Dalek-shaped information kiosk before realising that it is not a Dalek and destroying it. The Supreme realises that they are in an exhibition on an alternate Earth and declares that the Daleks have conquered Earth many times before and will do so again. The Doctor then reminds the Supreme that the Daleks could not kill him before and are unable to do so now due to being simulacra and scans them with the sonic screwdriver to prove it.

The Doctor claims that the scan proves they are fake, but, realising something is wrong, quietly tells the Georgettes to run. The Supreme Dalek demands the Doctor relinquish the sonic and knocks it out of his hand. The Doctor argues that the sonic is useless to them because its data is all in Gallifreyan, but the Supreme retorts that its content is conveyed by the Doctor's physiognomy and orders its guards to the destroy the sonic screwdriver, which they do, allowing them to realise that their gunsticks are functional again.

As the Doctor collapses to his knees and mourns the loss of his screwdriver, the gathered crowd begins to laugh and applaud what they believe to be a performance. Despite the Doctor's attempt to convince everyone to leave, the crowd ignores him, as the Supreme Dalek calls them all hostages that will be exterminated. Upon hearing this, a small boy, followed by the rest of the crowd, begin to beg the Daleks to exterminate them, as the Doctor grabs the boy by the wrist and tries to pull him to safety.

Part Eight: Dome of the Brave!

The Supreme Dalek again demands that the Doctor surrender to spare the crowd's lives, but the boy again interrupts the Doctor, insisting that the Daleks are all pretend as the Supreme's red colouring has rubbed off onto his fingers. The Daleks instead focus on the boy, but the Doctor is restrained from helping him by some visitors, believing him to be an overzealous actor.

The boy shoots at the Supreme with his "Anti-Dalek Fluid Gun" and it remarkably works, impairing it and forcing it to demand its drones to analyse the fluid inside. Georgette, however, knows that it is simply water; the Doctor explains that the Daleks themselves are not just rubbing off, but are becoming anatomically unstable from leaving their simulated universe. He theorises that the TARDIS' artron energy allowed them to temporarily maintain their form but should dissolve soon. Georgy suddenly realises that the same fate is coming for her, being a psychoplasmic construct too, but the Doctor is too busy with the Daleks to focus on her. Angry and crying, she recounts to Georgette all the previous deaths and Dalek invasions she lived through in previous simulations and runs away in fear.

The Dalek guards finish analysing the boy's water, but the Doctor once again distracts the Supreme by holding it to a stand-off, revealing that he has a hostage as well: Specimen Six Sigma, its real self. The Doctor reveals that earlier, he set up a 50,000-volt pulse to kill the Kaled mutant on command. Using Georgette's earpiece, he convinces Merlin to begin typing the command sequence, against both Georgette and the Supreme's wishes.

Meanwhile, with Georgy having remembered all her past simulations, she realises there is only one place she can go to find sanctuary. Running through the Dalek Dome's corridors, she enters a room and teleports away... to Skaro.

Part Nine: Deep in Hyperspace

In the Dalek City on Skaro, a trio of Daleks survey their videoscopes of local goings-on, watching Skyway Seven's space station defeat a group of Monstrons and Engibrains, the Sub-Aquatic Defence Squad repelling some Terrorkons, and the City Defence Patrol detect a human female intruder - Georgy. Although the patrol threaten to exterminate her, the surveyors tell them to take her to Dalek Central Control for interrogation.

Meanwhile, the Doctor balks at the Supreme Dalek's insistence that he does not have the right to kill it, but the Supreme insists that he could not commit an execution as it remembers him, "from before". The Dalek guards insist that if the Doctor is not bluffing, then he must be a simulacrum too, and the Supreme, in its confusion, begins wildly dripping; it is starting to molecularly deconstruct from leaving its simulation. The Doctor reveals that his plan all along was to keep the Daleks talking until they disintegrate - his electrocution plan was a bluff. Upon attempting to exterminate the Doctor, the three Daleks finally collapse into a large puddle.

The Doctor tries to receive some congratulations, but the visitors are more cross at being coated in Dalek paint, while Merlin confirms that Specimen Six Sigma has entered a vegetative state. As the Doctor regrets what happened to Georgy, Georgette explains the real reason she brought him to the Dalek Dome: to help in her PhD in Dalek Studies, having built a space-time telegraph purely to see if he was real. The Doctor is furious at her and demands that she shut the entire "horror show" down first, but the Chief re-enters, forcefully telling him to leave. Regretfully, he returns to the TARDIS, telling Georgette to call him when it all inevitably goes wrong.

Deciding to skip forward in time a while, the Doctor is unsurprised to see Automated Protocol Epsilon Delta Rho start up once again and draw him back. Presuming that he has barely jumped forward even one day, he exits feeling smug, but does not meet Georgette as expected. Instead, he comes face to face with Georgy, mascara still running, standing in the command centre of the golden Dalek Emperor himself.

Part Ten: Golden Age

In a flashback, Georgy is held levitated in Skaro Central Control, where a special Dalek interrogator tries to force her origins out of her, but she insists she needs to speak to the Supreme Dalek. The interrogator claims that no such Dalek exists, forcing its subordinate to display her memories on-screen. Upon seeing the Doctor, the interrogator demands to know who he is. The Dalek Emperor is summoned and Georgy explains that she came to help them, believing this version of Skaro to be a simulation like herself and hoping that the Doctor could help save them all. The Emperor has never heard of the Doctor, but the name troubles him, and he decides to take over the Dalek Dome. Georgy, however, insists that they join forces to get the Doctor's help and save all the simulacra. The Emperor decides to consider it.

Gliding through his Corridor of Conquests, the Emperor muses on Georgy's claims and asks the Dalek City's Brain Machine for answers; it confirms that the entire planet is indeed a simulacrum. Undeterred, he immediately begins to form a plan to capture the TARDIS and set the Daleks free.

Back in the present, the Doctor questions Georgy on why she is with the Dalek Emperor on Skaro, but she ignores him and commands a Dalek to encase the TARDIS in a force field so he cannot escape. With him theorising that he was attracted to Skaro due to Georgy's understanding of Georgette's existing knowledge, she finally explains her plan to him and the Doctor reluctantly admits the blame. However, he warns her that in the real universe, the Dalek Dome will shut down this simulation when they realise the Emperor is becoming self-aware, making him even more furious and playing straight into the Doctor's hands.

As the Emperor realises that his time is limited, he and Georgy enact their plan, and the Dalek interrogator uses its hypno-pulse on her. Meanwhile, as a Dalek wedding takes place in the Dalek Dome, the "real" Georgette picks up a message on her earpiece, which emits the hypno-pulse and puts her under the Daleks' control. With a psychic link established between the two Georgettes and the two universes, the Dalek Emperor claims that the Dalek Dome will soon be theirs.

Part Eleven: Slave to the Rhythm!

Inside the Dalek Dome, a voice actor pretending to be the "voice of the Daleks" provides security updates to the visitors through the speakers of the Dalek-shaped info points. As he does, he is interrupted by Georgette, carrying a gunstick from the Dome's museum and without saying a word, she coldly exterminates him before he can react. Taking over the microphone, Georgette claims to be the real voice of the Daleks and emits the Hypno-Pulse from her earpiece over the Dome's loudspeakers, making all visitors of all species Dalek slaves.

Watching the footage from the simulated throne room of the Dalek Emperor, the Doctor asks what his plan is now. The Emperor replays the real Georgette's memories that he extracted from Georgy, seeing the Doctor's earlier admission that simulacra could be permanently stabilised in the real world, and demands that the Doctor explain how or the hostages will be exterminated by the Dalek info points. The Doctor states that a quantum-powered reality gate would be needed, but even then, the process would take millennia without innumerable elite mathematicians to do the work. Pleased, the Emperor commands the psychoscape controllers in the Dome to expand their simulation. In the control room, Merlin orders a subordinate to enlarge the parameters on the orders of Specimen Nine Lambda.

On cue, a new moon of Skaro appears in the sky, populated entirely by countless Quadruple-Brained Algebraists that the Doctor previously mentioned could run the calculations. Guessing that the Emperor plans to build the gate, use the algebraists to stabilise the Daleks, then subjugate the universe, the Emperor confirms that "all things shall be Dalek". Finally, Georgy realises that the Daleks have been lying to her about trying to save her as well, and in fury, wrenches off the hypnotising eyestalk of the Dalek interrogator, thereby breaking the link to the Dalek Dome.

The Emperor commands his drones to exterminate Georgy, but the Doctor leaps in front to save her. The Doctor, however, forgets that the Dalek simulacra's death rays are ineffective on him, and the Daleks use this knowledge to shoot straight through him, exterminating Georgy.

Part Twelve: The Garden of Death

With the hypno-link to the Dalek Dome broken, Georgette feels Georgy's death, as Georgy uses her dying moments to state that in breaking the link, "this one time... my life really meant something". The Doctor rests her body gently on the floor as he agrees that it did. The Dalek Emperor, however, denies it, stating that he still has control over the now-deadly Dalek info points in the dome. Meanwhile, Georgette tells the gorilla Dalek Dome workers Claire and Claudine to follow her as they leave to teleport to Skaro and save the Doctor. Two of the imitation Daleks threaten them to remain still, but suddenly the chief appears, taking full advantage of his lion body to lunge at them and maul and tear the head off one. While his employees are determined not to lose him, he promises to die like a lion - with pride - and buys enough time to allow Georgette, Claire, and Claudine to escape before he is exterminated by the remaining Dalek info point.

As the army of Quadruple-Brained Algebraists continues calculating the necessary parameters to form a reality gate, the Dalek Emperor orders it to be built. However, the Doctor questions how he could generate enough psychoplasm to convert a whole space fleet. The Emperor decides to drain the power of the other eleven Dalek Dome zones, even at the expense of the other artificial realities, as he believes that only his reality counts - despite the Doctor explaining that this simulation is based on children's books from the 21st century.

Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Georgette's group, crashing through the ceiling while riding a hoverbout and carrying a gunstick, destroying one Dalek in the process. The Doctor orders them behind his force-shielded TARDIS so the Dalek's death rays can bounce off it and potentially damage themselves. Realising the TARDIS is still out of action and teleporting back to the Dome is too dangerous, the Doctor orders Claire to carry a Dalek informational headscreen while he works on Claudine's 'porting glove. He puts his glasses on and teleports them away to the next psychoscape along: the Jungles of Spiridon Zone, aiming to get to his destination in short hops. Upon being spotted by two Marsh Daleks accusing them of being Thal agents, they teleport again.

The group lands in a dark black and blue alleyway, where the Doctor admits his plan is a bad one. He follows a menacing "ba-dum" noise to the nearest Dalek control centre, where he cheerily says "hello again, you" to its occupant: the huge immobile Emperor Dalek, controller of the Dalek City.

Part Thirteen: The Hell Gate!

On the Golden Emperor's Skaro, a Dalek informs it that a Space/Time disturbance has opened above the Mathematicians' Moon, which the Golden Emperor identifies as a Reality Gate, which also opens on Earth, above the Dalek Dome, the Golden Emperor sends a Dalek Scout Craft through the Gate, declaring it a paramount success and that Earth is now for the taking.

In the Dalek City, the immobile Emperor questions the Doctor invading its inner sanctum and its guards threaten to exterminate him, the Doctor explains that the Emperor's universe is in danger due to the Golden Emperor making raw Psychoplasm for its fleet, the Dalek City Emperor declares it is the only Emperor, but the Doctor wires up visuals of the Golden Emperor and explains its plan, the Dalek City Emperor asks how to stop them.

The Golden Emperor launches its Flotilla through the Reality Gate, with a large fleet of saucers emerging above the Dome, in the Dalek City, mass production of Short-Range Teleport Daleks are being produced to teleport to the Alt-Skaro, but the Doctor says production isn't fast enough and half the universe could be laid waste to by the time they're finished, he says he needs to join the assault and sends Georgette back to the Dome to manually link up the eight remaining mutants, Claire and Claudine also teleport back to the Dome to create a distraction and teleport back as visitors are prepared for Robotising.

Georgette asks Merlin to open channels to every mutant except Nine Lambda and patch them through to Eight Delta on a shared wavelength, the Golden Emperor orders the protection of Nine Lambda (its own mutant self) at all costs, in the Dalek City, the Emperor receives transmissions from eight Dalek leaders and asks them all to help save the Earth if it isn't too late, as the Golden Emperor's orders its fleet to attack targeted population zones on Earth, with people posting their help pleas via tel•e•pixXx social media posts.

Characters

to be added

Worldbuilding

Notes

  • This story is set immediately after The Power of the Doctor, making this the first full-adventure of the Fourteenth Doctor.
  • The first words spoken by the Fourteenth Doctor in his comic book tenure are: "All right then, universe - what have you got for me today?".
    • A later addition in Doctor Who The Official Annual 2024 would squeeze in A Letter from the Doctor, setting it right between the end of The Power of the Doctor and the beginning of Liberation of the Daleks. His first words in this case are: "Dear Reader, Hello! Has it really been a whole year since I wrote to you last?".
  • As detailed in DWM 584's The Strip of a Lifetime, an article printed on the pages immediately following the strip, this story was overseen by returning showrunner Russell T Davies himself, with Scott Handcock, specifically to make the TV series and DWM comics end up "in sync" for the first time. To account for this, a break in tradition saw the Fourteenth Doctor make his comic debut immediately after his regeneration scene, rather than his first full TV appearance like previous Doctors.
  • Russell T Davies had originally wanted a similar story to be featured in Doctor Who Magazine in 2005, following the casting of Christopher Eccleston. He offered the magazine the chance to show the Eighth Doctor's regeneration, thus depicted the Ninth Doctor's first adventures. This idea was ultimately abandoned when further stipulations were made, such as the Ninth Doctor not traveling with a companion other than Rose Tyler.[source needed]
  • This was not the first non-televised story to feature the first full, post-regenerative story for the Doctor, as the audio drama Light the Flame was the War Doctor's first post-regenerative story.
  • Additionally, it has been common for incarnations of the Doctor to appear in extended-universe material after they appear via regeneration but before their first full story. One early example is the Doctor Who Annual 1982, which used photographs of Peter Davison from All Creatures Great and Small due to the Fifth Doctor's costume not being public yet.
  • This story, which featured the 1966 World Cup Final, ran concurrently in part with the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which saw England knocked out by France in the quarter-finals. Coincidentally, latter parts of the story were also published alongside the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, in which England reached the final for the first time since 1966.

Liberation

  • In order to avoid spoiling the appearance of the Daleks, the story title was given on the spine as simply "Liberation Part 1", was not given at all on the magazine's contents page, and does not appear in the strip itself until the final page.
  • The yellow text box in the first frame reads "Born Again, Again", a reference to Born Again, the 2005 Children in Need special.
  • When questioning random members of the crowd in German, the Doctor asks, "Welches team unterstützt du?", which roughly translates to, "Which team do you support?" However, this is not exactly grammatically correct as "Du" is only used towards friends, relatives and other people that you know well. When addressing strangers, "Sie" is expected to be used instead, to be polite.
  • The time tourists' line, "'All over'? Well... it is now" is based on the famous final words of Kenneth Wolstenholme's BBC TV commentary of the World Cup final.

Daleks' Invasion Earth 1966 A.D.!

File:DWM 585.jpg
Doctor Who Magazine #585

Dead Again

To be added

Earth Shock!

The Atrocity Exhibition

When the Sleeper Wakes

The First Death!

Dome of the Brave!

Deep in Hyperspace

  • The first page is intentionally designed to replicate the TV Century 21 The Daleks comics, with the credits taking up a frame of the comic, sideways with red writing, a masthead with the story title, a white background to the page instead of black, and 1960s-style text boxes setting the scene of Skaro.
    • This is reflected in the mentions of several species that originated in the aforementioned comics: the Monstrons, Engibrains, and Terrorkons.
    • Additionally, the design of the Skaro Daleks and the Golden Emperor is based on the style they were illustrated by Ron Turner.

Golden Age

  • The first page once again replicates the TV Century 21 The Daleks comics, and continues over the flashback scene of the first three pages.

Slave to the Rhythm!

  • This issue has the title and and framing of the pages go back to the previous style. However, title is now displayed on the second page of the comic, rather than the first.
  • The voice actor speaking through the Dalek-shaped info points in the Dalek Dome is clearly modelled after Nicholas Briggs, the long-time voice of the Daleks since 2000.

The Garden of Death

  • Marsh Daleks make a brief appearance in the Jungles of Spiridon Zone after having previously only been seen in The Dalek Book comic story Monsters of Gurnian in 1964. Here, they are shown to be entirely gold and feature some differences: they have a more traditional upper casing with slats and have gained an extended claw manipulator arm.
  • The Doctor's line, "Badum badum. I hear it and I know" when approaching the Dalek Prime's control centre is a reference to Kylie Minogue's song "Padam Padam". Notably, the song was not released until 18 May 2023 - six months after this story began publication.

The Hell Gate!

To be added

Production errors

  • In Part 1, when the Doctor's TARDIS displays the notification for activating Automated Protocol Epsilon Delta Rho, its screen shows the Greek letters "ΔΣΡ", meaning "Delta Sigma Rho", instead of the correct "ΕΔΡ".
    • This error was fixed in Part 9, in which the Doctor uses the protocol again.
  • The tail of the last speech bubble in Part 1 is slightly cut off.

Original print details

(Publication with page count and closing captions)
  • DWM 584: (6 pages): Next Issue: Daleks' Invasion Earth 1966 A.D.!
  • DWM 585: (6 pages): Next Issue: Dead Again
  • DWM 586: (6 pages): Next Issue: Earth Shock!
  • DWM 587: (6 pages): Next issue: The Atrocity Exhibition
  • DWM 588: (6 pages): Next Issue: When the Sleeper Wakes
  • DWM 589: (6 pages): Next Issue: The First Death!
  • DWM 590: (6 pages): Next: Dome of the Brave!
  • DWM 591: (6 pages): Next Issue: Deep in Hyperspace
  • DWM 592: (6 pages): Next Issue: Golden Age
  • DWM 593: (6 pages): Next Issue: Slave to the Rhythm!
  • DWM 594: (6 pages): Next Issue: The Garden of Death
  • DWM 595: (6 pages): Next Issue: The Hell Gate!
  • DWM 596: (6 pages): Next Issue: The Nightmare Ends

Continuity

This section needs a cleanup.

Needs to be written from an out of universe perspective.

v • e
DWM Fourteenth Doctor comic stories
Solo
Donna
v • e
Post-regeneration stories
For the purposes of this list, a "post-regeneration story" is one in which the after-effects of a regeneration is actually and initially depicted and the Time Lord fully settles into their new body. For this reason, Rose is not included below, even though it is commonly thought of as a "post-regeneration story". It doesn't actually include a clear scene of regeneration, and the preponderance of stories in other media confirm that the Ninth Doctor has not immediately regenerated prior to the story.
The Doctor
Television
Prose
Audio
Comics
Poetry
The Master
Prose
Alternate
universe
Romana
Television
The Multitude
Audio
Other Time Lords
Television
Proto-Time Lords
Television
Audio
Others
Television
Regeneration is usually considered a biologic process exclusive to Time Lords and a few other species. However, some consider Regeneration to also be a "post-regeneration story", though neither describes anything close to a biological process.
v • e
Dalek comic stories
For the purposes of this list, a "Dalek comic story" is one in which one living, authentic Dalek plays a part within the confines of the story, outside of flashbacks to previous stories and cliffhangers that lead into the following story.
Dalek annuals
The Dalek Book
The Dalek World
The Dalek
Outer Space Book
Terry Nation's Dalek
Annual 1976
Terry Nation's Dalek
Annual 1977
Terry Nation's Dalek
Annual 1978
The Daleks
Give-a-Show Projectors
TV Comic
TV Action
Doctor Who Magazine
The History Tour
Doctor Who Yearbooks
Doctor Who:
Battles in Time
BBC Graphic Novels
Dalek: The Astounding
Untold History of the
Greatest Enemies
of the Universe
Titan Comics
Others
Because of the ubiquity of this race, no attempt will be made here to list every appearance in every medium. Instead, we focus on comic appearances here, and invite you to explore a complete list of appearances elsewhere.
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