Jubilee (audio story)
Jubilee was the fortieth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Robert Shearman and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Maggie Stables as Evelyn Smythe.
It was the second encounter with the Daleks for companion Evelyn Smythe. It was also the story that the author, Robert Shearman, would use as the basis for his television story Dalek two years later in 2005 when Doctor Who returned to television screens.
Publisher's summary
Hurrah! The deadly Daleks are back! Yes, those lovable tinpot tyrants have another plan to invade our world. Maybe this time because they want to drill to the Earth's core. Or maybe because they just feel like it.
And when those pesky pepperpots are in town, there is one thing you can be sure of. There will be non-stop high octane mayhem in store. And plenty of exterminations!
But never fear. The Doctor is on hand to sort them out. Defender of the Earth, saviour of us all. With his beautiful assistant, Evelyn Smythe, by his side, he will fight once again to uphold the beliefs of the English Empire. All hail the glorious English Empire!
Now that sounds like a jubilee worth celebrating, does it not?
Plot
The British Empire is advertising a movie called "Daleks: The Ultimate Adventure", starring Plenty O'Toole as Evelyn "Hot Lips" Smythe, before saying that attendance is compulsory and "All praise the Glorious English Empire!"
Part One
The Sixth Doctor and Evelyn find themselves in London, 1903, where the TARDIS begins to shudder as if it's trying to materialize in two places at once. After the Doctor tells Evelyn about how the Tower of London was a place of torture, the TARDIS dematerializes and he hears the sounds of screaming and the sound of Dalek guns firing, then realizes that he and Evelyn have been here before before he faints.
The English Empire's President, Nigel Rochester, talks in contractions with his wife, Miriam before ordering her to get some sleep before tomorrow's Jubilee celebrations where he wants the prisoner he has been keeping give a speech. Commander Farrow and Lamb have been ordered to torture the prisoner in hope of making it speak.
The Doctor regains consciousness and theorizes that the TARDIS has materialized in the other place it was trying to reach. Evelyn finds a clue for its location on a stain glass window.
The American Prime Minister congratulates Nigel on the jubilee as Miriam remarks that the Americans looks similar to the British people, but their accents give them away.
Lamb and Farrow continue to torture the prisoner who refuses to speak to them. Lamb wonders if the prisoner's speech organs have atrophied, but Farrow states that it's just being stubborn. When the prisoner continues to stay silent, Farrow decides to cut its optic nerve open.
The Doctor and Evelyn exit the tower to find the streets set up for some celebrations, before they hear the sound of someone screaming.
Lamb cuts Farrow's hand free after the prisoner's flesh has grown over his hand. When the Doctor and Evelyn show up to investigate, Lamb and Farrow encounter them and recognize them both after the Doctor introduces himself and Evelyn. The two guards then contact President Rochester to inform them of the Doctor's arrival.
The Doctor and Evelyn are brought before President Rochester, who threatens to kill Evelyn if the Doctor, who he thinks is an intruder, doesn't tell him how he knew about the multicolored coat that the Doctor is wearing as in the English Empire's stories about the Doctor, he is wearing more suitable clothing rather than the multicolored one that the Doctor wears in their movies.
Insisting that he is not an intruder, the Doctor is brought into the prisoner's cell where he is horrified to see who Rochester is keeping prisoner by the President: A Dalek.
Part Two
The Dalek has had its gunstick removed, rendering it unable to kill the Doctor, whose recognition of the Dalek causes Nigel Rochester to realize that he really is the Doctor. Once the Doctor is released from the cell, he demands the destruction of the Dalek, but Nigel tells him that the Dalek will be destroyed at noon tomorrow during the Jubilee celebrations. When the Doctor, Evelyn, Miriam, Lamb and Nigel have left, Farrow confronts the Dalek and offers to give it freedom if it helps him learn about power, but the Dalek, not interested in freedom, demands the Doctor to be brought back.
100 years ago, the Daleks invaded, but only 2 survived and one of them was destroyed 50 years ago during the anniversary of the invasion which was stopped by the Doctor and Evelyn. The Doctor hears crying echoing in his mind before he is given a drink by Rochester. However, said drink turns out to be Dalek Juice which is made from the fluid that the Dalek excretes when its body is boiled. Miriam tells him that anything that has a picture of a Dalek on it will sell for millions. Evelyn is disgusted at the idea of the Daleks being reduced to pictures used in merchandising, but the Doctor figures out that they're also being used to teach everyone about the superiority of the English Empire.
Miriam is of the belief that the Dalek that is their prisoner is not as bad as the prisoner in the Tower, but Nigel silences her before she can say any more about it. The law states that the women must be in bed by midnight, prompting the Doctor to show Evelyn to her room before he continues speaking with Nigel. Lamb brings the Doctor and Evelyn to the guest quarters whilst Miriam lets out a yawn, and Nigel notes that she is acting suspiciously stupid.
After being brought into her bedroom, Evelyn admits that she is completely disgusted at the English empire's treatment of the Daleks, but the Doctor states that his point about history being written by the winners whilst the losers are mocked has been proven. When it comes to the time paradox, the Doctor believes that he and Evelyn were in 1903, but their arrival changed the course of history, resulting in time being fractured and the TARDIS fell into one of the cracks, causing both past and present to mesh together. And with the Daleks being present, the situation will be worse than it already is. After refusing to let Evelyn speak to the Dalek, the Doctor tells her to stay safe while he speaks to President Rochester, unaware that she plans to find out the truth on her own as soon as he is out of her sight.
President Rochester shows the Doctor around the museum of alien technology within the tower. On the roof, there is a transolar disc which Rochester states is the last surviving one in history. He uses it to give the Doctor a bird's eye view of London during the celebrations. During the ride, the Doctor notes that most of London is in ruins, which Rochester says was caused by his father planning to create a capital city from scratch, only to lose interest. Instead of rebuilding the ruined city, Rochester is more concerned with giving the public a jubilee celebration to remember, complete with a huge extermination at the center of it all.
As she tries to find her way through the tower, Evelyn encounters a group of Dwarf Daleks who asks her if she wishes to play with them. Miriam sends them away and explains to Evelyn that they are toys belonging to her husband. She then agrees to let Evelyn see the Dalek in its cell. Farrow lets Evelyn in, then chastises Miriam for failing to bring the Doctor, only to receive a slap for using a contraction in his speech.
In the cell, the Dalek realizes that Evelyn is scared of it even though she cannot damage it, remarking that she and the Doctor's other companions are like enemy soldiers obeying the orders of their commanding officer before adding that it and Evelyn are equals. After reluctantly turning off the Dalek's magnetic field, thus allowing it to move, Evelyn is told that she will not question the Dalek's orders like everyone else who has visited it has.
The Dalek tells Evelyn that it was sent to fight on the front lines, but after the humans captured it, its self-destruct system was disabled and it was kept alive for 100 years, unable to die or kill. Farrow enters the cell and orders Evelyn to leave. Evelyn exits and bids the Dalek goodbye, leaving it to be yelled at by Farrow for not killing her. The Dalek once again states that it wants the Doctor brought to it.
Rochester lands the transolar disc and then pulls a gun on the Doctor before ordering him to step away from the disc, only to shoot the disc instead with the claim that it was bugged, much to the Doctor's shock. The President says that there are Daleks everywhere and that he is the only one who isn't under their control, before he leads the Doctor to Trafalgar Square. He says that the people of Britain understand that the Daleks are their superiors and that they would never have been defeated if it weren't for the Doctor. Nelson's Column has been replaced by a statue of the Doctor with enlarged muscles and the uniform of a stormtrooper from the English Empire, much to the Doctor's disgust.
Miriam gives an appalled Evelyn assurance that she and everyone else who visited the Dalek felt the same way before telling her that she is needed to overthrow Nigel Rochester's regime. When Evelyn suggests that the Doctor can help to overthrow him, she is brought to the Bloody Tower where the wheelchair-bound prisoner is being kept. When she enters the cell, Evelyn is shocked to see that the prisoner is actually the Doctor.
Part Three
to be added
Part Four
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Colin Baker
- Evelyn Smythe - Maggie Stables
- Nigel Rochester - Martin Jarvis
- Miriam Rochester - Rosalind Ayres
- Farrow - Steven Elder
- Lamb - Kai Simmons
- Presenter / Mary - Jane Goddard
- Presenter - Rob Shearman
- Movie Star - Jack Galagher
- Movie Star / Judy - Georgina Carter
- Dalek Voice / US Prime Minister / Announcer - Nicholas Briggs
Crew
- Cover Art - Clayton Hickman
- Directors - Nicholas Briggs and Robert Shearman
- Executive Producer - Jacqueline Rayner
- Music and Sound Design - Nicholas Briggs
- Producers - Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery
- Writer - Robert Shearman
- Daleks created by Terry Nation
Worldbuilding
Foods and beverages
- Dalek juice is made from the secretions of the Dalek as it is tortured.
Time travel
- The Doctor and Evelyn become stuck within a temporal paradox.
Transport technology
- Rochester has a functioning Dalek transolar disc.
Films
- Plenty O'Toole played Evelyn "Hot Lips" Smythe in the film Daleks: The Ultimate Adventure.
Gallery
Original CD cover
Illustration preview by Martin Geraghty in DWM 326
Notes
- Jubilee was the first release to use the Dominic Glynn arrangement of the Doctor Who theme. It was also the first to have a full-colour CD insert.
- This was the first Big Finish audio drama to feature the Daleks that wasn't listed as part of the greater Dalek Empire story arc, not including their brief cameo in Seasons of Fear.
- Robert Shearman later used plot elements of this audio as the basis for his Series 1 television story Dalek. Shearman also used the surnames of actors Jane Goddard, his wife, and Kai Simmons as names of characters in the production.
- Both Dalek and various Torchwood stories feature Jubilee Pizza pizza boxes as an homage to this story. A Jubilee Pizza leaflet is also seen in the television story The Lodger.
- This audio drama was recorded on 21 and 22 September 2002 at the Moat Studios.
- This story contains metafictional commentary suggestions the Daleks themselves, or at least the marketing phenomena surrounding them, minimise and sensationalise the true horrors of Fascism.
- This story was originally released on CD. It is now available as a download only.
- Shearman originally wanted to return to the setting of Jubilee and write a second story, but in retrospect considers that desire arrogant and thinks it in part caused part four of the story to fall apart.[1]
Continuity
- There is another instance of alternate futures coming as dreams (and involving the Daleks) in AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks.
- This is not the Doctor and Evelyn's first visit to the Tower of London. They were briefly imprisoned there by order of Queen Mary I in January 1555 when she mistakenly believed they were planning to assassinate her and place her Protestant younger half-sister Elizabeth on the throne. (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy) They would visit the Tower once again in 2010. (AUDIO: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster)
- The Sixth Doctor previously discovered a statue of himself on Necros. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks)
- The Fourth Doctor discovered a statue of himself on an unnamed planet. (TV: The Face of Evil)
External links
- Official Jubilee page at bigfinish.com
- Jubilee at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for Jubilee at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
Footnotes
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