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Jubilee (audio story)

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Revision as of 16:56, 9 December 2023 by ReviewRanger (talk | contribs)
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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.

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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

The Doctor explains to Evelyn that the people of the English Empire thanked him for saving them from the Daleks by cutting off his legs after he tried to escape and forced them to make their own decisions. Unable to help the Doctor, Evelyn assures him that she forgives him for leaving her to die before leaving the cell. Miriam says to her that the Doctor wasn't allowed to leave after defeating the Daleks before going on to explain how the Doctor and the Daleks are two sides of the same coin with the threat of one and the promise of the other keeping everyone in line. Upon hearing this, Evelyn agrees to help Miriam expose the Doctor and the Daleks for what they are.

The Doctor begins to understand how in his timeline, the political ambitions of the European countries were what caused World War 1, but then the English Empire managed to acquire enough Dalek tech to conquer the world. Nigel tells the Doctor that he is the only human on Earth who is immune to the Daleks' mind control, but he is forced to pretend to be an evil man who orders the execution of dissidents so that he doesn't get reported to the Daleks.

Evelyn tells Farrow and Lamb that she and Miriam want the Dalek to explain to everyone at the Jubilee what the English Empire has done to it, but Miriam says that they want it to kill Nigel and his supporters. Both Evelyn and the Dalek refuse to go along with Miriam's suggestion, with the latter stating that it sees no purpose in having the leader of the English Empire be replaced with another. When Farrow is ordered to kill Evelyn, the Dalek agrees to help them so as to save her life. Miriam then orders Farrow to fit the Dalek with its gun before taking Evelyn away so she can be prepared for the Jubilee.

The next morning, the Doctor and Nigel Rochester return to the tower as the people emerge from their houses to celebrate the Jubilee. After hearing the sounds of a ferocious battle amid the cheers of the people, the Doctor and Rochester see a number of transolar discs carrying Daleks flying across the Thames to kill the crowd. Once the Doctor refuses to accept their presence, he finds out that Rochester doesn't remember seeing any Daleks. However, a man has died not from a heart attack, but from being shot by an energy weapon. The Doctor realizes that the Daleks are returning.

While fitting the Dalek with its gun, Lamb assumes that it's just for show at the Jubilee, but then Farrow deactivates the magnetic field and orders the Dalek to kill Lamb so it can test its gun. However, the Dalek aims at Farrow and orders him to kill Lamb instead as it intends to find out if Farrow has what it takes to kill a man. Farrow cannot bring himself to kill Lamb as he normally has someone else kill people instead of killing them himself. When ordered to kill Farrow, Lamb shoots him without a moment of hesitation.

The Dalek demands to see the Doctor, so Lamb brings it to the Bloody Tower so it can meet the legless Doctor. Upon meeting him, the Dalek asks the Doctor to give it an order due to it being a soldier who only knows how to obey orders instead of deciding what it does for itself. The Doctor, who is the only one who can tell the Dalek what to do, refuses to give the Dalek orders, prompting the Dalek to exterminate him before ordering Lamb to return it to its cell.

Miriam is putting makeup on Evelyn in preparation for the Jubilee, all while saying that she didn't want to end the English Empire's cruelty, but instead end the life of her husband so that she can become the leader who oppresses the weak. Evelyn leaves to go and find Farrow as Miriam applies makeup to herself.

Evelyn finds the dying Farrow, and once Lamb and the Dalek have returned to the cell, Evelyn asks why the Dalek doesn't kill her as well, a question that the Dalek doesn't know the answer to. When Farrow passes away, the Dalek tells Lamb to decapitate his corpse just as it was traditionally done to prisoners of the Bloody Tower. After Lamb presents the head of farrow to Miriam, she asks him to be her new consort, but Lamb turns her down as he is only good for obeying orders. After dismissing Lamb, Miriam resumes preparing herself for the Jubilee.

In the palace, Nigel Rochester shows the Doctor the Dwarf Daleks that were discovered by Evelyn, stating that he plays with them and pretends to battle them like his great-grandfather did a century ago. To the Doctor's horror, it is revealed that Rochester ordered the other world rulers to send them some short people. One person from America is too big to be placed inside a casing, so Rochester cuts off his hands so he can fit inside the casing, all while claiming that he's only pretending to be evil. The Doctor tells Rochester that he can be a good man if he makes the choice, but talking to a madman is no good, and Rochester leaves to meet up with Miriam so that they can attend the Jubilee celebrations along with the Doctor and the Dalek.

Unsure of what it must do, the Dalek admits to Evelyn that its only option when it was unarmed was to face death, but with its gun attached, it now has a choice. Iven if Evelyn removes the gun like it asks her to, it might still attack her and kill her out of self-defense. Evelyn refuses to remove the gun. The day of the Jubilee has arrived and the Dalek will be taken to Traitors' Gate so that it can be executed, but not even it knows what will happen next.

Part Four

to be added

Cast

Crew

Worldbuilding

Foods and beverages

  • Dalek juice is made from the secretions of the Dalek as it is tortured.

Time travel

Transport technology

Films

Gallery

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

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Rob Shearman comment on TARDIS Eruditorum
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