The Time of the Daleks (audio story)
The Time of the Daleks was the thirty-second story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Justin Richards and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, India Fisher as Charlotte Pollard and a cameo from Don Warrington as Rassilon.
It was the fifth in a series of 6 audio stories featuring the Eighth Doctor.
Publisher's summary
The Doctor has always admired the work of William Shakespeare. So he is a little surprised that Charley doesn't hold the galaxy's greatest playwright in the same esteem. In fact, she's never heard of him.
Which the Doctor thinks is quite improbable.
General Mariah Learman, ruling Britain after the Eurowars, is one of Shakespeare's greatest admirers, and is convinced her time machine will enable her to see the plays' original performances.
Which the Doctor believes is extremely unlikely.
The Daleks just want to help. They want Learman to get her time machine working. They want Charley to appreciate the first-ever performance of Julius Caesar. They believe that Shakespeare is the greatest playwright ever to have existed and venerate his memory.
Which the Doctor knows is utterly impossible.
Plot
Part one
Inside a ship, Daleks detonate a temporal extinction device to release temporal energy to change time whilst the famous 'dogs of war' speech from Shakespeare's play, 'Julius Caesar', is being recited. However, the device malfunctions, causing the time fissure to destabilise and the daleks to activate temporal shielding to protect themselves. The temporal corridor collapses, though the Dalek strategist and pilot escape. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Charley encounter a time wave, and Charley reveals that she has never heard of Shakespeare.
Major Ferdinand hushes the kitchen boy of Viola. They are on air, listening to General Mariah Learman making a speech about delaying an upcoming election whilst England is under martial law. Priestly quietly protests that this is unconstitutional, but Ferdinand says that it must be done to restore democracy and get Shakespeare back, who few remember. Meanwhile, the Doctor has found a time fissure that starts in the mid 21st century and ends in the mid 16th. They go to New Britain (in the mid 21st century) under Mariah's "benevolent dictatorship" following the Eurowars.
They are welcomed by Ferdinand, who believes the Doctor is Marcus Hastings. The real Hastings arrives, but the Doctor explains him away. Some rebels who believe Mariah is responsible for the memory loss discuss more people losing their memories of Shakespeare, and the nightmares they have. They go to the library to meet Mariah's niece, Viola, who gives them a folio on Shakespeare. Viola believes, as the Doctor does, that Shakespeare has somehow been taken out of time. The Doctor explains that Shakespeare being lost to time due to the fissure hasn't happened yet, but as it becomes more likely to occur, more and more people forget him.
Mariah reveals she's been experimenting with time travel. She introduces them to Professor Osiric, who has 111 orthopositronium-coated mirrors and over 1600 clocks used to attempt time travel. There is also a 'Master Clock' to which time is enslaved. However, it doesn't work- except for once about a month ago. They plan to try again tonight. Meanwhile, Viola tells Priestly, a rebel, about the Doctor. Mariah reveals that they have partners in this: enthusiastic Shakespearean scholars who came through the portal created by the time machine- and the Doctor hears the voice of some Daleks. The Daleks claim to venerate Shakespeare.
Viola tells the Doctor that she doesn't trust the Daleks, but that she needs to focus on the country before Shakespeare. She then tells the Doctor about the nightmares: a world of conformity, no individuality, no imagination, no love. The Doctor says the nightmares will come to pass unless he can stop the Daleks. He to the library, where there is a Dalek, telling him to be careful. The kitchen boy shakes the Doctor out of his stupor, and they check the folio: it's just blank pages. While the main mirror of the time machine shows one of Shakespeare's plays, the Doctor interrupts them, attempting to shut down the machine, but it's too late- the time portal has formed, and Daleks begin coming through.
Part two
The Daleks tell Mariah that their agreement is still in place, and they will return Shakespeare to time if the Doctor builds them a temporal stabiliser to fix their ship. The Daleks begin exterminating humans elsewhere in the palace, and the Doctor agrees to build the stabiliser. He goes with Viola and Charley to the library to read up on how to build it. The Daleks find that the palace gets it's energy from a nuclear reactor, which they need for mastery over time. Ferdinand tells Mariah that he's distrustful of the Daleks, and knows she's hiding something.
Cast
- Doctor - Paul McGann
- Charley Pollard - India Fisher
- General Mariah Learman - Dot Smith
- Major Ferdinand - Julian Harries
- Viola - Nicola Boyce
- Kitchen Boy - Jem Bassett
- Priestly - Mark McDonnell
- Hart - Lee Moone
- Professor Osric - Ian Brooker
- Dalek Voice - Nicholas Briggs
- Dalek Voice / Yokel - Clayton Hickman
- Marcus - Robert Curbishley
- Mark Anthony / Army Officer / Tannoy - Ian Potter
- Rassilon - Don Warrington
Crew
- Cover Art - Clayton Hickman
- Director & Music - Nicholas Briggs
- Executive Producer - Jacqueline Rayner
- Producers - Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery
- Sound Design - Ian Potter
- Writer - Justin Richards
Worldbuilding
Conflicts
- The Daleks mention they gathered data from their attempted invasion of Gallifrey.
Daleks
- The Daleks are able to transform people, in this case Learman, into a Dalek via drugs and exposure to radiation.
- Learman causes a Dalek to temporally implode when she touches its arm, as it is a mutated version of her from the future.
Governments
- The Eurozone is mentioned.
Individuals
- The Doctor makes mention that Orson Welles did not recognise William Shakespeare.
Locations
- The Daleks mention the Library of Kar-Charrat.
Technology
- The Daleks have constructed their own Eye of Harmony.
- Omega built a function into the Eye of Harmony projecting it fractionally into the future.
Time travel
- Time winds rip apart a Dalek.
- Chronons appear when there is a working time machine, except chronons are needed to make a time machine work.
- The Daleks plan to use a Temporal Extinction Device to enlarge a temporal rift and harness its power for their own time travel craft.
- The Daleks and Learman need a temporal stabiliser to make their time machines work.
- Orthopositronium coats the mirrors of Learman's time machine.
- The time portal connects to 305, 1572, 1585, 1599, 1666 and 1940.
Gallery
Original CD cover
Art by Martin Geraghty featured in DWM 317
Notes
- This story is marked as being "Dalek Empire Part Four".
- Justin Richards originally scripted Learman as a man, but Nicholas Briggs wanted to cast Dot Smith in the role.
- Orthopositronium exists in real-world physics.
- This story marks the first credited appearance of the Matrix Rassilon in an audio story. The Doctor talks to him during the narration in Seasons of Fear, and Rassilon is heard towards the end of the narration sequence, but he is not credited.
- This audio drama was recorded on 22 and 23 January 2001 and 27 February 2002.
- The Daleks recite the dialogue from Hamlet while working on a time machine with Professor Osric.
Continuity
- The Daleks using mirrors for time travel first appeared in TV: The Evil of the Daleks.
- Orson Welles did not recognise a Shakespearean quotation when the Doctor met him in New York City on 30 October 1938. The Doctor comments on this incongruity by referring to the fact that Welles made several Shakespearean films in the proper timeline. (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars)
- The Daleks serve refreshments, and pretend not to be threats, which unnerves the Doctor. (TV: The Power of the Daleks, Victory of the Daleks)
- The Daleks use information gathered on the Eye of Harmony from their invasion of Gallifrey (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element) and on the time barriers at the Kar-Charrat library (AUDIO: The Genocide Machine) to construct their Temporal Extinction Device.
- A Dalek which goes through the mirrors ends up in a Roman fort in Britannia in 305. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear)
- AUDIO: Neverland reveals the identity of the narrator quoting Shakespeare as well as the cause of the time disruptions.
- PROSE: Trading Futures makes reference to Learman.
- TV: Revelation of the Daleks first demonstrated how humans could be turned into Daleks.
- Mirrors were also used by UNIT for the purpose of time travel in TV: Turn Left.
- Later in his personal timeline, Shakespeare would meet the First Doctor, (PROSE: The Empire of Glass) the Fourth Doctor (PROSE: The Empire of Glass, TV: Planet of Evil, TV: City of Death, PROSE: The Stranger, The Writer, His Wife and the Mixed Metaphor), the Fifth Doctor, (AUDIO: The Kingmaker) the Ninth Doctor (COMIC: A Groatsworth of Wit) and the Tenth Doctor. (TV: The Shakespeare Code) With the exception of the latter two incidents, all of these encounters occurred many years earlier in the Doctor's personal timeline than the events of Time of the Daleks.
- Later in his personal timeline, Shakespeare would travel in the TARDIS once again in the company of the Fifth Doctor, Peri Brown, Erimem and King Richard III. (AUDIO: The Kingmaker)
- The Doctor once again observes, "Lead on, McDalek!" (AUDIO: We Are The Daleks)
- After dropping off Shakespeare in 1572, the Doctor detected a Time Roach and followed it to an RAF in Scotland in the 1970s. (AUDIO: Foreshadowing)
- The First Doctor encountered another group of Dalek Executioners, also known as the Pursuer-Daleks, in TV: The Chase. The Thirteenth Doctor encountered another group in TV: Eve of the Daleks.
External links
- Official The Time of the Daleks page at bigfinish.com
- The Time of the Daleks Transcript
- The Time of the Daleks at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for The Time of the Daleks at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
- An apparatus to search for mirror dark matter via the invisible decay of orthopositronium in vacuum
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