The Dalek Protocol (audio story)
The Dalek Protocol was the first story, a prequel of sorts, in the Dalek Universe series produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Nicholas Briggs and featured Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Louise Jameson as Leela, John Leeson as K9, Jane Slavin as Anya Kingdom and Joe Sims as Mark Seven.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Earth mission to Exxilon is nearing completion after many long years. Enough parrinium has been mined to stop the spread of the deadly space plague. But suddenly, the power-draining beacon from the Exxilon city is inexplicably reactivated, stranding the humans.
The Doctor, Leela and K9 are stuck too, right on top of the remains of the city – under attack!
Somewhere nearby, the android agent Mark Seven is enacting his secret orders while the Doctor’s estranged future companion, Anya Kingdom, is hoping for redemption.
And heading inexorably towards them all… the Daleks!
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]
Sceptical that the Doctor is capable of piloting the TARDIS accurately, Leela asks him to take her and K9 somewhere he has visited before and selects Exxilon from a list of previous destinations, remembering its people. Anya is on the planet, posing as the loading supervisor of the Thunderbolt, and meets Captain Bernard's security officer and fellow SSS agent Mark Seven, who has deduced that she is an impostor and takes her to investigate a strange energy signal. The two of them are attacked by Exxilons and accused of theft despite the humans mining parrinium with the permission of their elders in exchange for technology and education. Mark kills them.
Anya and Mark find a stealth space shuttle and are contacted by Captain Bernard, who has become aware of their absence and who loses contact with them when a bonded polycarbide beacon atop the Great City is activated and drains all power. The beacon also drains the power of the TARDIS and K9 as they approach the planet, resulting in the ship crash-landing near the beacon where the Exxilons attack them with arrows. Anya and Mark disguise themselves as Exxilons and head to the city in a skimmer using its backup clockwork engine. Elsewhere, the Daleks confirm that the first stage of their plan is complete and that their victory is assured.
Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Doctor attempts to surrender to the Exxilons using a white handkerchief tied to a stick, but the human-hating Gislen continues the attack until Bellal convinces him otherwise by pointing out that the Daleks did not remain neutered by the beacon forever and nor will the humans. Although he does not initially accept that the Doctor is the man he once met, Bellal defends him and Leela, who accuse Gislen of installing the beacon as part of his campaign against humanity. Gislen admits this and states that the aliens who helped him told him that the beacon was only temporary, but the Doctor suspects that this is untrue and that the power will continue to build until it explodes and wipes out all life on the planet by blocking out the sun.
The group are observed from afar by Mark and Anya, the latter of whom recognises the Doctor and realises that he has not yet met her given that he is travelling with Leela. They in turn are being spied on by the Daleks. Gislen reluctantly agrees to take the Doctor and Leela to the beacon to examine it and begins to explain how he came into possession of it thanks to a human, but they are interrupted by an attack of the Marine Space Corps, come to destroy the beacon, and Gislen accuses them of treachery. He takes Leela hostage and threatens to kill her, only for Bernard to order his men to open fire whilst Mark remembers the Daleks exposing him when we went undercover as a Roboman and tells Anya that he must fire.
Part three[[edit] | [edit source]]
Mark shoots a poisoned spear out of Gislen's hand before he can harm Leela and presents himself when she and the Doctor surrender to Bernard and ask who saved her. Once the two travellers are arrested and imprisoned in the Thunderbolt, Anya informs Bernard that she is with the SSS and ensures that the powerless TARDIS is removed before the beacon is destroyed to avoid a huge explosion. She sends fellow agent Ellasi to prevent the Doctor and Leela from escaping and to gas them whilst she checks on Mark on account of him acting strangely, telling Bernard that he seems to be suffering PTSD from a previous mission and that she will take on his duties from now on.
When the Doctor awakens, the Thunderbolt is on its way to Ardanum Major to deliver the parrinium and he is questioned alone by Anya, who covers her face and distorts her voice to maintain the timeline. Leela, meanwhile, is given the TARDIS key by Ellasi to bring K9 out of the TARDIS, which was brought aboard the Thunderbolt. The ship's engines are sabotaged and Anya, after attaching a data pack to K9, inspects Ellasi, whom Bernard believes to be a Dalek agent responsible for the sabotage; she finds that she is without any implant and comes to agree that Mark is the agent. K9 follows the data pack's instructions to the Doctor and then leads him and Leela to Mark, with whom he and the Doctor interface. They learn that Mark was reprogrammed with the Dalek Protocol upon learning that the Daleks were also dying of the plague and the Doctor starts repeating that he too must obey the protocol.
Part four[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Doctor comes to his senses and reveals to Leela that the Dalek Protocol is a subroutine which is causing Mark to believe that he has made a deal with the Daleks in return for half of the parrinium. The Daleks reactivate Mark upon detecting that his positronic brain has been accessed and see through his eyes that the Doctor is responsible. Mark attacks him, but retreats after K9 causes him serious damage and heads to the airlock to allow the approaching Daleks entry. He kills Ellasi when she tries to stop him and the Doctor and Leela attempt to help him overcome the Dalek Protocol by reminding him of his imperative to protect life and of the Daleks' treachery. The Daleks gain entry and bulkhead doors close to protect those aboard, separating the Doctor and K9 from Leela and Anya. The Doctor contacts the Daleks and warns them that Bernard will blow up the human fleet with the parrinium on board.
When the Daleks bring a neutrogenic device aboard the Thunderbolt to destroy all living beings not protected by a force field, Mark overcomes the Dalek Protocol and destroys a number of the Daleks whilst the others flee. He then disables the device's remote activation and adapts it to destroy everything in the vicinity, including the Daleks. The Doctor finally gets the Dalek Supreme to confirm that the Daleks do indeed need the parrinium due to the mutated plague and they flee, after which the Doctor interfaces with Mark once more and convinces him that he has been betrayed by the Daleks and not by all life. Mark erases the Dalek Protocol and deactivates himself. Anya, having previously been injured by Mark, receives medical care and confides in Leela that she will be a companion of the Doctor in his future, something that Leela agrees to consider keeping secret. Aboard the TARDIS, she pretends to have forgotten Anya's name.
Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Doctor - Tom Baker
- Leela - Louise Jameson
- K9 - John Leeson
- Anya Kingdom - Jane Slavin
- Mark Seven - Joe Sims
- The Daleks / Bellal / Captain Bernard - Nicholas Briggs
- Gislen - Jez Fielder
- Ellasi Craig - Anna Mitcham
Uncredited cast[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Earth Aid Controller - Anna Mitcham (BFX: The Dalek Protocol)
Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Cover Art - Ryan Aplin
- Writer & Director - Nicholas Briggs
- Executive Producer - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
- Music and Sound Design - Jamie Robertson
- Producer - David Richardson
- Script Editor - John Dorney
- Daleks, the Kingdom Family, Mark Seven and Bellal created by Terry Nation
- K9 created by Bob Baker and Dave Martin
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Anya boarded the Thunderbolt on Valerian.
- Anya is posing as a loading supervisor.
- The Doctor is very much aware of Mark Seven and also refers to him as a hero of the Dalek Wars. He is also aware of him being an android with a positronic brain.
- Reading Mark Seven's memories, the Doctor discovers that the Daleks are also dying from the Space Plague. This explains their presence on Exxilon and why they wish to mine all of the parrinium.
- When Mark Seven's undercover identity was discovered, the Daleks distilled within him the Dalek Protocol, turning him into a Dalek agent.
- Anya uses a lie detector.
- Mark has a positronic brain.
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- This story was recorded on 2 and 3 July 2018 at Audio Sorcery.
- The Dalek Protocol was originally written and recorded before Dalek Universe had even been conceived. (BFX: The Dalek Protocol) In the eventual release order, the pairing of Anya Kingdom and Mark Seven had already been introduced, alongside River Song, in Queen of the Mechonoids.
- As well as acting as a prequel to Dalek Universe, the story was also noted to be a sequel to Death to the Daleks, The Daleks' Master Plan, the Sara Kingdom trilogy and The Perfect Prisoners. (BFX: The Dalek Protocol)
- Briggs wanted the Daleks involved to feel "very traditional", including the high-ranking Dalek with a high-pitched voice. (BFX: The Dalek Protocol)
- John Dorney notes that, save for one vague reference to the Dalek Wars, there was no specific time placement for Death to the Daleks. The Dalek Protocol more firmly places it around the "area" of The Daleks' Master Plan. (BFX: The Dalek Protocol) This seemingly gels with The Whoniverse, which fit the events of the story into the conflict sparked by the events of Master Plan. However, it conflicts with The Secret Lives of Monsters which placed the Exxilon Gambit as the conclusion of the Third Dalek War, taking place roughly around the 27th century.
- It had not been made clear in previous stories whether the Daleks in Death to the Daleks were actually suffering from the space plague, or merely sought the parrinium to prevent humanity from finding a cure. The Whoniverse framed this in-universe as something historians were divided on. The Dalek Protocol helps keep in line with this thinking by having the Dalek Supreme admit that the Daleks have fallen victim to a new mutation of the plague.
- Briggs noted that the pronunciation of Barnard's name tended to change between scenes. He drew comparisons with Vural from The Sontaran Experiment and thought of this kind of error as "a long tradition in Doctor Who". (BFX: The Dalek Protocol)
- Voicing Bellal was called "a dream come true" by Briggs, an avowed Death to the Daleks fan, who described him as "the lovely little Exxilon who everyone thinks should have been a companion of the Doctor's". (BFX: The Dalek Protocol)
- The cover depicts Bellal wearing a greenish cloak. Although he never wore anything in his original appearance in Death to the Daleks, he was described as wearing such a cloak in the novelisation.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Anya recalls the Doctor telling her about Leela being a "savage", leading her to be aware of her being a previous companion. This allows her to reach the conclusion about this Doctor having yet to meet her. (TV: The Face of Evil, et al.)
- The Doctor and Leela recall their previous encounter with the Exxilons on E9874. (AUDIO: The Exxilons)
- The Doctor reunites with Bellal, and frequently discusses his previous visit to Exxilon. (TV: Death to the Daleks)
- Mark Seven and Anya Kingdom would later go on further missions. (AUDIO: Queen of the Mechonoids)
- Anya mentions the Anti-Dalek Force and the Doctor refers to Mark Seven as a hero of the Dalek Wars. (PROSE: Terror Task Force et al.)
- K9's weaponry proves effective against the Daleks. (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Dogs of Doom)
Cover gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]
Textless cover
Alternate cover
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External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Official The Dalek Protocol page at bigfinish.com
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