The Curse of Davros (audio story)

The Curse of Davros
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Flip
Featuring:	Jared, Napoléon
Main enemy:	Davros, Daleks, Napoléon Bonaparte
Main setting:	London, 2012 Waterloo, 18 June 1815
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Jonathan Morris
Director:	Nicholas Briggs
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Wilfredo Acosta
Sound:	Wilfredo Acosta
Cover by:	Simon Holub
Release details
Number of parts:	4
Release number:	156
Release date:	January 2012
Format:	2 CDs Download
Production code:	7C/NAA
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-604-1 (physical); ISBN 978-1-78575-704-4 (digital)
Main Range
← Previous	Army of Death
Next →	The Fourth Wall

The Curse of Davros was the one hundred and fifty-sixth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Jonathan Morris and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and reintroduced Lisa Greenwood as Flip Jackson, this time as a fully-fledged companion.

Publishers summary

It's been a year since Philippa "Flip" Jackson found herself transported by Tube train to battle robot mosquitoes on a bizarre alien planet in the company of a Time Lord known only as "the Doctor".

Lightning never strikes twice, they say. Only now there's a flying saucer whooshing over the top of the night bus taking her home. Inside: the Doctor, with another extraterrestrial menace on his tail — the Daleks, and their twisted creator Davros!

But while Flip and the fugitive Doctor struggle to beat back the Daleks' incursion into 21st century London, Davros's real plan is taking shape nearly 200 years in the past, on the other side of the English Channel. At the battle of Waterloo...

Plot

Part one

to be added

Part two

to be added

Part three

to be added

Part four

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Colin Baker
• Flip Jackson - Lisa Greenwood
• Davros - Terry Molloy
• Jared - Ashley Kumar
• Napoleon Bonaparte - Jonathan Owen
• Captain Pascal - Rhys Jennings
• The Duke of Wellington - Granville Saxton
• Marshal Ney / Superintendent Finch - Robert Portal
• Captain Dickson / Corporal Bouvier - Christian Patterson
• The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

Worldbuilding

Cultural references from the real world

• On visiting the battlefield at Waterloo, Jared is reminded of the strategy-based video game franchise Command & Conquer.

Daleks

• Davros' Kaled brain patterns are similar to those of a Dalek.

Individuals

• Flip has never had a solid grasp of history and claims that she was not even allowed to do it for her GCSEs. Consequently, her only knowledge of the Battle of Waterloo comes from the Swedish pop group ABBA's song "Waterloo".

Notes

• This is the second audio drama released in the main range to feature the Duke of Wellington as a character. The first was Other Lives in December 2005 in which he was played by Ron Moody. He does not actually meet the Doctor in either story.
• This is the first audio drama released in the main range to feature Davros since Terror Firma in August 2005 and the first overall since Masters of War in December 2008.
• With this audio drama, Colin Baker becomes the sixth actor to portray Davros. Coincidentally, he has played the sixth incarnation of the Doctor since 1984.
• This audio drama was recorded on 6 and 7 June 2011 at the Moat Studios.
• A Supreme Dalek was present.
• The story was originally titled Waterloo of the Daleks.
• The role of Napoléon Bonaparte was previously portrayed by Tony Wall in TV: The Reign of Terror. This is also Napoléon's second appearance in a Big Finish audio story, the first being Mother Russia.

Gallery

• 

  Original CD cover

• 

  Textless cover

Continuity

• Flip and Jared recall the events of AUDIO: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster, which occurred one year earlier in their personal timelines. Jared mentions that he still has D.I. Patricia Menzies' mobile phone number somewhere.
• The Second Doctor was also present at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. In the course of the same adventure, he had extensive contact with both Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington. (PROSE: World Game) During his eighth incarnation, his companion Charley Pollard would later befriend the elderly Duke at the Great Exhibition in 1851. (AUDIO: Other Lives) Much earlier in his personal timeline, the First Doctor had met Napoleon on the Russian front in 1812, (AUDIO: Mother Russia) which Iris Wildthyme claimed to have done as well (AUDIO: The Panda Invasion, Iris Wildthyme and the Claws of Santa). Furthermore, the First Doctor's companions Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright had earlier been in Napoleon's presence in a tavern in Paris on 28 July 1794 but did not actually speak to him. (TV: The Reign of Terror)
• When Flip inquires after Evelyn Smythe, the Doctor tells her that she left the TARDIS in order to spend the rest of her life with "a chap called Rossiter." (AUDIO: Thicker Than Water)
• The Doctor tells Flip that Davros' life support chariot does not feature a button with which his life support can be deactivated. This would suggest that Davros has redesigned the chair since he first met the Fourth Doctor on Skaro, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) likely after its destruction in his last encounter with the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Juggernauts)
• The Doctor asks Davros if he was "expecting someone else." (TV: The Caves of Androzani)
• Napoleon Bonaparte is described as having "a genius for war". (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
• Although the Doctor does not come into contact with him, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's ancestor Major General Fergus Lethbridge-Stewart served as the Duke of Wellington's right-hand man at the Battle of Waterloo. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice)
• The destruction of Flip's flat and the death of the humans who had been occupied by Daleks would be referred to as the Thames Mead Massacre and would be dealt with by Charlie Sato. (AUDIO: Mastermind)
• Jared's friend Dodgy Steve later DJed his and Flip's wedding, something which Flip was not pleased about. (AUDIO: Quicksilver)
• Before she saw the TARDIS for the first time, Flip thought that it would be "a shiny Star Wars starship dooda". (AUDIO: The Middle)
• The Fourth Doctor once mentioned Napoleon's name to Davros. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks)

External links

• Official The Curse of Davros page at bigfinish.com
• DisContinuity for The Curse of Davros at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide