Dominant Species (audio story)

It has been a long time since the invasion of Taleeria. The population is enslaved and subject entirely to the will of the conquerors - the Dominators and their deadly robot servants, the Quarks.

The Doctor, Harry and Naomi stumble into this perilous scenario and are soon separated...but freeing the people of Taleeria should be business as usual, shouldn't it?

Where the Dominators are concerned, things may not be so simple...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor takes Harry and Naomi to Taleeria to see the beaches, forests and theme parks, but they arrive in a warzone and the Doctor is confronted by a Quark who informs him that the Dominators rule the star system and takes him to the holding pens where the Taleerians are held. There, he meets Trell and Nala. Harry and Naomi follow the Doctor, keeping out of sight, and decide to target a generator to take out the Quarks and ensure that the Doctor is not taken in a spaceship to work on another planet, but they are stopped by Bryarly, the leader of the resistance, and taken to a secret base.

Having hacked into the Dominators' surveillance systems, Bryarly locates the Doctor and observes that he has been selected as one of the strong prisoners, as has Nala. The strong are taken aboard the spaceship whilst those deemed infirm, including Trell thanks to him using medication to feign sickness, are left behind. From above the atmosphere, Director Draaga orders the activation of an explosive device placed within the planet's core, a scheme which the Doctor recalls from his encounter with the Dominators on Dulkis. The Doctor attempts to stop Draaga, but he is ignored and Corg reports the destruction of the planet, which will be used to power the Dominators' fleet.

Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]

On Zorana, the Doctor and Calo are made to help the Dominators with their power for a month, which Nala is appalled to discover when she delivers them rations. The Doctor explains, however, that he is working from within and breaks into the Quarks' control system to spy on Draaga. Whilst Harry works as a medic, Naomi and Bryarly resist the Dominators and encourage Morin, a native, to continue the fight for her people after Draaga executes several rebels and ten weakened slaves. Overseer Valtor deems this foolish and threatens to replace him with Corg in a conversation spied on by the Doctor, after which Draaga checks on the Doctor and Calo's progress and threatens to kill Nala, who is frustrated with the Doctor for not doing more to avenge Taleeria.

Deciding that he has spent too much time mourning Harry and Naomi, the Doctor decides that it is time to finish the Dominators after Nala is taken away. Nala is rescued from the Quarks by Naomi, Bryarly and Morin, confirms that the Doctor is still alive and insists that he is a traitor, which Naomi refuses to believe. Whilst Naomi and Bryarly plan to break into the Dominator Central Command to rescue the Doctor, Morin takes Nala and the slaves they have freed from a work camp to Harry, who discovers a transmitter on Nala. She admits that she has surrendered to the Dominators to ensure her own survival and activates the transmitter to alert the Quarks to her whereabouts, leading to a massacre. Harry is attacked.

Part three[[edit] | [edit source]]

Although he is unable to give the Quarks orders, the Doctor disables them in such a way that Draaga, ordered by Valtor to resolve the situation before his imminent arrival, is easily able to trace him. Naomi bursts into the laboratory with Bryarly and uses a Quark gun to wound Draaga, whom Bryarly goes after and is subsequently killed by. The Doctor reveals that he was manipulating Draaga so that he could take complete control of all of the Quarks, but Naomi has ruined this and the Quarks are soon reactivated with the help of Calo for the sake of her family.

The Doctor and Naomi meet Harry and Morin on the way to a rendezvous point and observe the arrival of Valtor's spaceship at Central Command, something that the Doctor remarks is unfortunate as Valtor intends to replace Draaga with somebody more capable. Valtor orders his Quarks to arrest Draaga for his incompetence and kill the insubordinate Probationer Vaughn, but Draaga is now in control of the Quarks thanks to Calo and he orders them to kill Valtor and his retinue before declaring himself the new overseer. Although Harry believes that it will be easier to defeat the Dominators with Draaga as their leader, the Doctor predicts that there will now be a civil war.

Part four[[edit] | [edit source]]

As the civil war devolves into a battle between only Draaga and Corg's respective warships, the Doctor, Harry and Naomi liberate a slave camp and get the slaves aboard a refugee ship. Naomi locates a Dominator ship and the Doctor has Harry dress in the dead pilot's armour whilst he makes repairs and learns how to fly it to Draaga's warship, correctly believing that he intends on destroying the planet as he did Taleeria. Aboard the warship, Harry pretends to have taken the Doctor and Naomi prisoner and they reach Calo, but Draaga, having identified the ship they used as one of Corg's which he had shot down, and his Quarks enter and capture them before the Doctor can use Calo's console to take control of the Quarks.

Calo completes the Doctor's program and ensures that the Quarks disobey Draaga when he orders them to kill the Doctor, Harry and Naomi. Although Draaga attempts to continue to blackmail her by threatening her family, the Doctor confirms that they were worked to death a year prior and she orders the Quarks to kill their master as well as all other Dominators and Quarks. The Doctor, Harry and Naomi free the slaves kept aboard and head to the smaller ship whilst Calo supposedly attempts to gain control of Corg's Quarks as he launches an attack on the warship, but she admits that the system is impenetrable and her true plan is to collide Draaga's warship with Corg's. She undocks the smaller ship despite the Doctor's protestations and enacts her plan at the cost of her own life.

The Doctor, Harry and Naomi return to the TARDIS, recovered from the debris of Taleeria, and bid farewell to Morin, who is leaving the planet with her people in ships sent by other worlds. Harry wants to be taken back to Shepherd's Bush to be amongst familiar things after two months in a warzone and Naomi wants to put everything she has learnt into practice, so the Doctor takes them back to London and says goodbye. He departs, after which Harry and Naomi discover that they have been left in 2012.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Harry has always been fond of Bognor. The TARDIS once took the Doctor there when he gave it the choice.
Naomi sarcastically says that she did not need Alan Turing's help to solve the Doctor's code.
Corg has been involved in the Dominators' Drahvin campaign. He claims that the Dominators overran their home system instantly.
Varn was killed for displeasing Valtor.
Connor is a member of the resistance.
Probationer Vaughn leads a group of prisoners.
Dominator armour is a symbol of honour.
The Dominant Echelon believed that Draaga was worthy of command. They appointed Valtor as overseer.
Valtor threatens to have Draaga court martialled.
The Doctor mentions Nero's rule of Rome.
Harry lives in Shepherd's Bush.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Naomi is unsure about visiting another holiday planet after Erinee, which she, the Doctor and Harry visited in AUDIO: Worlds Beyond ^[+]Loading...["Worlds Beyond (audio story)"].
The Doctor mentions the recent "kerfuffles" with the Toymaker and the Master in AUDIO: Matryoshka ^[+]Loading...["Matryoshka (audio story)"] and AUDIO: Metamorphosis ^[+]Loading...["Metamorphosis (audio story)"] respectively.
The Doctor refers to the events of TV: The Dominators ^[+]Loading...["The Dominators (TV story)"].
Harry references the fact that the Doctor dropped Sarah Jane Smith somewhere other than her home, which occurred in TV: The Hand of Fear ^[+]Loading...["The Hand of Fear (TV story)"]. It was clarified in TV: School Reunion ^[+]Loading...["School Reunion (TV story)"] that he left her in Aberdeen.

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

Official Dominant Species page at bigfinish.com