Dreadshade (audio story)

Dreadshade was the second story in the audio anthology The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Lisa McMullin and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, Rakhee Thakrar as Bliss, Ken Bones as The General, Julia McKenzie as The Twelve and introduced Chris Jarman as Rasmus.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Time Lords, including the General and the Twelve, adjust to life after the Time War, until the Doctor and Bliss return with a warning.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

The General has the Twelve placed into stasis in the Omega Arsenal for the duration of the Time War. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Bliss pass through a portal and find themselves on Gallifrey, suffering from amnesia and temporarily blinded. They head to the Capitol and encounter Rasmus, who has regenerated since they last met.

Rasmus takes the Doctor and Bliss to the War Council, explaining to them that Gallifrey has been at war but that they do not know whom their enemy is. The General shows them a five-dimensional hologram which indicates that unprecedented amounts of spatio-temporal distortion has occurred, including the destruction of galaxies, and that foot soldiers across the universe all surrendered at the same moment. They were armed with non-Gallifreyan temporal weaponry, but had no memory of who supplied them. The soldiers have since been captured and, on the orders of Rassilon, are not to be released.

The Doctor and the General go to the Omega Arsenal to speak with the Twelve whilst Bliss goes with Rasmus to Hession III to speak with the prisoners. The Twelve has awoken and gets the Dreadshade imprisoned with her to release her from her stasis pod and releases all of the sentient beings in there with them, causing the General to raise the alert when he and the Doctor reach the arsenal. The Doctor notices that the Dreadshade burnt a hole in the floor through which the Twelve and the other sentients have escaped.

Bliss speaks with Tubor touches a piece of a broken war machine; it feels evil and familiar to her. She shows it to Rasmus and tells him about how the prisoners were apparently tortured into fighting against Gallifrey, something that he is not concerned by. She begins to remember her adventures with the Doctor, meeting Liv, Helen and River, the Time War and that she comes from Derilobia. She demands to be returned to Gallifrey to see the Doctor.

With the Doctor and the General on their trail, the Twelve uses the Dreadshade to destroy the Internal Defence Unit, causing fourteen regenerations. The Doctor and the General hurry to the Panopticon, where the High Council are under attack from the Dreadshade. The Twelve agrees to stop the attack in return for a position on the High Council. The Doctor temporarily disables her neural inhibitor, forcing her to relinquish control of the Dreadshade in favour of controlling her past selves, and realises that the Twelve knows who the enemy was thanks to being in stasis. She says that they were the Daleks.

When the Dreadshade remembers the Daleks, it attacks and flees. The Doctor asks Bliss to try to talk the Dreadshade down due to her not being a Time Lord; she successfully convinces the Dreadshade that she has nothing to be scared of. With the threat ended and the Twelve having disappeared in the ruins of the Panopticon, the Doctor tells the General about the Valeyard and that the sentient beings freed from the Omega Arsenal should be taken to safety. He and Bliss take the Dreadshade to the Shades of Tranquility in the TARDIS, after which they suddenly remember the Dalek Time Strategist and his plan to restore the Daleks.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

• The Doctor - Paul McGann
• Bliss - Rakhee Thakrar
• The General - Ken Bones
• Rasmus - Chris Jarman
• The Twelve - Julia McKenzie
• Tubor / Dreadshade - Suzanne Procter

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Weapons in the Omega Arsenal include obliteration missiles.
• The Twelve is the only Time Lord to retain any memory of the Daleks after the Valeyard's actions erased them from existence, as she was in stasis when all memory of them was wiped from the universe.
• When this occurred all conscripted soldiers surrendered to the Time Lords.
• The Doctor mentions the Master and the Rani.
• Dalek weaponry left behind gives off feelings of hatred.
• Dreadshades come from the Shades of Tranquility. They can become terrified so much that they spark bolts of "frightning."

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

• The General mentions the Uzmal incident. (AUDIO: Jonah)
• As she regains her memories, Bliss recalls Ogrons, (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons) the Theseus, (AUDIO: The Starship of Theseus) her encounter with Liv Chenka, Helen Sinclair, and River Song, (AUDIO: Companion Piece) and the Valeyard (AUDIO: The War Valeyard)
• Bliss realises she has returned to a planet where she and the Doctor saw famished people policed by Enablers, which created an army of the dead. (AUDIO: The Famished Lands)
• The Doctor tells the General about the Valeyard's decision to stay behind. (AUDIO: The War Valeyard)

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

• Official Dreadshade page at bigfinish.com