The Dalek Conquests (audio story)

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The Dalek Conquests is a BBC Radio-produced retrospective on the Daleks from their first appearance in the television story The Daleks in 1963 to their (then) most recent appearance in the television story The Parting of the Ways in 2005. It was released by BBC Audio as a 2-CD set in 2006, with a running time of approximately 2 hours, 35 minutes.

The documentary is narrated by Nicholas Briggs with audio clips taken from every televised Dalek story in both the classic and revived series (except for incidental references and the 1996 TV movie) up to the end of the 2005 season, which are used to summarise the events of the various stories (this includes audio taken from several stories, including Mission to the Unknown, which do not exist in complete film/video form in the BBC Archives (although most of the soundtracks have been released by BBC Radio and BBC Audio in the past).

The documentary is presented in a partly in-universe style, as if the BBC have sent a crew to investigate Henry van Statten's now-sealed facility in Utah, the Vault, at some point after the year 2012. The fiction of the production holds that the BBC is also aware of such events as the Last Great Time War, the Doctor's ability to regenerate, etc.

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

The Daleks have a long and terrible history of aggression, and are among the most feared of all science fiction monsters. Ruthless, cunning, and utterly evil, they have no pity, no fear, and will stop at nothing to destroy all other forms of life. Now Nicholas Briggs - the voice of the Daleks in the BBC's Doctor Who TV series — goes deep underground to a deserted base in Utah to unearth the truth about the most nightmarish creatures in the universe. Packed with extracts from the Daleks' many TV appearances, The Dalek Conquests finds out where they come from, why they are bent on universal domination, and what part they played in the Time Wars. Above, all it explores their epic struggles with their nemesis, the Time Lord known as the Doctor.

Featuring clips from such classic stories as The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Day of the Daleks, The Planet of the Daleks [sic], Genesis of the Daleks, and the 2005 episodes Dalek and The Parting of the Ways, this CD pieces together the mysterious jigsaw that is the history of the Daleks.

This is essential listening for Dalek fans — and foes — new and old.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

In the mid-2010s, a BBC Radio documentary crew visit the remains of an underground vault in Utah where a Dalek incursion took place several years earlier. (TV: Dalek) A narrator describes the scene and discusses past recorded encounters between the Daleks and a mysterious individual known as the Doctor.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Nicholas Briggs narrates the documentary (which also includes sound clips of him performing the Dalek voice from the revived series). Sound clips feature the following major cast members (in approximate order of appearance; list is not complete):

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The only Doctor not represented in this documentary is the Eighth Doctor, as only televised Dalek stories are included (the Daleks have peripheral involvement in the events of the 1996 TV movie, but it was not a Dalek story otherwise, and this production predates The Night of the Doctor)
  • Continuity glitches between the various stories are rationalised as being the consequence of historical records being not 100-percent reliable over the course of centuries.
  • Both the 1963 Delia Derbyshire and 2005 Murray Gold versions of the Doctor Who theme are featured, along with an original piece of music that ends the documentary.

Clips featured[[edit] | [edit source]]

The documentary includes sound clips (sometimes extensive ones) from the following stories (in order of first appearance as some stories are excerpted more than once throughout the production):

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]