The Time of the Daleks (audio story)

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The Time of the Daleks was the thirty-second story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Justin Richards and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, India Fisher as Charlotte Pollard and a cameo from Don Warrington as Rassilon.

It was the fifth in a series of 6 audio stories featuring the Eighth Doctor.

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

The Doctor has always admired the work of William Shakespeare. So he is a little surprised that Charley doesn't hold the galaxy's greatest playwright in the same esteem. In fact, she's never heard of him.

Which the Doctor thinks is quite improbable.

General Mariah Learman, ruling Britain after the Eurowars, is one of Shakespeare's greatest admirers, and is convinced her time machine will enable her to see the plays' original performances.

Which the Doctor believes is extremely unlikely.

The Daleks just want to help. They want Learman to get her time machine working. They want Charley to appreciate the first-ever performance of Julius Caesar. They believe that Shakespeare is the greatest playwright ever to have existed and venerate his memory.

Which the Doctor knows is utterly impossible.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

Inside a ship, Daleks detonate a temporal extinction device to release temporal energy to change time whilst the famous 'dogs of war' speech from Shakespeare's play, 'Julius Caesar', is being recited. However, the device malfunctions, causing the time fissure to destabilise and the daleks to activate temporal shielding to protect themselves. The temporal corridor collapses, though the Dalek strategist and pilot escape. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Charley encounter a time wave, and Charley reveals that she has never heard of Shakespeare.

Major Ferdinand hushes the kitchen boy of Viola. They are on air, listening to General Mariah Learman making a speech about delaying an upcoming election whilst England is under martial law. Priestly quietly protests that this is unconstitutional, but Ferdinand says that it must be done to restore democracy and get Shakespeare back, who few remember. Meanwhile, the Doctor has found a time fissure that starts in the mid 21st century and ends in the mid 16th. They go to New Britain (in the mid 21st century) under Mariah's "benevolent dictatorship" following the Eurowars.

They are welcomed by Ferdinand, who believes the Doctor is Marcus Hastings. The real Hastings arrives, but the Doctor explains him away. Some rebels who believe Mariah is responsible for the memory loss discuss more people losing their memories of Shakespeare, and the nightmares they have. They go to the library to meet Mariah's niece, Viola, who gives them a folio on Shakespeare. Viola believes, as the Doctor does, that Shakespeare has somehow been taken out of time. The Doctor explains that Shakespeare being lost to time due to the fissure hasn't happened yet, but as it becomes more likely to occur, more and more people forget him.

Mariah reveals she's been experimenting with time travel. She introduces them to Professor Osiric, who has 111 orthopositronium-coated mirrors and over 1600 clocks used to attempt time travel. There is also a 'Master Clock' to which time is enslaved. However, it doesn't work- except for once about a month ago. They plan to try again tonight. Meanwhile, Viola tells Priestly, a rebel, about the Doctor. Mariah reveals that they have partners in this: enthusiastic Shakespearean scholars who came through the portal created by the time machine- and the Doctor hears the voice of some Daleks. The Daleks claim to venerate Shakespeare.

Viola tells the Doctor that she doesn't trust the Daleks, but that she needs to focus on the country before Shakespeare. She then tells the Doctor about the nightmares: a world of conformity, no individuality, no imagination, no love. The Doctor says the nightmares will come to pass unless he can stop the Daleks. He to the library, where there is a Dalek, telling him to be careful. The kitchen boy shakes the Doctor out of his stupor, and they check the folio: it's just blank pages. While the main mirror of the time machine shows one of Shakespeare's plays, the Doctor interrupts them, attempting to shut down the machine, but it's too late- the time portal has formed, and Daleks begin coming through.

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

The Daleks tell Mariah that their agreement is still in place, and they will return Shakespeare to time if the Doctor builds them a temporal stabiliser to fix their ship. The Daleks begin exterminating humans elsewhere in the palace, and the Doctor agrees to build the stabiliser. He goes with Viola and Charley to the library to read up on how to build it. The Daleks find that the palace gets it's energy from a nuclear reactor, which they need for mastery over time. Ferdinand tells Mariah that he's distrustful of the Daleks, and knows she's hiding something.

Viola wants to leave. A Dalek orders her to remain, but lets her leave when she says her aunt wants her. The Daleks detect a transmission from Viola, who they take prisoner. Priestly tells Hart, a fellow rebel, how their transmission with Viola ended, but only after she told them it was time to act. Charley and the Doctor go to the time machine, and the Daleks demonstrate good knowledge of Shakespeare. Priestly, meanwhile, attempts to save Viola. The Daleks arrest the Doctor and Charley, whilst Viola runs to get the master clock. They all get to the lab, where Viola holds the Master Clock hostage. Ferdinand delays the Daleks whilst Priestly and his men escape. Viola acivates the Master Clock, and she and Charley have been transported with it.

Charley realises that Viola brought them there on purpose, to the 19th of September 1572, and that Viola knows the area. She tells Charley that there's an entrance to another mirror about half a mile away, that will lead them to an outhouse by the palace. The Doctor and Osiric begin building a temporal stabiliser to get them back. The Doctor is taken to a room where Ferdinand is being kept, and notices a mirror in the room. He turns it into a time corridor. They go through it and find Priestly, who has his own mirror.

The Daleks and Mariah talk as in 1572, Viola tells Charley that the rebels have their own mirror. They see Daleks, enslaving humans and exterminating 'weak' workers: the Daleks have changed history so that they've always been the rulers of Earth. This is what the nightmares were of. Daleks see them and begin chasing them. Through Priestly's mirror, the Doctor sees Charley and Viola, banging on the other side of the glass. He and Ferdinand go to Osiric's lab through the mirror and make adjustments so Charley and Viola can try to come back. He tells Osiric to tell Priestly's men to attack the palace. Osiric is able to retrieve them all, including Priestly, who has come through the rebel mirror.

They see a version of history without the Daleks, which gives them hope. However, they can do nothing while the Daleks kill Osiric, having heard the rebel plans through the mirror. Mariah and the Daleks are now in the hall of mirrors with the Doctor and Ferdinand. Viola comes through the mirror, and, seeing it's a trap, calls back through the mirror to tell Charley not to come through with the Master Clock. However, she does, and she and the rebels refuse to surrender. The rebels start shooting, so the Daleks shoot back, and chaos ensues.

Part Three[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Daleks persue the rebels as Viola and the Doctor check on Charley, who is unconscious: the clock has absorbed the Dalek attack. Mariah worries that it will be damaged as Charley wakes. Viola and the kitchen boy take Charley away to rest. Elsewhere in the palace, Priestly leads his men onwards, but Hart has forgotten Shakespeare. The Daleks plan to go through the portal to find Shakespeare, but the Master Clock is broken so they cannot. They order the Doctor to fix it, but he threatens to go on strike if he can't see Charley, so they go to her.

Dalek Supreme contacts the Emperor and tells him the extinction device will be powered by the nuclear reactor, once they have the full temporal ability restored. Hart is absolutely convinced of the new timeline: no Shakespeare, but the Daleks have been here forever. They go to the reactor. Meanwhile, Ferdinand and the Doctor talk to Viola, the kitchen boy, and Charley. They send the boy to get food, and a mirror of sorts- he returns with reflective foil. They escape, except for the Doctor and Charley, who are ordered onto the Dalek ship, and the kitchen boy, who stays there. Priestly's men prepare to blow up the reactor. Mariah also goes to the Dalek ship.

The Doctor is ordered to repair the clock. They sneak away and hack into the systems so they overhear Mariah declaring that she wants Shakespeare dead, with only her remembering him. Meanwhile, the rebels hand out grenades. The Doctor views archived foorage that shows an entire Dalek fleet stuck in the time corridor. 3 Daleks escaped (though the Doctor only found 2 on Earth). The grenades are detonated, though Hart is exterminated. The Daleks note that the clock appears to be fixed, and Mariah and the Daleks come to the Doctor and Charley to activate the mirrors and clocks. They see flashes of History through the mirrors, and then it begins shifting to show the Daleks  ruling history as their victory becomes more certain.

Priestly and the others begin to move into the reactor, ready to blow it- and themselves- "sky high". Meanwhile, Mariah launches into a villainous monologue. The Doctor realises that if the reactor is blown up, the explosion will travel through the mirrors, back in history. The Daleks would be blown up, too, as it would travel into the time corridor to blow up all 1700 Dalek ships. This would "rupture the web of time". The Dalek deploys the assassination squad to the year 1585, ready to exterminate Shakespeare as the rebels' sacrifice draws ever nearer. The reactor's explosion is the moment that drew the Doctor's attention, and is the point where everything will change, ensuring the Daleks' victory.

Part Four[[edit] | [edit source]]

Charley and the Doctor manage to reset the Master Clock, buying them time as the explosion is trapped. The Daleks reach the rebels and kill Priestley. Some Daleks are trapped in the reactor, but others catch the humans. The Daleks in the past are being destroyed in the 1940s and with the Romans (specifically whilst Grayle was trying to make a sacrifice). The Dalek says that their ships are now powered by Harmonic Energy, as they created an Eye of Harmony from the technology they stole from the Time Lords when they invaded Gallifrey. The Doctor realises that the Daleks must be trying to create a time fissure with an enormous source of energy so they can have full mastery of time.

The Dalek tells the Emperor that they have another Temporal Extinction Device, and just need a pilot: Mariah. The Doctor looks through the mirror to see how the Daleks arrived and met Mariah and Osiric in the first place. They see that the pilot Dalek died by temporal implosion. The Daleks take Mariah to the irradiated reactor area, so she can become a Dalek. They have a memory sphere containing Shakespeare's works that she will have access to, so she remembers him. The Daleks begin blaming each other, and one Dalek leaves its casing and dies so the casing can be used for the now mutated Mariah Learman, who recites Shakespeare within the casing.

Charley and the Doctor go to the library to talk to the kitchen boy, who is revealed to be William Shakespeare. Viola went back to 1572 and took him to the present to protect him from the actions that she herself caused- a paradox. A Dalek then arrives and brings them to the hall of clocks and mirrors, where Viola is. The Master Clock does not work, but the Daleks don't know this, and plan to use it to return to the time corridor and activate their temporal extinction device (TED). The Daleks take Charley with them to ensure the Doctor doesn't try to stop them. They try to close down the time corridor once in the vortex, and to deploy the TED. In the hall of clocks and mirrors, guarded by two Daleks, Ferdinand has grenades, and the Doctor cleverly uses them and the mirrors to kill the Daleks. However, Ferdinand blows himself up in the process.

Going through the mirror to the Dalek ship in the vortex, they find the TARDIS, and the Doctor explains that the master clock "working" the first time was actually residual energy from the Daleks' first attempt. The other times, the clock set a date and time, but the thing acting as a temporal stabiliser to allow travel was actually Charley, who is a rich source of chronons and present at every other success of the clock. They reach her and push her Dalek guard out into the vortex. The Doctor, Viola, little Shakespeare, and Charley make it into the TARDIS and escape before the Daleks set off their TED. Learman-Dalek recites the 'Dogs of War' speech. Without Charley to stabilise it, they destroy themselves. Several Daleks escape- the ones who reached Earth at the beginning- completing the loop.

The Doctor tells Charley that she is the "eye of the storm" at the centre of their recent problems with time. They confess to each other that they are scared as they take young Shakespeare and Viola home.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Conflicts[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Daleks mention they gathered data from their attempted invasion of Gallifrey.

Daleks[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Daleks are able to transform people, in this case Learman, into a Dalek via drugs and exposure to radiation.
  • Learman causes a Dalek to temporally implode when she touches its arm, as it is a mutated version of her from the future.

Governments[[edit] | [edit source]]

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

Locations[[edit] | [edit source]]

Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Daleks have constructed their own Eye of Harmony.
  • Omega built a function into the Eye of Harmony projecting it fractionally into the future.

Time travel[[edit] | [edit source]]

Gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • CD booklet credits.
    This story is marked as being "Dalek Empire Part Four".
  • Justin Richards originally scripted Learman as a man, but Nicholas Briggs wanted to cast Dot Smith in the role.
  • Orthopositronium exists in real-world physics.
  • This story marks the first credited appearance of the Matrix Rassilon in an audio story, albeit not credited as that. The Doctor talks to him during the narration in Seasons of Fear, and Rassilon is heard towards the end of the narration sequence, but he is not credited there.
  • This audio drama was recorded on 22 and 23 January 2001 and 27 February 2002 at The Moat Studios.[1][2]
  • This story is set after the 1996 TV Movie.[1][2]
  • The Daleks recite the dialogue from Hamlet while working on a time machine with Professor Osric.
  • This story was made available for free in DWM 609 via an access code. It expired on 31 December 2024.[3]

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 'Backstage' tab of the official The Time of the Daleks page at bigfinish.com.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 'Backstage' tab of the official The Time of the Daleks (DWM609 promo) page at bigfinish.com.
  3. ↑ 'About' tab of the official The Time of the Daleks (DWM609 promo) page at bigfinish.com.
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