The Dalek bloodline must remain pure.
The Dalek Supreme
Synopsis
Part One
“People of Red Rocket Rising, my fellow citizens. Our long night is over. I’ve been contacted by a benevolent people. They too have known great trials, but they have overcome them and made it their mission to help others do the same. They have offered us refuge, and passage to the nearest human worlds. They have the resources, and the patience and compassion, to evacuate every one of us. My fellow citizens, my friends, rescue is at hand!”
Part Two
“The crashed ship. The one Tom Cardwell saw all those years ago. And you borrowed its technology, didn’t you? Maybe even found a Dalek or two in the wreckage. Dead, but intact. And you began to turn human beings into creatures like them. You did that? I’m right, aren’t I?”
Quick Facts
| Doctor | Eighth (Paul McGann) | Writer | Steve Lyons |
| Companion | Lucie Miller (Sheridan Smith) | Director | Nicholas Briggs |
| Range | The Eighth Doctor Adventures | Music | Andy Hardwick |
| Parts | 2 | Sound Design | Gareth Jenkins |
| Release Date | 23rd December 2006 – 7th January 2007 | Producers | Nicholas Briggs & Sharon Gosling |
Cast
| Katarina Olsson (Headhunter), Anita Dobson (Eileen Klint), Kenneth Cranham (Tom Cardwell), Hayley Atwell (Asha), Gerry O’Toole (Lowell) & Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks). |
Review
Blood of the Daleks kick-starts a new era for the Eighth Doctor, switching from the classic era format of four 25-minute parts to the modern format of stories being told over 45 minutes to an hour. This story also marks the debut of Lucie ‘Bleedin’ Miller, played by Sheridan Smith, and was broadcast on BBC 7. Naturally, this feels like Big Finish giving a jumping-on point for fans of the revived series.
What is it about Dalek creators? They never want to shut up.
The Eighth Doctor
Over the festive period in 2006, two Doctors would find new companions unexpectedly arriving in their respective TARDISes. David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor would have Donna Noble joining him in The Runaway Bride, albeit temporarily at this stage, whilst Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor would have Lucie Miller join him for a series of adventures on audio. It’s an interesting coincidence that both would make their debuts around the same time, even if Catherine Tate’s casting was on a one-off basis at this point and it was not anticipated that she would return. Lucie and the Doctor have a spiky dynamic in this story, and he is not especially keen when she turns up in the TARDIS, and even less keen when he finds out that she does not know why she is there. Lucie has apparently witnessed something which has warranted the intervention of the Time Lords, who have put her with the Doctor for witness protection. This feels a bit more novel than our usual companions who tend to be with him of their own volition. It also leads to a rather spiky relationship between Doctor and companion.
I should have known. Who else could have shot you into the heart of my TARDIS? Who else could have erected a shield in the vortex itself to keep me from taking you home? And who else would presume to meddle in my life like this?
The Eighth Doctor
The team of the Eighth Doctor and Lucie is one forced together, which also makes for an interesting dynamic. They do not immediately hit it off, in no small part due to the Doctor’s suspicion of why Lucie has ended up on the TARDIS, and both of them talk about how they do not like the other. The Doctor’s distrust only deepens when Lucie inadvertently leads the Daleks to him. This culminates with the Doctor trying to McGann is brilliantly spiky in this story, disparaging the humans of Red Rocket Rising for failing to learn the lessons of humanity’s previous dealings with the Daleks. He himself has clearly regretted his decision to spare the Daleks in Genesis of the Daleks. Lucie is equally spiky and gives as good as she gets, and Sheridan Smith brings this new companion to life really well. Whilst her arrival in the Doctor’s life is similar to Donna’s, she’s closer in age and background to Rose Tyler, also having a job in a shop and being around 20. Lucie arrives feeling fully formed, with the mystery of why the Time Lords have placed here with the Doctor hanging over them.
Whilst talking about the guest cast, it’s worth pointing out that it features both Sheridan Smith and Hayley Atwell, both of whom have gone on to bigger things. Atwell plays the human antagonist here, Professor Martez, who has escaped punishment for his crimes by managing to brainwave-wipe his assistant, Asha. Atwell does a good job, both when trying to cover Martez’s tracks and masquerade as Asha and also once the rouse has been revealed. Martez creates an army of Daleks through experimentation following a Dalek saucer crashing on Red Rocket Rising, mutating fellow humans to create his Dalek army. We also have Anita Dobson here, playing the Acting President of Red Rocket Rising, the only remaining politician, as the asteroid strike that has devastated the planet triggered a lot of businessmen and politicians to flee. It is perhaps, grimly satisfying, when we learn that the ships that fled were exterminated by the Daleks, although horrific to realise that the dust that rains down on the planet is the debris of these destroyed ships. Dobson puts in a good performance, with her desperation to what is right for her people coming through, even if that means making alliances with the Daleks. It is teased that she has perhaps not learnt anything from this experience as we hear that she has been contacted with another species from ‘Tel-‘ at the end of this story.
You look like us but that’s how you hide yourselves, that’s how you make us trust you. But I know who I am. I’m Tom Cardwell and you won’t work your alien mind tricks on me!
How could he? You’ve got tin foil on your head.
Tom Cardwell and Lucie Miller
We also have the conspiracy theorist Tom Cardwell, played by Kenneth Cranham. Cranham imbues this character with real heart, despite characters like Lucie being determined not to take him entirely seriously. It is Tom who helps her escape not once, but twice, from the clutches of the Daleks, and ultimately saving any non-Dalek life on Red Rocket Rising by his actions on the Dalek saucer. It is a sympathetic depiction of someone who has perhaps fallen down a rabbit hole of theories, but is ultimately proven right, as he is the only one who retains knowledge of the Daleks, leading the human survivors into a fight against them in the concluding moments.
I know the Daleks. I was there at their birth. I fought against them in countless wars, seen their legacy in the burial pits of a hundred worlds…
The Eighth Doctor
The Daleks as they appear in this story are stragglers, but still determined to ensure the purity of the Dalek bloodline. Their saucer is noted as being damaged before they even reach the surface of Red Rocket Rising, and they are on a limb from the rest of the Dalek fleet, who are mentioned to be off fighting in another war against an unknown foe. Whilst this might make them seem vulnerable, they are nonetheless committed to racial purity. Not content with redirecting an asteroid to hit the planet, they are then determined to crash their ship into the surface of the planet, having run out of missiles, which would further devastate the planet. Nicholas Briggs voices all the Daleks in this story, but does distinguish them well – I never had any doubts about which Daleks were which.
Verdict: Blood of the Daleks is a really effective jumping-on point for Big Finish. Lucie makes a strong impression, and I am intrigued to follow this arc moving forwards. 9/10
Behind the Scenes
- This story was co-produced with BBC 7 and was the first Doctor Who story to be broadcast on the radio since The Ghosts of N-Space in 1996.
- This was the first audio story to be released featuring the Eighth Doctor not to feature India Fisher playing Charley Pollard.
Cast Notes
| Katarina Olsson | In addition to her recurring role as the Headhunter, Olsson has appeared in a number of Big Finish stories, including Phobos, Davros and Scorched Earth. |
| Anita Dobson | Would go on to play the role of Mrs Flood in multiple stories opposite Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor. In The Interstellar Song Contest, it would be revealed that she was, in fact, an incarnation of the renegade Time Lord the Rani. |
Best Quote
What is the matter with you people? Stuck out here on your colonial frontier, you’ve actually forgotten your own history. And those who forget the past are doomed…
The Eighth Doctor
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