Fear of the Daleks
Encyclopedia
Fear of the Daleks is a Big Finish Productions
audiobook based on the long-running British
science fiction
television series Doctor Who
.
The Companion Chronicles "talking books" are each narrated by one of the Doctor's companions and feature a second, guest-star voice along with music and sound effects.
shared an adventure with a man called the Doctor
— but she remembers him leaving afterwards. Why, then, does she have detailed dreams of travelling with him in the TARDIS
? Why does she fear the Dalek
s, if she never met them? Can someone with an eidetic memory
truly forget the past?
with the Doctor and Jamie
, is having detailed nightmares. She relates one of them to a psychiatric counselor. Her dream begins with the Doctor telepathically showing her his most recent encounter with the Daleks
; the experience frightens Zoe, but the Doctor assures her that the Daleks have met their "final end".
The TARDIS arrives on the asteroid Livonia, where plans are underway for peace talks between the human-descended Zantha Empire and Tibari Republic (whose citizens are of piscine
descent). A renegade Tibari scientist, Atrekar, kidnaps the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie; he has identified the Doctor and Zoe's intelligence, and decides to use them in his mind projector machine. The projector, which uses Dalek technology, creates a duplicate of Zoe, controlled by her intelligence via quantum entanglement
, but subject to Atrekar's telepathic command. Atrekar has allied himself with the Daleks, and plans to use Zoe to assassinate the Tibari President and thwart the peace talks. The Daleks, for their part, are planning to use Atrekar's mind projector to conquer the galaxy.
Zoe's quantum duplicate is transported to the Tibari President's spaceship, where she is taken to meet the President, Ram Vendl. Atrekar delays the assassination, hoping for maximum impact. Vendl befriends Zoe, but keeps her in detention for security. Meanwhile, in Atrekar's facility, the Daleks take over. They decide to test Atrekar's mind projector, using the Doctor as a test subject. A duplicate of the Doctor is transported to the Tibari ship, but Atrekar cannot control him. When Atrekar attempts to activate Zoe as an assassin, the Doctor prevents her from killing Vendl. Frustrated, the Daleks use the mind projector on themselves, and Dalek duplicates arrive on the ship. However, Atrekar has realized that the Daleks do not plan to keep their agreement with him, and uses his telepathy to take over one of the Daleks. He turns the Daleks' own worst fears against them, and they are destroyed. Jamie activates a switch which restores the Doctor and Zoe to their own bodies. The Doctor destroys the mind projector, and the peace talks proceed as scheduled.
After recounting the story to her counselor, Zoe adds a footnote to her dream diary: she thought she heard the Doctor's voice telling her that the Daleks really had met their final end. "But then, he would say that, wouldn't he?", she muses.
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
audiobook based on the long-running British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
.
The Companion Chronicles "talking books" are each narrated by one of the Doctor's companions and feature a second, guest-star voice along with music and sound effects.
Plot
Long ago, Zoe HeriotZoe Heriot
Zoe Heriot , or simply Zoe, is a fictional character played by Wendy Padbury in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
shared an adventure with a man called the Doctor
Second Doctor
The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....
— but she remembers him leaving afterwards. Why, then, does she have detailed dreams of travelling with him in the TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
? Why does she fear the Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s, if she never met them? Can someone with an eidetic memory
Eidetic memory
Eidetic , commonly referred to as photographic memory, is a medical term, popularly defined as the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme precision and in abundant volume. The word eidetic, referring to extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall not limited to, but...
truly forget the past?
Synopsis
Zoe Heriot, who remembers only her first adventureThe Wheel in Space
The Wheel in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 27 April to 1 June 1968...
with the Doctor and Jamie
Jamie McCrimmon
James Robert "Jamie" McCrimmon is a fictional character played by Frazer Hines in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A piper of the Clan McLaren who lived in 18th century Scotland, he was a companion of the Second Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1966...
, is having detailed nightmares. She relates one of them to a psychiatric counselor. Her dream begins with the Doctor telepathically showing her his most recent encounter with the Daleks
The Evil of the Daleks
The Evil of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in seven weekly parts from 20 May to 1 July 1967. This serial marked the debut of Deborah Watling as the Doctor's new companion, Victoria Waterfield.Evil was initially intended to...
; the experience frightens Zoe, but the Doctor assures her that the Daleks have met their "final end".
The TARDIS arrives on the asteroid Livonia, where plans are underway for peace talks between the human-descended Zantha Empire and Tibari Republic (whose citizens are of piscine
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
descent). A renegade Tibari scientist, Atrekar, kidnaps the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie; he has identified the Doctor and Zoe's intelligence, and decides to use them in his mind projector machine. The projector, which uses Dalek technology, creates a duplicate of Zoe, controlled by her intelligence via quantum entanglement
Quantum entanglement
Quantum entanglement occurs when electrons, molecules even as large as "buckyballs", photons, etc., interact physically and then become separated; the type of interaction is such that each resulting member of a pair is properly described by the same quantum mechanical description , which is...
, but subject to Atrekar's telepathic command. Atrekar has allied himself with the Daleks, and plans to use Zoe to assassinate the Tibari President and thwart the peace talks. The Daleks, for their part, are planning to use Atrekar's mind projector to conquer the galaxy.
Zoe's quantum duplicate is transported to the Tibari President's spaceship, where she is taken to meet the President, Ram Vendl. Atrekar delays the assassination, hoping for maximum impact. Vendl befriends Zoe, but keeps her in detention for security. Meanwhile, in Atrekar's facility, the Daleks take over. They decide to test Atrekar's mind projector, using the Doctor as a test subject. A duplicate of the Doctor is transported to the Tibari ship, but Atrekar cannot control him. When Atrekar attempts to activate Zoe as an assassin, the Doctor prevents her from killing Vendl. Frustrated, the Daleks use the mind projector on themselves, and Dalek duplicates arrive on the ship. However, Atrekar has realized that the Daleks do not plan to keep their agreement with him, and uses his telepathy to take over one of the Daleks. He turns the Daleks' own worst fears against them, and they are destroyed. Jamie activates a switch which restores the Doctor and Zoe to their own bodies. The Doctor destroys the mind projector, and the peace talks proceed as scheduled.
After recounting the story to her counselor, Zoe adds a footnote to her dream diary: she thought she heard the Doctor's voice telling her that the Daleks really had met their final end. "But then, he would say that, wouldn't he?", she muses.
Continuity
- Most of Zoe's memories of the Doctor were erased from her mind by the Time Lords at the end of The War GamesThe War GamesThe War Games is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in ten weekly parts from 19 April to 21 June 1969. It was the last regular appearance of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, and of Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines as companions Zoe...
.