The Genocide Machine
Encyclopedia
The Genocide Machine is a Big Finish Productions
audio drama based on the long-running British
science fiction television
series Doctor Who
. It forms the first serial in the Dalek Empire arc, which continues in The Apocalypse Element
and The Mutant Phase
. It concludes in The Time of the Daleks
.
s acquiring a technology called the Wetworks Facility.
This episode addresses issues of scientific ethics.
. They soon discover though that there are Daleks on the planet, and maybe other creatures too.
In the TARDIS
, Ace finds some overdue library books which the Doctor explains are from the library on Kar-Charrat. They travel to the planet in order to return the books. The Doctor enters the library where he meets an old friend, the chief librarian Elgin. Ace dislikes Elgin because he is not keen for people to actually touch any of the library's vast collection of books. She gets fed up and leaves to go back to the TARDIS. Elgin gives her a DNA tag which would allow her to re-enter the library. Elgin shows the Doctor the amazing technological development housed at the library — the wetworks facility. The Doctor is not particularly impressed until Elgin reveals to him that it contains all the knowledge in the Universe. The Doctor comments that not even the Time Lords had made such a break through using that technology, which is why the Matrix
was built. Elgin mentions that aggressive aliens had been making threats against the library, and the Doctor eventually gets out of him that it is the Daleks.
Ace makes her way back to the TARDIS, but on the way hears a scream, and going to investigate finds Bev Tarrant. When Ace describes the library to her, she is incredulous because to her the planet seems uninhabited. She does however agree to go back with Ace, but they are both they are caught by a Special Weapons Dalek.
----
The Daleks had used time corridor technology to deploy Daleks on every planet in the sector, and then waited hundreds of years to capture a time-sensitive Time Lord in order to penetrate the library's defences and allow them to seize the wetworks facility. Instead, the Daleks create a duplicate of Ace, which — replete with the DNA tag — will be able to get through the library's barriers.
The Doctor sets out to find Ace and eventually finds her and Bev. After they have been brought back to the library, the Doctor leaves again to investigate the Ziggurat. However he does not realise the Ace left behind is in fact the duplicate. He discovers that the Ziggurat is in fact a Dalek hibernation unit, triggered to awaken the Daleks when the sound of the TARDIS was heard. He then sees the duplication machine and realises the truth about Ace. He and Elgin rush back to the library, but before they arrive, a Dalek battle cruiser lands at the library where the duplicate Ace has lowered the temporal shield.
----
The Doctor heads back to the TARDIS with Elgin, the only course of action left open to him is to send an emergency message to the Time Lords. However, they arrive at the TARDIS to find it surrounded by Daleks, including the Dalek Supreme, and are forced to surrender. The Doctor is vital to the Daleks' plan as they could not download the knowledge of the Wetworks into a Dalek mind without a Time Lord's neural buffers. They take him to the facility, and connecting him to the machinery, they successfully download the entire knowledge of the Universe into a Dalek test subject. After the download is complete, Elgin thinks that the Doctor has been killed by the pain of the procedure.
Meanwhile Ace and Bev realise that mysterious noises they had overheard in the rainfall were in fact some kind of life form. Bev had seen her colleague Rappell, who had been exterminated, in what she thought was a dream. His body had been possessed by the creatures. Whilst the Daleks' download of the Wetworks is occurring, Rappell arrives and proceeds to rescue them, but they soon come face to face with the Dalek test-subject, ready to exterminate them…
----
The test-subject is out of control and disoriented after the download and misses completely when it tries to exterminate Ace, Ben and Rappell. It shoots a hole in the wall of the library, through which Ace and Bev make their escape, but Rappell stays behind to cover them and is exterminated. However, when the Dalek pursues the women, a heavy fall of rain falls on the Dalek. The rain contains the native creatures of Kar-Charrat, and they are able to penetrate the casing and kill the Dalek.
The Doctor finds his consciousness still alive inside the Wetworks where he discovers to his outrage that the wetworks technology is based on the enslavement of the Kar-Charratians. The creatures are able to download the Doctor's mind back into his body, and he swears to free them. Soon reunited with Ace, Elgin and Bev, he plans to free the Kar-Charratians from the Wetworks by allowing Ace to use Nitro-9 on the library building. Elgin expresses remorse to the Doctor about the enslavement of the Kar-Charratians not realising that they were sentient, but the Doctor is not moved as the librarian and his people had not even tried to communicate with the natives.
Trying to allow the Doctor to re-enter the surrounded TARDIS, the Kar-Charratians kill the Daleks surrounding the time machine, but the duplicate Ace arrives. The duplicate is impervious to the rain unlike the Daleks, and threatens to kill Elgin. However, the chief cataloguer Prink rushes to his aid and attacks the duplicate, damaging it. Although Prink was killed by the duplicate, the damage allowed the Kar-Charratians to penetrate the duplicate's insides, and they succeed in destroying it.
The Doctor proceeds to the Wetworks with the intention of destroying it, using Ace to pretend to be her own duplicate to get past the Daleks. At the facility they encounter the Dalek test-subject and the Dalek Supreme arguing. Having obtained something of a conscience, the test-subject was refusing to destroy the Wetworks facility against the Supreme's orders. When Ace places Nitro-9 on the Wetworks facility, the test-subject fires at the Supreme to prevent it exterminating her. The Dalek Supreme retreats to its mother-ship leaving the Special Weapons Dalek to kill the test-subject, but the Nitro-9 succeeds in blowing up the machinery of the Wetworks, and the Kar-Charratians manage to escape. The remaining Daleks on the planet are drowned by the newly free natives.
The TARDIS returns to the ruins of the library, and Ace and the Doctor ponder on whether the test-subject Dalek with the complete knowledge of the universe and a moral consciousness could have heralded a new era for the Doctor. Elgin rues the destruction of his life's work, but out of guilt for his treatment of the Kar-Charratians realises it was a crime. Reporting its failure to the Dalek Emperor on Skaro
, the Dalek Supreme is ordered to self-destruct. The Emperor is not totally despondent, however, as it has more plans to extend the Dalek Empire
…
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
audio drama 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 television
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
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...
. It forms the first serial in the Dalek Empire arc, which continues in The Apocalypse Element
The Apocalypse Element
The Apocalypse Element is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It forms the second serial in the Dalek Empire arc, following on from events in The Genocide Machine...
and The Mutant Phase
The Mutant Phase
The Mutant Phase is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who....
. It concludes in The Time of the Daleks
The Time of the Daleks
The Time of the Daleks is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
.
Synopsis
On the planet Kar-Charrat, the Seventh Doctor and Ace try to prevent the DalekDalek
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 acquiring a technology called the Wetworks Facility.
This episode addresses issues of scientific ethics.
Plot
Bev Tarrant and her salvage team arrive on the apparently uninhabited planet Kar-Charrat, in order to take possession of the mysterious and valuable ZigguratZiggurat
Ziggurats were massive structures built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels.Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah, Iraq; the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near...
. They soon discover though that there are Daleks on the planet, and maybe other creatures too.
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...
, Ace finds some overdue library books which the Doctor explains are from the library on Kar-Charrat. They travel to the planet in order to return the books. The Doctor enters the library where he meets an old friend, the chief librarian Elgin. Ace dislikes Elgin because he is not keen for people to actually touch any of the library's vast collection of books. She gets fed up and leaves to go back to the TARDIS. Elgin gives her a DNA tag which would allow her to re-enter the library. Elgin shows the Doctor the amazing technological development housed at the library — the wetworks facility. The Doctor is not particularly impressed until Elgin reveals to him that it contains all the knowledge in the Universe. The Doctor comments that not even the Time Lords had made such a break through using that technology, which is why the Matrix
Matrix (Doctor Who)
The Matrix, in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, is a massive computer system on the planet Gallifrey that acts as the repository of the combined knowledge of the Time Lords....
was built. Elgin mentions that aggressive aliens had been making threats against the library, and the Doctor eventually gets out of him that it is the Daleks.
Ace makes her way back to the TARDIS, but on the way hears a scream, and going to investigate finds Bev Tarrant. When Ace describes the library to her, she is incredulous because to her the planet seems uninhabited. She does however agree to go back with Ace, but they are both they are caught by a Special Weapons Dalek.
----
The Daleks had used time corridor technology to deploy Daleks on every planet in the sector, and then waited hundreds of years to capture a time-sensitive Time Lord in order to penetrate the library's defences and allow them to seize the wetworks facility. Instead, the Daleks create a duplicate of Ace, which — replete with the DNA tag — will be able to get through the library's barriers.
The Doctor sets out to find Ace and eventually finds her and Bev. After they have been brought back to the library, the Doctor leaves again to investigate the Ziggurat. However he does not realise the Ace left behind is in fact the duplicate. He discovers that the Ziggurat is in fact a Dalek hibernation unit, triggered to awaken the Daleks when the sound of the TARDIS was heard. He then sees the duplication machine and realises the truth about Ace. He and Elgin rush back to the library, but before they arrive, a Dalek battle cruiser lands at the library where the duplicate Ace has lowered the temporal shield.
----
The Doctor heads back to the TARDIS with Elgin, the only course of action left open to him is to send an emergency message to the Time Lords. However, they arrive at the TARDIS to find it surrounded by Daleks, including the Dalek Supreme, and are forced to surrender. The Doctor is vital to the Daleks' plan as they could not download the knowledge of the Wetworks into a Dalek mind without a Time Lord's neural buffers. They take him to the facility, and connecting him to the machinery, they successfully download the entire knowledge of the Universe into a Dalek test subject. After the download is complete, Elgin thinks that the Doctor has been killed by the pain of the procedure.
Meanwhile Ace and Bev realise that mysterious noises they had overheard in the rainfall were in fact some kind of life form. Bev had seen her colleague Rappell, who had been exterminated, in what she thought was a dream. His body had been possessed by the creatures. Whilst the Daleks' download of the Wetworks is occurring, Rappell arrives and proceeds to rescue them, but they soon come face to face with the Dalek test-subject, ready to exterminate them…
----
The test-subject is out of control and disoriented after the download and misses completely when it tries to exterminate Ace, Ben and Rappell. It shoots a hole in the wall of the library, through which Ace and Bev make their escape, but Rappell stays behind to cover them and is exterminated. However, when the Dalek pursues the women, a heavy fall of rain falls on the Dalek. The rain contains the native creatures of Kar-Charrat, and they are able to penetrate the casing and kill the Dalek.
The Doctor finds his consciousness still alive inside the Wetworks where he discovers to his outrage that the wetworks technology is based on the enslavement of the Kar-Charratians. The creatures are able to download the Doctor's mind back into his body, and he swears to free them. Soon reunited with Ace, Elgin and Bev, he plans to free the Kar-Charratians from the Wetworks by allowing Ace to use Nitro-9 on the library building. Elgin expresses remorse to the Doctor about the enslavement of the Kar-Charratians not realising that they were sentient, but the Doctor is not moved as the librarian and his people had not even tried to communicate with the natives.
Trying to allow the Doctor to re-enter the surrounded TARDIS, the Kar-Charratians kill the Daleks surrounding the time machine, but the duplicate Ace arrives. The duplicate is impervious to the rain unlike the Daleks, and threatens to kill Elgin. However, the chief cataloguer Prink rushes to his aid and attacks the duplicate, damaging it. Although Prink was killed by the duplicate, the damage allowed the Kar-Charratians to penetrate the duplicate's insides, and they succeed in destroying it.
The Doctor proceeds to the Wetworks with the intention of destroying it, using Ace to pretend to be her own duplicate to get past the Daleks. At the facility they encounter the Dalek test-subject and the Dalek Supreme arguing. Having obtained something of a conscience, the test-subject was refusing to destroy the Wetworks facility against the Supreme's orders. When Ace places Nitro-9 on the Wetworks facility, the test-subject fires at the Supreme to prevent it exterminating her. The Dalek Supreme retreats to its mother-ship leaving the Special Weapons Dalek to kill the test-subject, but the Nitro-9 succeeds in blowing up the machinery of the Wetworks, and the Kar-Charratians manage to escape. The remaining Daleks on the planet are drowned by the newly free natives.
The TARDIS returns to the ruins of the library, and Ace and the Doctor ponder on whether the test-subject Dalek with the complete knowledge of the universe and a moral consciousness could have heralded a new era for the Doctor. Elgin rues the destruction of his life's work, but out of guilt for his treatment of the Kar-Charratians realises it was a crime. Reporting its failure to the Dalek Emperor on Skaro
Skaro
Skaro is a fictional planet from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who created by the writer Terry Nation as the home planet of the Daleks and, at times, the centre of the Dalek Empire....
, the Dalek Supreme is ordered to self-destruct. The Emperor is not totally despondent, however, as it has more plans to extend the Dalek Empire
Dalek Empire
The Dalek Empire refers to the sphere of influence of the Daleks, a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Dalek Empire is also a series of audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions, featuring the Daleks. The series begins in...
…
Cast
- The DoctorDoctor (Doctor Who)The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
— Sylvester McCoySylvester McCoySylvester McCoy is a Scottish actor. As a comic act and busker he appeared regularly on stage and on BBC Children's television in the 1970s and 80s, but is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1987 to... - AceAce (Doctor Who)Dorothy Gale McShane, better known by her nickname Ace, is a fictional character played by Sophie Aldred in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
— Sophie AldredSophie AldredSophie Aldred is an English actress and television presenter, best known for her portrayal of The Doctor's companion Ace in the television series Doctor Who during the late 1980s.-Early life:... - Rappell — Daniel Gabriele
- Bev Tarrant — Louise Faulkner
- Chief Librarian Elgin — Bruce MontagueBruce MontagueBruce Montague is a British actor, best known for his role as Leonard Dunn in the television sitcom Butterflies. In 2000, he guest-starred in the Doctor Who audio adventure The Genocide Machine and, in the following year, he starred alongside Paul McGann in the Doctor Who story Sword of...
- Cataloguer Prink — Nicholas BriggsNicholas BriggsNicholas Briggs is a British actor and writer, predominantly associated with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and its various spin-offs, particularly as the voice of the Daleks. Briggs sometimes uses the pseudonym Arthur Wallis...
- Dalek Voices — Alistair Lock and Nicholas Briggs
- Phantom Voices — Daniel Gabriele
Trivia
- The character of Bev Tarrant makes a further appearance in Dust BreedingDust BreedingDust Breeding is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.The story marks the return of Caroline John to Doctor Who and the introduction of the Master to the Big Finish continuity.-Plot:The Seventh Doctor's diary has a...
as well as in the Bernice SummerfieldBernice SummerfieldBernice Surprise Summerfield is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures...
audio drama, The Bellotron IncidentThe Bellotron IncidentThe Bellotron Incident is a Big Finish Productions audio drama featuring Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield, a character from the spin-off media based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.- Plot :...
. - This story forms the first serial in the Dalek Empire arc, a storyline that begins here with the Seventh Doctor, continues with the Sixth DoctorSixth DoctorThe Sixth Doctor is the sixth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Colin Baker...
(The Apocalypse ElementThe Apocalypse ElementThe Apocalypse Element is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It forms the second serial in the Dalek Empire arc, following on from events in The Genocide Machine...
) and FifthFifth DoctorThe Fifth Doctor is the fifth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Peter Davison....
(The Mutant PhaseThe Mutant PhaseThe Mutant Phase is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who....
) and concludes with the EighthEighth DoctorThe Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
(The Time of the DaleksThe Time of the DaleksThe Time of the Daleks is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
) Elements from these stories tie in the Dalek Empire series. - This story marked the first time the Daleks were used outside of books and comics since their final appearance in Remembrance of the DaleksRemembrance of the DaleksRemembrance of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 October to 26 October 1988....
in 1988. - The Working title of this story was Wetworks and it is also named as such in trailers at the end of some of the preceding audio dramas in the Big Finish series.
- The idea of a library with all knowledge contained within would be used again in the 2008 TV episodes Silence in the LibrarySilence in the Library"Silence in the Library" is the eighth episode of the fourth series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on 31 May 2008. It is the first of a two-part story, followed by "Forest of the Dead", and is the second two-parter Steven Moffat contributed to...
and Forest of the DeadForest of the Dead"Forest of the Dead" is the ninth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast by BBC One on 7 June 2008...
starring the Tenth DoctorTenth DoctorThe Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
and DonnaDonna NobleDonna Noble is a fictional character played by Catherine Tate in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A secretary from Chiswick, London, she is a companion of the Tenth Doctor, appearing in one scene at the end of the final episode of the 2006 series,...
. It was also an idea used in the Sixth DoctorSixth DoctorThe Sixth Doctor is the sixth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Colin Baker...
novel Spiral ScratchSpiral Scratch (Doctor Who)Spiral Scratch is a BBC Books original novel written by Gary Russell and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Sixth Doctor and Mel...
.