‘Plague of the Daleks’ (Audio)

‘PLAGUE OF THE DALEKS’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Daleks in Stockbridge with the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa

Tim Bradley’s CD cover of ‘Plague of the Daleks’ signed by Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton

Tim Bradley with Peter Davison at ‘Regenerations 2016’, Swansea, September 2016

Tim Bradley with Sarah Sutton at ‘Collectormania Glasgow 2012’, Braehead Arena, August 2012

Tim Bradley with Sarah Sutton at ‘Collectormania Glasgow 2012’, Braehead Arena, August 2012

Tim Bradley with Sarah Sutton at ‘Collectormania Glasgow 2012’, Braehead Arena, August 2012

I’ve greatly enjoyed checking out ‘The Stockbridge Trilogy’ of ‘Doctor Who’! 🙂

‘Plague of the Daleks’ is the third and final instalment of this trilogy of stories set in the lovely English village of Stockbridge. It’s the most thrilling, exciting and chilling ‘Doctor Who’ story I’ve heard. It’s a great way to conclude ‘The Stockbridge Trilogy’ by having the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa face the Daleks.

This is a four-part story by Mark Morris. Unlike the comedic historical romp in ‘Castle of Fear’ and the sensational present-day (sort of) piece in ‘The Eternal Summer’, this story is set in the future with a dark tone; elements of gruesome horror; and it’s certainly a thriller, as intended by the writer.

I’ve had my CD cover of ‘Plague of the Daleks’ signed by Peter Davison at ‘Regenerations 2016’ in Swansea, September 2016 and by the lovely Sarah Sutton at ‘Collectormania Glasgow 2012’ in August 2012. I’m glad that my CD covers of all three Stockbridge stories are signed by the two stars.

Barry McCarthy, Richenda Carey, Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Richard Cordery, Liza Tarbuck and David Dobson in ‘Plague of the Daleks’.

As stated in my review for ‘The Eternal Summer’, the Stockbridge stories of ‘Doctor Who’ featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa are my favourites, and Sarah Sutton has told me they’re her favourites too. Even in 2024, ‘The Stockbridge Trilogy’ stands up well. I still find myself engrossed in these stories.

‘Plague of the Daleks’ has the Doctor and Nyssa arriving back in Stockbridge after escaping the time bubble in ‘The Eternal Summer’. They’ve ended up at the last point in Stockbridge’s history. The village has now become a historical heritage centre and it’s the last surviving outpost for humanity on Earth.

The Doctor and Nyssa meet Isaac Barclay and his daughter Lysette, who run the heritage centre and are guides for the tourists that come to visit Stockbridge. Very soon, storm clouds appear and it starts to rain. The clone villagers are soon turned into zombies, and the Daleks come out of hiding. 😐

This story kept me interested throughout. Having the Doctor and Nyssa drive the story forward from their point of view in ‘Part One’ was very refreshing. I enjoyed their friendly banter when they make their way through the winter zone of Stockbridge before they’re soon attacked by a flock of crows. 😐

Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and Liza Tarbuck in ‘Plague of the Daleks’.

They enter a house and when they go through the door, they find themselves in the spring zone. It did confuse me when listening to that aspect of the story, but it gradually became clearer once the Doctor and Nyssa discover that Stockbridge is a heritage centre and the villagers are actually clones.

The writer Mark Morris has had his share of zombie stories in the ‘Doctor Who’ universe. Before he wrote ‘Plague of the Daleks’, he penned a ‘Torchwood’ novel called ‘Bay of the Dead’, which featured zombies. This zombie story was engaging for me, especially with the chilling scenes it had. 🙂

This included the rainclouds breaking open and the rain hitting the clone villagers to turn them into zombies. It was gruesome to listen to, and I imagine these scenes would have allowed the graphic violence to occur on audio than on TV. It depends whether you want these scenes to be tame or not.

In February 2010, I’d just met Sarah Sutton for the first time at the ‘Fifth Element’ event before I heard ‘Plague of the Daleks’. It was the first of many visits and well worth it. I found Sarah very kind, friendly and lovely. I’m pleased I heard ‘The Stockbridge Trilogy’ at the same time I first met Sarah. 🙂

Keith Barron, Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton in ‘Plague of the Daleks’.

In ‘Plague of the Daleks’, I found Nyssa’s story more interesting than the Doctor’s. 😀 She drives most of the story forward and I liked it when Nyssa demonstrated her ability to work things out, take charge of situations and keep everyone calm. She can handle dangerous situations and keeps a cool head. 🙂

I was thrilled by the moment when Nyssa saw a Dalek coming out of a tunnel in a dark passageway in the church. Her terrified reaction of “Why here? Why Stockbridge?” is so mesmerising. Nyssa of course recalls meeting the Daleks in stories like ‘The Mutant Phase’ and ‘Renaissance of the Daleks’.

Sarah must be very pleased to have met the Daleks on audio, as Nyssa didn’t get to meet them in the TV series. Since ‘Plague of the Daleks’, Nyssa has encountered the Daleks more times in audio stories such as ‘Alien Heart’, ‘Dalek Soul’, ‘The Elite’, ‘Nightmare of the Daleks’ and ‘The Five Companions’. 🙂

Nyssa has also confronted the Daleks in some of my ‘Fifth Doctor’ stories, including ‘Doom of the Daleks’, ‘The Five Doctors at Christmas’ and ‘Return to Christmas’. ‘Plague of the Daleks’ became one of my inspirations to write ‘Doom of the Daleks’ – one of the best Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy stories.

David Dobson, Keith Barron, Peter Davison and Susan Brown in ‘Plague of the Daleks’.

Peter Davison is excellent as the Fifth Doctor in this audio story. In ‘Plague of the Daleks’, Peter’s Doctor goes under a lot of strain when he tries to solve the problem of why the clone villagers are being turned into zombies once the rain hits them. It takes a while for him to uncover that it’s the Daleks.

When one raindrop hits his skin after a shuttle-crash to Wells Wood, the Doctor does all he can to keep control of his sanity and his senses before he meets up with the Daleks. I liked it when the Doctor challenged the Daleks in their control room before collapsing and succumbing to their will. 🙂

But it turns out he’s not under the Daleks’ control as they think. I liked it when Peter’s Doctor seemed obedient, as it put me in mind of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’ where Patrick Troughton’s Doctor acted like he was under Dalek control before it turned out he wasn’t since he’s not a human being. 🙂

When the Doctor takes off in the TARDIS with a Dalek on board, he tricks it to be exposed to the time vortex before he throws it out. I also liked it when the Doctor worked out Isaac was a Dalek servitor before he helped him to break free of the Daleks’ control. They’re great scenes to listen to.

Writer Mark Morris, David Dobson, Keith Barron, Sarah Sutton, Peter Davison and Susan Brown in ‘Plague of the Daleks’.

Peter Davison has had more Dalek adventures on audio compared to TV. To be honest, I’ve enjoyed his audio adventures with the Daleks more than ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’. The Daleks audio stories are far more interesting and compelling adventures, especially when Nyssa is his companion.

The late Keith Barron guest stars as Isaac Barclay in this audio adventure. Many ‘Doctor Who’ fans will know Keith Barron for playing Captain Striker in ‘Enlightenment’ with Peter Davison. His performance as Isaac Barclay is very different to Striker, since Isaac is a very down-to-earth person. 🙂

In the story, he and his daughter Lysette welcome the visitors to the Stockbridge heritage centre. I found it funny when he complained about the futuristic version of ‘the national trust’, I believe. Isaac’s scenes with Peter’s Doctor are terrific. It’s sad when he got killed by the Daleks in their control room.

Keith Barron in ‘Plague of the Daleks’.

Lisa Tarbuck guest stars as Lysette Barclay, Issac’s daughter. Lisa also voiced Captain Kaliko in the animated story ‘The Infinite Quest’ with David Tennant. She was interviewed on ‘Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor’ with Peter Capaldi and was in ‘Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule’ with Peter Davison. 😀

I enjoyed Lysette’s scenes with Nyssa, as she gets to be her companion when joining her on the adventure to sort out the Daleks. Like Isaac, Lysette is a down-to-Earth person. It was shocking when she turned out to be under the Daleks’ control, as Lysette threatened Nyssa with a gun in ‘Part Four’.

The guest cast also includes Richenda Carey as Alexis Linfoot and Barry McCarthy as Vincent Linfoot. I enjoyed Alexis and Vincent as a married couple in this ‘Doctor Who’ story, as they put me in mind of Hyacinth and Richard Bucket (sorry ‘Bouquet’) from the BBC comedy TV series ‘Keeping Up Appearances’.

Barry McCarthy previously guest starred in ‘The Haunting of Thomas Brewster’ and I’ve seen Richenda Carey in Series 5 of ‘Monarch of the Glen’. I felt sorry for Vincent who a nice person whereas Alexis wasn’t so nice as him, and it was horrible when Vincent became a zombie in the story.

The story also features Richard Cordery as Professor Rinxo Jabbery, a purple gentleman with tentacles called a Lucerian, who are a scholarly race that are blunt and humourless, but essentially non-aggressive. I liked Jabbery’s scenes in this story. It’s such a shame when he got killed by a Dalek.

Susan Brown in ‘Plague of the Daleks’.

Susan Brown, who played characters in ‘Castle of Fear’ and ‘The Eternal Summer’, returns to play Mrs. Withers – Marjorie Withers, that is. Not Alice from ‘The Eternal Summer’. Alice is Marjorie’s sister, apparently. It was also fascinating when Marjorie happened to be a clone in this audio story. 😐

From reading the comic stories and hearing this audio story, I believe there was a Mrs. Withers that appeared in ‘The Stockbridge Horror’. The Mrs. Withers in that must be the original Marjorie Withers compared to the clone in ‘Plague of the Daleks’, who tends to repeat “Awful weather, isn’t it?” a lot.

David Dobson (who would go on to be in ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’) guest stars as… well, Dobson, the technical officer at the Stockbridge heritage centre. Unfortunately, Dobson doesn’t appear much in this story and he sadly gets killed off in ‘Part Three’ by one of the zombies. 😐

Thankfully, Dobson isn’t the only character David Dobson plays, as he voices one of the clone cricket players in the village and one of the conditioned humans affected by the rain. Susan Brown also plays one of the conditioned humans and she voices the computer in the Central Environment Station. 🙂

Susan Brown also plays Mrs. Sowerby, a clone villager that unfortunately gets affected by the rain and the Doctor and Isaac manage to bring her into a bakery to acquire a tissue sample out of her. It’s very easy to forget that Susan Brown did more than one role compared to playing Marjorie Withers.

Apparently, according to the extended extras of ‘Plague of the Daleks’, David Dobson stood in to voice the Daleks during the story’s recording, as Nick Briggs was absent attending to his new-born baby at the time. I would’ve liked to have heard David Dobson’s Dalek voices in the extended extras.

As established, it takes a while for the Daleks to appear in this story, as one of them appears at the end of ‘Part Two’. It was quite a long wait for them to appear, considering the story’s title, but it was well-worth it in hearing the story. Nicholas Briggs of course returns to voice the Daleks in this story. 🙂

As ever, the Daleks are menacing and ruthless. I enjoyed hearing the Daleks’ dialogue and was spellbound by the scene where one Dalek revitalised two other Daleks and one of them couldn’t function properly and requested to be exterminated. It’s a typical Dalek scene to listen to on audio.

I’ve seen a couple of YouTube videos of well-animated scenes from ‘Plague of the Daleks’. I found them exciting to watch. Nick Briggs does a fine job with bringing the Daleks to life on audio, and I enjoyed it when the Daleks had ‘frogs in their throats’ and were infected by their own rain plague. 🙂

Below is a YouTube playlist created by me which contains the two YouTube videos of the animated scenes from ‘Plague of the Daleks’. The scenes are made by Fraust66 and rdjackson87. They allow a glimpse of what ‘Plague of the Daleks’ could look like if the story was fully animated for a webcast. 🙂

The story’s closing scenes where Lysette destroys Stockbridge hit home for me. She’s so distressed and overcome with grief at the loss of her father, and she rages with the Dalek thoughts inside her. It’s so dramatic and a horrible way for the story to end, and is so moving and heartbreaking to listen to.

The final scene in the TARDIS is very touching, as the Doctor and Nyssa watch Stockbridge being destroyed. It struck a chord when the Doctor mourns for the loss of his favourite village. Nyssa comforts him and the Doctor quotes ‘The Deserted Village’ by Oliver Goldsmith, which was quite sweet.

Despite this tragedy, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa must carry on and move forward to seek for ‘happier times and places’. This is one of the reasons why I like the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa as a TARDIS duo so much, especially when they keep on having adventures together, despite the odds. 🙂

It’s from these listening to these Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’ starring Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton that I’ve written my own ‘Doctor Who’ stories on ‘Bradley’s Basement’, especially the ones featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy. Hearing the stories and writing my own provides me joy.

‘Plague of the Daleks’ is a fitting conclusion to a tremendous trilogy of ‘Doctor Who’ audio stories by Big Finish featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa. ‘The Stockbridge Trilogy’ is the best Fifth Doctor and Nyssa trilogy so far, and I continue to believe that, especially with revisiting the three stories in 2024.

I’ve heard plenty of audio stories featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa. I’m pleased Big Finish have been able to tell these stories featuring these two characters in the gap between ‘Time-Flight’ and ‘Arc of Infinity’. They’ve certainly inspired me to write my own stories featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy.

The CD extras are as follows. On Disc 1, there’s a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘A Thousand Tiny Wings’, starring Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Tracey Childs as Elizabeth Klein. At the end of Disc 1, there are behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew, including Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Keith Barron, Liza Tarbuck, writer Mark Morris, script editor Alan Barnes, director Barnaby Edwards, etc. I enjoyed Sarah Sutton sharing her thoughts about the Daleks and how she never got the chance to meet them in the TV series. At the end of Disc 2, there’s ‘Episode Ten’ of ‘The Three Companions’, starring Anneke Wills as Polly, Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier and John Pickard as Thomas Brewster. ‘The Three Companions’ is complete in ‘The Companion Chronicles Specials’ box set.

If you subscribe to Big Finish for ‘Plague of the Daleks’ via a 6 or 12 download subscription, you’ll get the following extras. There are extended extras and a PDF script for ‘Plague of the Daleks’. There’s also a bonus ‘Doctor Who’ audio adventure called ‘An Earthly Child’, starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Carole Ann Ford as Susan.

‘Plague of the Daleks’ rating – 10/10

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The previous story For the Fifth Doctor was ‘The Eternal Summer’ (Audio) For Nyssa was ‘The Eternal Summer’ (Audio) For the Daleks was ‘Renaissance of the Daleks’ (Audio)	The next story For the Fifth Doctor is ‘The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories’ (Audio) For Nyssa is ‘The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories’ (Audio) For the Daleks is ‘Alien Heart’ (Audio)
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