Brotherhood of the Daleks (Alan Barnes)

 October 2008’s release is called "Brotherhood of the Daleks". This is a Sixth Doctor story, with companion Charley Pollard. It has been written by Alan Barnes and directed by Nicholas Briggs. It was recorded on the 23rd and 24th June 2008.

Joining Colin Baker and India Fisher are: Michael Cochrane, Harriet Kershaw, Derek Carlyle, Jo Casatleton, Alison Thea-Skot, Steve Hansell and Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks.

As the title suggests - expect the Daleks...

“She was a traitor. She had to be destroyed. Exppunged! Eliminated! There is a word. The word is… is… is…”

Sixth Doctor

 The TARDIS materialises. Despite console readings to the contrary, the Sixth Doctor and Charley step out into an alien jungle, where they find themselves stalked and then ambushed. They have landed in the middle of one of the Dalek wars - and this time the tactics used by both sides are threatening the very nature of reality...

As this story’s title makes no pretence at hiding, the Daleks are once more back. They show no signs of fading in popularity or menace; their impact seems to remain undiluted both on television and in sound. Executive Producer and Director Nicholas Briggs reckons he knows why. ‘There are all sorts of complicated reasons why the Daleks endure. Some of it is to do with the physical design, some to do with the voice, some to do with the utter simplicity of their evil - they are uncomplicatedly bad, which is bizarrely reassuring for an audience. In a way, you don’t re-invent the Daleks, you just have to get them right. The essential Dalek character is the lust for power and the complete intolerance and fear of anything non-Dalek. They are incredibly smart, but hampered by a lust for power and total control - and human history tells us that those who crave power above all else eventually crash and burn. And that’s one the joys of Dalek stories, watching them crash and burn spectacularly, but always knowing that they’ll be back’.

‘They have a terrible inevitability about them... Keeping them fresh is a combination of making sure they are always true to the Dalek character, and ensuring that the story scenario has a fresh, interesting element to it. Dalek creator Terry Nation’s trick, in writing for the Daleks, was always to think of a new story element that captured our imaginations: Daleks who were invisible, Daleks without guns, Daleks trying to kidnap the Earth - that sort of thing. Alan Barnes has come up with a great hook for Brotherhood...’

As revealed by writer Alan Barnes ‘I suppose the question. “Are Daleks born, or made?” is buzzing around in this script somewhere. I was interested in individual Daleks’ memories and experiences. Just because they don’t have - or appear to have - individual names or personalities, does it necessarily follow that each Dalek’s life experience won’t affect it?’

‘The concept of Daleks having a “brotherhood” is so weird and wrong, it’s fascinating,’ continues Nicholas Briggs. ‘The freshness of the story flowed from that - Daleks potentially experiencing feelings of kinship. When humans go to war, the emphasis is always on camaraderie; you have to rely on the man next to you, always watch the back of the next guy - that’s the way armies work. The Daleks don’t have that... but what if they did? Would that make them more, or less, successful as a fighting force? That’s the core of this story, but there’s a lot of other stuff in there. It’s a story that plays tricks with the audience’s perceptions of reality, and the context of it all doesn’t become clear until the very last minute...’

India Fisher

One pleasing aspect of this release is the continuing success of the revitalising relationship between the Sixth Doctor and Charley Pollard, which Big Finish Productions has announced will be extended for a longer run into next year. As announced previously by Nicholas Briggs ‘The Sixth Doctor and Charley were only going to be together for three stories but everyone made such a fuss about that not being long enough that we changed our minds, And when I say everyone, I mean our audience and both Colin and India’.

As one of the people behind the development of Charley in the first place, for his inaugural Eighth Doctor audio story "Storm Warning", Alan Barnes has stated that he just couldn’t let go of Charley! ‘As I’ve said before, although I think her relationship with the Eighth Doctor had come to its natural end, I thought she was a strong and interesting enough character to justify developing further. And I think the current arc shows her in a very different light - as someone shifty, secretive, perhaps even dangerous...? It’s great that a lot of people are digging it, and want to know how it’s going to develop. And how it’s going to develop is not in the way you ever expected, I hope!’

‘When the “we want more” reaction came’, reveals Nicholas Briggs, ‘Alan and I were sure there was more potential in the Charley storyline and felt that, in a way, we had been rushing it. So my first move was to give them the "Return of the Krotons" subscriber bonus story coming in December. And we also extended their partnership until the middle of next year - so there will be a final three stories tying it all up. I think Alan’s put in some beautiful twists in this story - and there are more to come soon, in "The Raincloud Man".’

On the Back Cover:

The TARDIS makes a return trip to the jungle planet of Spiridon, where The Doctor and Charley fall in with a lost platoon of shellshocked Thal soldiers – victims of a sneak attack by their blood enemies, the Daleks.

Besieged by deadly flora, surrounded by invisible monsters, and with all hope of rescue gone, the Thals are the victims of a grim experiment in psychological warfare.

With the very nature of reality under threat, The Doctor and Charley need each other more than ever, But dark forces are conspiring to tear them apart…

Some stories don’t turn out quite the way you planned. Kingdom of the Daleks was going to be a story about Sara Kingdom’s mother and father, bringing up two captive Daleks as replacements for the children they’d lost in the Daleks’ Master Plan affair. But, well – we had a Sara Kingdom Companion Chronicle in the works (true); and wasn’t Daleks in the kindergarten just a little to evil (I guess); and, be honest, wasn’t the whole thing just a feeble excuse to bring back Celation, Trantis, Malpha and other members of the species in Mavic Chen’s inner circle? (Yup.)

Back to the drawing board. Back to the Daleks. Nick Briggs pointed out to me that Terry Nation would always give the Daleks a new gimmick each time they reappeared. This time… they’ve got a TARDIS! They’re invisible! Their guns don’t work! (Etc.) So, this time, they’re -

…well, I’ll let you find out that for yourself…


Director’s Notes: Nicholas Briggs

When Allen wrote The Girl Who Never Was, he started emailing me the script in little instalments every day. It was his idea and it was mainly a way of keeping himself on deadline.

So when it came round to Brotherhood of the Daleks, we made the same arrangement. Every day, I’d get an exciting mini-episode of great Doctor Who in script form. It was like reading an old newspaper serial. And as each thrilling scene of Brotherhood arrived on my desktop, I lapped it up. It is very nearly one of the craziest stories I’ve ever read. And we had a crazy time doing it. Hearing all those other actors chanting Dalek lines at me through the glass was slightly unnerving!

And for a good portion of our studio time, Alan was there, helping with script alterations and reassuring the actors. From time to time, we all need a story that stretches our brains to the limit. And this was this year’s! Sit down, listen, enjoy, wrestle with it and then… relaaaxxx…