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Excelis
Dawns
(Paul Magrs) |
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 Titled "Excelis
Dawns" this story, released in February 2002, stars Peter
Davison as the Fifth Doctor and is the first in a mini
series of stories which even though are completely three
separate stories are inter-linked. Each story will feature
a different Doctor without a companion and focus on events
occurring in the city of Excelis on the planet Artaris.
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| Fifth Doctor |
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"Excelis Dawns" is written by Paul Magrs, is
directed by Gary Russell with music by David Darlington. Lee Binding makes his
Big Finish debut with the cover. It was recorded on 21 November 2001.
Also
starring alongside Peter Davison in this special two-part story are: Anthony
Stewart Head, Katy Manning, Posy Miller, Patricia Leventon and Billy
Miller.
As announced by Big Finish Productions the first instalment
of the Excelis trilogy, "Excelis Dawns", has turned out to be a bit of an epic
in itself! Instead of the planned single CD release they have found that enough
material was recorded to justify a double-CD release and rather than making
drastic and major cuts to the story they have decided to keep it as it is and
release the adventure on a double CD.
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| The Cast from Excelis |
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En route to
the planet Kolkokron, The Doctor makes a stop-over on
the planet Artaris. There he rapidly becomes embroiled
in a quest to find a missing, and powerful Holy Relic,
aided by a gruff local warrior of the "First Rank" called
Grayvorn and a couple of nuns, one of whom turns out -
much to The Doctor's horror - to be alarmingly familiar.
After
getting over the shock of seeing fellow Timelord Iris
Wildthyme he finds himself travelling in her TARDIS
- that just happens to look like a double decker bus -
making excuses for Iris's brashness, and unaware of the
great danger they are heading towards.
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Because they have a least two days travelling
through a large perilous forest full of wild, hungry and furious beasts. And at
its centre is a tribe of fleshing-eating Zombies who are apparently in
possession of the Relic which has given them, according legend, the ability to
manipulate death. But before they can reach the forest Iris's bus breaks down
while they are trying to navigate through a swamp. As the bus starts to slowly
sink The Doctor becomes more annoyed with Iris and her ability to undermine his
defences.
To escape from the swamp The Doctor is forced to make hasty
repairs to the dematerialisation circuits but this causes them to travel to a
vast desert, with no signs of life, that is Artaris over a thousand years in
the future. Grayvorn is just as alarmed as The Doctor and Iris are to the
planet's future. But this peak into his planet's future makes Grayvorn more
resolved to find the Relic and so prevent this shocking future.
But what is the Relic and why is it so important
to the Mother Superior? Why are the Zombies so determined to keep it in their
possession? Why is Iris justified to accuse herself that she is to blame for
the Holy Relic being on Artaris and why is it so dangerous if it gets in the
wrong hands?
The Doctor and Iris make a startling discovery but even they
are unaware of how much their futures are so entwined with the city of Excelis,
Grayvorn and Iris's handbag!
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Notes:
- Featuring the Fifth Doctor.
- Serial Number: EX/01
- Number of Episodes: 2
- Cover Length: 100 minutes
- Episode Lengths: 1 = 47'17", 2 = 43'08"
- This story takes place during "Frontios".
- Cover Illustration: Lee Binding
- Recorded: 21st November 2002
- Recording Location: The Moat Studios and
Christchurch Studios
- Released: February 2002
- ISBN: 1-903654-63-7
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On the
Back Cover:
That terrible old reprobate and transdimensional
adventuress Iris Wildthyme has gone and locked herself up in a nunnery on the
savage world of Artaris.
Here she is discovered by The Doctor and the
reasonably brutal warlord Grayvorn. Together - with a peculiar nun they pick up
en route - they must travel the forests and swamps of this ghastly world in
Iris's double decker bus in order to tussle - to the death - with a horde of
flesh-eating zombies for a mysterious and holy relic of unfathomable value and
questionable pedigree.
But what is the Mother Superior's part in all
this?
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On the Inside
Cover:
Here comes Iris at last, and I can't wait. I've been hearing
her voice in my head for a while now. I mean, not in some kind of deranged way,
but she has been popping up in various things I've written in recent years - to
infuriate, elucidate, generally tamper, pour oil on troubled waters and
lashings of Bombay Sapphire onto lewdly-shaped ice cubes. And here she is in
the flesh at last, tangling with The Doctor and various others in person, as it
were. For those who haven't wandered into her Sobranie-scented orbit before,
all I can say is that she's a traveller and a meddler, just like The Doctor.
She roams the dimensions in her double decker bus (curiously smaller on the
inside than the out) and more often than not makes situations rather worse on
the whole.
And she's unwittingly responsible, here at the very start of
the Excelis saga, while she's hermiting away in a nunnery atop the highest
mountain of Artaris… for everything - all the grand, splashy,
story-arc-spanning climaxes - that wonderfully ensue from here on in…
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Paul Magrs,
January
2002 |
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Full Cast
List:
| Part One |
| The Doctor |
Peter Davison |
| Warlord Grayvorn |
Anthony Stewart
Head |
| Iris Wildthyme |
Katy Manning |
| Sister Jolene |
Posy Miller |
| The Mother Superior |
Patricia Leventon |
| The Zombie King |
Billy Miller |
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| Part Two |
| The Doctor |
Peter Davison |
| Warlord Grayvorn |
Anthony Stewart
Head |
| Iris Wildthyme |
Katy Manning |
| Sister Jolene |
Posy Miller |
| The Mother Superior |
Patricia Leventon |
| The Zombie King |
Billy Miller |
The
Production Team:
| Writer |
Paul Magrs |
| Director |
Gary Russell |
| Sound/Music |
David Darlington |
| Theme Music |
Mark Ayres |
| Producers |
Gary Russell and
Jason
Haigh-Ellery |
| Executive Producer for the BBC
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Jaqueline Rayner |
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