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Audio - Excelis Dawns

Excelis Dawns
(Paul Magrs)

 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.

Fifth Doctor
Fifth Doctor
 "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.

The Cast from Excelis
The Cast from Excelis
 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.

Audio - Excelis Dawns
 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

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?

 

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…

Paul Magrs,
January 2002

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
 
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 Jaqueline Rayner
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Excelis

1
Excelis Dawns  
2
Excelis Rising  
3
Excelis Decays

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