Restoration of the Daleks (audio story)

Restoration of the Daleks was the third and final story in the audio anthology The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Matt Fitton and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, Rakhee Thakrar as Bliss, Adèle Anderson as Major Tamasan, Chris Jarman as Rasmus and Terry Molloy as Davros.

Publisher's summary
The Dalek Time Strategist restores the Dalek armies to the universe, but wants to dispense with Davros.

Plot
The Doctor and Bliss tell Major Tamasan that the Daleks are returning, something which she does not believe until seeing proof of a dimensional breach in the Gulf of Ithon. Tamasan sends Commander Grayle to Cosca to see what is happening and, after Bliss asks him not to abandon the people of said planet, the Doctor decides to hide it with a perception field. Before leaving, Bliss is given a communicator by Rasmus.

The Doctor and Bliss meet Mithia, Queen of the Board of Cosca, and are taken to the Knight of Science, Sir Davros, who claims to have been abandoned by his Daleks. Bliss goes with Mithia to Davros's learning station whilst the Doctor quizzes him, but Davros soon experiences pain and hurries away to his laboratory, locking the Doctor behind him. Bliss inspects the learning station and reports to Rasmus the multiverse technology that she has found and is trapped in a capsule when Davros enters. As the capsule activates, Davros hears the voice of the Dalek Time Strategist through a dimensional wormhole.

Using his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor saves Bliss and gets rid of the wormhole, but he is transported to the Time Strategist's enclave in the process. Bliss updates Rasmus and sends the screwdriver's readings through to him before questioning Davros, who asks for death as a release from the Time Strategist interrupting his every moment of rest and his anger at being unable to lead the Daleks despite being their anchor into this universe. The capsule, Davros explains, is a conversion chamber which would have genetically manipulated Bliss into a new creature, purer than the Daleks.

In the enclave, the Time Strategist is replenishing the Dalek forces each time Tamasan's soldiers kill one, causing a standoff. He tells the Doctor that Davros will soon be obsolete, as his plan is to restore the Dalek Emperor to lead the Daleks as their god. He presents the Doctor with a cryogenic casket containing somebody that he captured during his sojourns through the multiverse, somebody that he believes he can use to manipulate the Doctor into ensuring the destruction of Gallifrey. The Doctor refuses to be used.

The Daleks arrive in the skies of Cosca and the resurrected Emperor demands surrender. Bliss calls Rasmus and returns to the lab with Davros to put up a shield to protect the castle. They are soon joined by Rasmus, Calutrax and Belron; Davros reveals that he has made the people of Cosca into industrialised killing machines and promises to do the same for the Time Lords to help them win the war. Rasmus does not accept.

The Strategist declares Davros irrelevant and tells the Emperor to have him eliminated. After he leaves, Tamasan reveals that she has entered the enclave with a perception filter biochip under her tongue and sets up a timonic fusion bomb as part of a suicide mission. The Doctor contacts Bliss and tells her to let the Daleks take Davros alive. She agrees and flees with Rasmus, leaving Davros behind to be captured. The Time Strategist returns and watches Davros appeal to the Daleks to serve him instead of the Emperor, causing discord amongst them. The Doctor and Tamasan slip away and, just before the bomb explodes, the Strategist uses an emergency temporal displacement.

The Emperor's supporters win the battle and Davros, suffering from multidimensional instability, is taken to Falkus to convalesce as he might still be of use in the Time War.

Bliss reverses Davros's processes, restoring the Coscans to their original forms, and Rasmus decides to send a request to Ollistra to have Cosca moved. Bliss and Rasmus say farewell, with Rasmus offering to find her a place once this is over; however, she says that her place at the moment is with the Doctor. The Doctor acquires the Strategist's cryogenic casket and begins to revive the person within: his great-grandson, Alex.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Paul McGann
 * Bliss - Rakhee Thakrar
 * Davros - Terry Molloy
 * Major Tamasan - Adèle Anderson
 * Cardinal Rasmus - Chris Jarman
 * Mithia / Warrior Mithia - Jemima Rooper
 * Daleks / Dalek Time Strategist / Dalek Emperor - Nicholas Briggs

Continuity

 * The Time Lords confront the return of the Daleks after remembering them (AUDIO: Dreadshade) after having forgotten them when the Valeyard ended the Time War. (AUDIO: The War Valeyard)
 * The Doctor tells Bliss that Davros always finds a way to make more Daleks. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks)
 * The Dalek Strategist is aware of the Cult of Skaro, (TV: Doomsday) Dalek Caan the false prophet (TV: Journey's End) and the New Dalek Paradigm (TV: Victory of the Daleks)
 * The Doctor comments about Davros being "up above the gods." (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
 * The Dalek Strategist refers to the Dalek Emperor as a god. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
 * While the Emperor is being restored, the events of the Dalek Civil War are heard. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)
 * Davros mentions the Emperor usurping him. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks, PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)
 * The Time Strategist offers the Doctor a version of his great-grandson Alex Campbell from elsewhere in the multiverse. (AUDIO: To the Death)
 * Davros and the Doctor both mention the centuries of civil war between the Daleks. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
 * Before he is executed, Davros appeals to the Daleks that he should lead instead of the Emperor, and fighting breaks out between Daleks on both sides. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)
 * Davros remembers Charn as he begins to splinter. (AUDIO: Palindrome)
 * Time Lords have "Ravolox Protocols" to move a planet to safety. (TV: The Mysterious Planet)
 * Falkus is the first moon of Skaro. (AUDIO: Innocence)