Liberation of the Daleks (comic story)

Liberation of the Daleks was a comic story published in Doctor Who Magazine, starring the Fourteenth Doctor, as portrayed on television by David Tennant.

In what was pre-emptively described by editor Marcus Hearn in DWM 583's editorial column as an "unprecedented" move in the magazine's forty-three-year history, the strip was the first full story in any medium to star the Fourteenth Doctor, beginning serialisation a mere two-and-a-half weeks after the broadcast of The Power of the Doctor. The story picked up immediately from his regeneration at the end of that episode, officially beginning a line of stories that were effectively "in lockstep" with the television continuity for the first time in the DWM comic series.

It is the longest serialised strip in the magazine's history, running at fourteen chapters, spanning the entirety of the thirteen-month gap between the broadcasts of the Centenary Special and the first 60th Anniversary Special.

Additionally, it was the first DWM strip since Children of the Revolution, twenty years prior, to feature the Daleks as a major force, and the first strip to serve as a "post-regeneration story".

Part One: Liberation
From a sheer cliff face overlooking the sea, as a beautiful new day dawns, the Doctor has been born again. Returning to his TARDIS, the newly regenerated Fourteenth Doctor takes a look to see what the universe has to offer, before being distracted by a noise. Noting the changes in his new yet old body, the TARDIS suddenly dematerialises without his input; it is following Automated Protocol Epsilon Delta Rho, or in other words, is responding to a distress signal. The Doctor is only too happy to help.

With the TARDIS landing for the first time in this incarnation, the Doctor sees he is outside Wembley Stadium on Saturday 30 July 1966: the date of the 1966 World Cup Final. Wondering who is supposed to be in distress, he enters the stadium with the score at 2-2 by lying to a security guard and begins to ask the crowd one by one. Realising this method is futile, he starts discreetly scanning the crowd by pretending his sonic screwdriver is a microphone, not realising he is being watched by outside forces.

Suddenly, the sonic gets a signal three rows behind him, but not a distress signal. Instead, he spots a family of four glowing faintly blue. He confidently tells them that their psychic shields should be properly adjusted in public, and as they deny all knowledge, he sonics their disguises off, revealing them to be a group of four purple-skinned and space-suited aliens. The Doctor realises they are time tourists, there to see how "Hurst hits the crossbar, ball clips the line, referee says yes, England 3-2, Kenneth Wolstenholme, people on the pitch, Hurst again, 4-2", but they dispute this, pointing out that nobody is watching the match anymore.

Confused, the Doctor looks back towards the pitch where all the players have stopped. Hovering above Wembley is a giant, and terrifyingly familiar, flying saucer. As it opens up, the Doctor tries to herd the crowd out, telling them the game is over, but he cannot stop a fleet of several dozen Bronze Daleks from emerging and exterminating the players. With the Doctor stunned into silence and the time tourists looking smug, they question his assertion that the game was "all over", declaring that "it is now", as the Dalek invasion begins.

Part Two: Daleks' Invasion Earth 1966 A.D.!
With the Daleks landing on Wembley's field, claiming the human race to now be under Dalek control, a TV commentator tries to make sense of the events to the watching audience. They note that the British Royal Family has been safely evacuated from the Royal Box just as the Doctor dashes into it, drawing the Daleks to himself with the sonic and gaining the attention of the Supreme Dalek in their saucer.

The Doctor starts questioning whether it was them who sent the distress signal, calling them names and mocking them as he realises they simply wanted him to take notice. The Daleks aim their attention towards the Doctor and, right on his cue, start shooting exterminating rays at him. The Doctor begins to run, with the youngest time tourist noting the Daleks stopped caring about exterminating the football fans. The time tourists note that the Daleks are everywhere across Earth, and decide to visit other parts of the space/time zone to revel in the carnage. The time tourists go to all sorts of places, such as Carnaby Street in London, and the district between Haight Street and Ashbury Street and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, each time taking gleeful selfies in front of the Daleks and screaming humans for their tel•e•pixXx social media account.

Meanwhile, the Doctor runs off to the TARDIS, mocking the Daleks on their missed shots. As the Supreme Dalek orders his drones to seize the TARDIS, a woman shows up at the door, handing the Doctor the World Cup's Jules Rimet Trophy, claiming the security guards at Wembley neglected to take it with them when they ran off. Presuming he is a policeman, she attempts to give it to him for safekeeping before someone tries to steal it again, but the Doctor rushes her inside the TARDIS at the same time a Dalek on a hoverbout grabs the TARDIS with a clamp. As it takes off without him, he yells at her to close the door as he promises to talk his way out. The Supreme tells its fellow Daleks to not engage with the Doctor in conversation. The Daleks all direct their rays at the Doctor and start firing at him, and he faces his fate defenceless with his eyes closed and fists and teeth clenched.

Part Three: Dead Again
After the exterminations of the Daleks, the Doctor is shocked to find he is still alive and speaks to the Supreme Dalek. In return, the Supreme orders the Doctor's extermination again, and again, and again, with no effect. The Doctor points out that it is getting boring watching the rays pass right through his body, so the Supreme orders that the Doctor is to be brought up into the Dalek flying saucer.

Meanwhile in 1966, the time tourists visit Mount Rushmore and take a picture when the Daleks come and add the Supreme Dalek on the rock face. Inside the saucer, the Doctor continues to mock the Supreme Dalek, who orders that he will be taken to total physiological examination, but the Doctor does it right in front of them with his sonic screwdriver. Upon doing so, he notices that nothing has changed and that regeneration would not normally make him immune from Dalek fire. Knowing he cannot be harmed, he climbs onto the Supreme Dalek's casing. Knowing it wants answers, he promises to give them if they call off the invasion of Earth. The Daleks comply, temporarily halting their invasion. In front of the Great Pyramid of Giza and the destroyed Great Sphinx, the time tourists are worried because in their view it is not time for the Daleks to go; they call in demanding why the Daleks are leaving Earth.

Above Earth, the Doctor examines the Daleks and explains that the drones appear to all biologically identical, so they are fake, while he is real, explaining why they could not kill him. In response to that, the Supreme declares the Daleks are real and attempts to prove as such, ordering their saucers into Formation Red Icosahedron around the planet. It tells them to use pulsator beams, and with a colossal explosion, they seem to destroy Earth right in front of the Doctor, to his utter horror.

Part Four: Earth Shock!
The Doctor stares out of the window of the Dalek saucer, watching the Eiffel Tower float through the remaining debris of Earth in space, and promises to exact revenge upon the Daleks if the destruction turns out to be real. The Supreme Dalek orders his drones to leave for Skaro to take the Doctor for personal dissection, but the Doctor states that he will just find his TARDIS and leave. As he does, however, he smells a change in the air, like something is coming.

He is proven right when two heavy-set, body-armoured figures, one wielding a claw and the other an energy net, materialise on board, although the Daleks do not notice due to them using psychic shields like the time tourists did. Identifying them as "human-ish", the Doctor politely declines their insistence to come with them and removes their shields. The figures respond by immediately capturing him and teleporting away, alarming the Supreme Dalek. He declares that the Dalek Science Division will conduct a full sub-atomic analysis of their flotilla to prove if the Doctor was lying about them, then reveals the TARDIS itself, claiming it to be their "prize". The Doctor and his captors arrive on a blue-lit ship, with the Doctor being allowed to move freely if he behaves. More confused than angry, he is left with even more questions upon realising that his captors are a pair of bipedal gorillas named Claire and Claudine. Suddenly, the exterior doors open into a wide room with lots of doors and a blue sky ceiling, revealing the woman from 1966 introducing herself to the Doctor as Georgette, albeit with shorter hair and modern clothes. Walking past the family of time tourists demanding compensation from another gorilla, Georgette promises to explain all, but the Doctor is distracted by a large door reading "main dome this way" in Dalek font. She describes it as "the biggest thrill you'll ever know [and] the greatest adventure you'll ever have", as he opens the door onto a massive multi-tiered observatory with hundreds of visitors watching famous moments in Dalek history, complete with direct views of Skaro: the Dalek Dome.

Part Five: The Atrocity Exhibition
In the kingdom of Albion, King Arthur receives word from Merlin that the Daleks are going to attack Camelot from the sky. After a short discussion with Sir Lancelot and a group of disguised time tourists, he decides to meet the Daleks in battle. Shortly afterwards, Arthur, his knights, and the tourists defeat a group of Imperial Daleks while riding on dragonback.

Georgette, having just shown this to the Doctor, asks what he thinks. The Doctor replies that he thinks it is "a tacky, tasteless tourist trap", sarcastically giving it a rating of nought out of five stars. However, the chief of the Dalek Dome, who resembles a bipedal lion, objects, feeling that the Doctor is overlooking the educational value. The Doctor denies that the Dalek Dome is at all educational, before questioning the chief's cross-species body-mod.

Georgette explains that the site used to be an animal park until clone safaris were banned. In order to stay in business, the staff modified themselves into animals to avoid unemployment. The chief then further explains that after the alien zoo was opened nearby, the park's visitor numbers plummeted and they had to sell it to the military. He then asks Georgette who the Doctor is, calling her "Lieutenant Gold". The Doctor realizes that it was Georgette who sent out the distress signal that led him there. She explains that after discovering the TARDIS' time/space signature, she sent out intelligent code to find him, and that she is surprised that it worked. The Doctor replies that it didn't and he turns to leave. Georgette tells him he cannot go back into "the 66-scape" because the psychoplasm needs venting first.

The Doctor questions what psychoplasm is, and Georgette begins to explain saying that the dome's zones are not holographic, but she is interrupted by a priority call. Merlin, the staff member who had played the role of the wizard in the Daleks Versus Dragons attraction, tells Georgette that she needs to come to surveillance due to an issue with Specimen Six Sigma. Georgette tells the Doctor that she cannot take him with her or else she would be atomised, but remarks that the Doctor should be able to get in on his own before going through a security door, which the Doctor opens a moment later with his sonic screwdriver.

As Merlin explains the problem to Georgette, the Doctor enters and deduces that psychoplasm is "the stuff dreams are made on", as Georgette previously claimed. He notes that what his TARDIS landed in was actually real, a dream made reality, with a Dalek mutant chained inside a tube as the dreamer; the problem now being that the Dalek has woken up.

Part Six: When the Sleeper Wakes
Georgette explains how she and her crew discovered Specimen Six Sigma, trapped inside its casing weeks or possibly months after its saucer crashed on an alien world. Georgette speculates that it survived from static electricity gathered from lightning; the Doctor, however, suggests it survived off of spite alone and claims they should have let it die instead of using it for entertainment. Georgette protests that he does not understand, which the Doctor rebukes. He explains that there are twelve Kaled mutants, each linked to one of twelve zones filled with psychoplasm. The Daleks each think they are the boss in a quantum simulation that the tourists are then teleported into, complete with visual monitoring and image capturing equipment so they can have their picture taken, similar to a flume ride.

Merlin calls Georgette again as Specimen Six Sigma is still spiking. Meanwhile, inside the 66-scape, a bronze Dalek reports to the Supreme that they had just finished a sub-atomic analysis of the flotilla. The Dalek reports that the Doctor was telling the truth: each and every one of them is molecularly identical. The Supreme refutes this, saying it outranks all others, and claims that its vision is no longer impaired. It then looks to a monitor that shows what Specimen Six Sigma is seeing in the real world.

As the Doctor wonders if Specimen Six Sigma knows where it is, Merlin informs Georgette that, despite having pumped it full of synaptic inhibitors, its cognisance continues to climb. The Doctor then remarks that might be his fault as he told the Supreme that it was not real. Georgette responds in shock and explains that the reason tourists wear psychic shields is to keep them from being perceived by the Daleks, thus keeping the Daleks from questioning their true nature. Georgette then hits the button to vent the psychoplasm and collapse the simulation. Inside the 66-scape, the bronze Dalek informs the Supreme that space-time is collapsing. The Supreme demands a special escape pod that can escape space-time, calling for its communications division to focus on a transmitter inside the Doctor's TARDIS.

The Doctor hopes that the venting will not damage his TARDIS, then realises that he left someone that looks just like Georgette inside it. Georgette explains that she was a simulacrum: the first time someone is teleported inside a zone, they are scanned so their likeness can be used for models, and these Psychoplasmic Avatars cannot exist outside the attraction. Georgette then receives a call from the chief saying that a 'blue eyesore' has appeared in the main concourse. The Doctor and Georgette head out as the insignia on Georgette's intelligent uniform disappears in the public space.

As they arrive, the TARDIS door begins to open, which the Doctor says must be Georgette's avatar, but she refutes this as impossible. Nonetheless, Georgette's 1960s avatar walks out of the TARDIS. The Doctor holds her, nicknaming her Georgy, and assures her she is safe now. She apologises, saying "they" had tricked her and made her open the door, just as the Supreme Dalek from the simulation emerges from inside the TARDIS.

Part Seven: The First Death!
One hundred and fifty rels earlier, Georgy is inside the TARDIS where a hologram of the Doctor angrily instructs her to open the door due to having misplaced his key. Though she is confused by the way the hologram speaks, she does as it instructs. With the door open, the Supreme Dalek appears, revealing it to be behind the hologram, and declares that only two Dalek guards will follow it, as if the TARDIS has crossed between universes once, it can do so again. Once inside the TARDIS, the Supreme states that at the moment of singularity, the crew of the Dalek saucer will be the last remaining life forms in the universe, which it declares to be the ultimate triumph. At that same moment, the crew of the saucer are destroyed as the simulated universe collapses.

Back in the present, the Supreme Dalek attempts to inquire about the dimension they are currently in from a Dalek-shaped information kiosk before realising that it is not a Dalek and destroying it. The Supreme realises that they are in an exhibition on an alternate Earth and declares that the Daleks have conquered Earth many times before and will do so again. The Doctor then reminds the Supreme that the Daleks could not kill him before and are unable to do so now due to being simulacra and scans them with the sonic screwdriver to prove it.

The Doctor claims that the scan proves they are fake, but, realising something is wrong, quietly tells the Georgettes to run. The Supreme Dalek demands the Doctor relinquish the sonic and knocks it out of his hand. The Doctor argues that the sonic is useless to them because its data is all in Gallifreyan, but the Supreme retorts that its content is conveyed by the Doctor's physiognomy and orders its guards to the destroy the sonic screwdriver, which they do, allowing them to realise that their gunsticks are functional again.

As the Doctor collapses to his knees and mourns the loss of his screwdriver, the gathered crowd begins to laugh and applaud what they believe to be a performance. Despite the Doctor's attempt to convince everyone to leave, the crowd ignores him, as the Supreme Dalek calls them all hostages that will be exterminated. Upon hearing this, a small boy, followed by the rest of the crowd, begin to beg the Daleks to exterminate them, as the Doctor grabs the boy by the wrist and tries to pull him to safety.

Part Eight: Dome of the Brave!
The Supreme Dalek again demands that the Doctor surrender to spare the crowd's lives, but the boy again interrupts the Doctor, insisting that the Daleks are all pretend as the Supreme's red colouring has rubbed off onto his fingers. The Daleks instead focus on the boy, but the Doctor is restrained from helping him by some visitors, believing him to be an overzealous actor.

The boy shoots at the Supreme with his "Anti-Dalek Fluid Gun" and it remarkably works, impairing it and forcing it to demand its drones to analyse the fluid inside. Georgette, however, knows that it is simply water; the Doctor explains that the Daleks themselves are not just rubbing off, but are becoming anatomically unstable from leaving their simulated universe. He theorises that the TARDIS' artron energy allowed them to temporarily maintain their form but should dissolve soon. Georgy suddenly realises that the same fate is coming for her, being a psychoplasmic construct too, but the Doctor is too busy with the Daleks to focus on her. Angry and crying, she recounts to Georgette all the previous deaths and Dalek invasions she lived through in previous simulations and runs away in fear.

The Dalek guards finish analysing the boy's water, but the Doctor once again distracts the Supreme by holding it to a stand-off, revealing that he has a hostage as well: Specimen Six Sigma, its real self. The Doctor reveals that earlier, he set up a 50,000-volt pulse to kill the Kaled mutant on command. Using Georgette's earpiece, he convinces Merlin to begin typing the command sequence, against both Georgette and the Supreme's wishes.

Meanwhile, with Georgy having remembered all her past simulations, she realises there is only one place she can go to find sanctuary. Running through the Dalek Dome's corridors, she enters a room and teleports away... to Skaro.

Part Nine: Deep in Hyperspace
In the Dalek City on Skaro, a trio of Daleks survey their videoscopes of local goings-on, watching Skyway Seven's space station defeat a group of Monstrons and Engibrains, the Sub-Aquatic Defence Squad repelling some Terrorkons, and the City Defence Patrol detect a human female intruder - Georgy. Although the patrol threaten to exterminate her, the surveyors tell them to take her to Dalek Central Control for interrogation.

Meanwhile, the Doctor balks at the Supreme Dalek's insistence that he does not have the right to kill it, but the Supreme insists that he could not commit an execution as it remembers him, "from before". The Dalek guards insist that if the Doctor is not bluffing, then he must be a simulacrum too, and the Supreme, in its confusion, begins wildly dripping; it is starting to molecularly deconstruct from leaving its simulation. The Doctor reveals that his plan all along was to keep the Daleks talking until they disintegrate - his electrocution plan was a bluff. Upon attempting to exterminate the Doctor, the three Daleks finally collapse into a large puddle.

The Doctor tries to receive some congratulations, but the visitors are more cross at being coated in Dalek paint, while Merlin confirms that Specimen Six Sigma has entered a vegetative state. As the Doctor regrets what happened to Georgy, Georgette explains the real reason she brought him to the Dalek Dome: to help in her PhD in Dalek Studies, having built a space-time telegraph purely to see if he was real. The Doctor is furious at her and demands that she shut the entire "horror show" down first, but the Chief re-enters, forcefully telling him to leave. Regretfully, he returns to the TARDIS, telling Georgette to call him when it all inevitably goes wrong.

Deciding to skip forward in time a while, the Doctor is unsurprised to see Automated Protocol Epsilon Delta Rho start up once again and draw him back. Presuming that he has barely jumped forward even one day, he exits feeling smug, but does not meet Georgette as expected. Instead, he comes face to face with Georgy, mascara still running, standing in the command centre of the golden Dalek Emperor himself.

Part Ten: Golden Age
In a flashback, Georgy is held levitated in Skaro Central Control, where a special Dalek interrogator tries to force her origins out of her, but she insists she needs to speak to the Supreme Dalek. The interrogator claims that no such Dalek exists, forcing its subordinate to display her memories on-screen. Upon seeing the Doctor, the interrogator demands to know who he is. The Dalek Emperor is summoned and Georgy explains that she came to help them, believing this version of Skaro to be a simulation like herself and hoping that the Doctor could help save them all. The Emperor has never heard of the Doctor, but the name troubles him, and he decides to take over the Dalek Dome. Georgy, however, insists that they join forces to get the Doctor's help and save all the simulacra. The Emperor decides to consider it.

Gliding through his Corridor of Conquests, the Emperor muses on Georgy's claims and asks the Dalek City's Brain Machine for answers; it confirms that the entire planet is indeed a simulacrum. Undeterred, he immediately begins to form a plan to capture the TARDIS and set the Daleks free.

Back in the present, the Doctor questions Georgy on why she is with the Dalek Emperor on Skaro, but she ignores him and commands a Dalek to encase the TARDIS in a force field so he cannot escape. With him theorising that he was attracted to Skaro due to Georgy's understanding of Georgette's existing knowledge, she finally explains her plan to him and the Doctor reluctantly admits the blame. However, he warns her that in the real universe, the Dalek Dome will shut down this simulation when they realise the Emperor is becoming self-aware, making him even more furious and playing straight into the Doctor's hands.

As the Emperor realises that his time is limited, he and Georgy enact their plan, and the Dalek interrogator uses its hypno-pulse on her. Meanwhile, as a Dalek wedding takes place in the Dalek Dome, the "real" Georgette picks up a message on her earpiece, which emits the hypno-pulse and puts her under the Daleks' control. With a psychic link established between the two Georgettes and the two universes, the Dalek Emperor claims that the Dalek Dome will soon be theirs.

Part Eleven: Slave to the Rhythm!
Inside the Dalek Dome, a voice actor pretending to be the "voice of the Daleks" provides security updates to the visitors through the speakers of the Dalek-shaped info points. As he does, he is interrupted by Georgette, carrying a gunstick from the Dome's museum and without saying a word, she coldly exterminates him before he can react. Taking over the microphone, Georgette claims to be the real voice of the Daleks and emits the Hypno-Pulse from her earpiece over the Dome's loudspeakers, making all visitors of all species Dalek slaves.

Watching the footage from the simulated throne room of the Dalek Emperor, the Doctor asks what his plan is now. The Emperor replays the real Georgette's memories that he extracted from Georgy, seeing the Doctor's earlier admission that simulacra could be permanently stabilised in the real world, and demands that the Doctor explain how or the hostages will be exterminated by the Dalek info points. The Doctor states that a quantum-powered reality gate would be needed, but even then, the process would take millennia without innumerable elite mathematicians to do the work. Pleased, the Emperor commands the psychoscape controllers in the Dome to expand their simulation. In the control room, Merlin orders a subordinate to enlarge the parameters on the orders of Specimen Nine Lambda.

On cue, a new moon of Skaro appears in the sky, populated entirely by countless Quadruple-Brained Algebraists that the Doctor previously mentioned could run the calculations. Guessing that the Emperor plans to build the gate, use the algebraists to stabilise the Daleks, then subjugate the universe, the Emperor confirms that "all things shall be Dalek". Finally, Georgy realises that the Daleks have been lying to her about trying to save her as well, and in fury, wrenches off the hypnotising eyestalk of the Dalek interrogator, thereby breaking the link to the Dalek Dome.

The Emperor commands his drones to exterminate Georgy, but the Doctor leaps in front to save her. The Doctor, however, forgets that the Dalek simulacra's death rays are ineffective on him, and the Daleks use this knowledge to shoot straight through him, exterminating Georgy.

Part Twelve: The Garden of Death
With the hypno-link to the Dalek Dome broken, Georgette feels Georgy's death, as Georgy uses her dying moments to state that in breaking the link, "this one time... my life really meant something". The Doctor rests her body gently on the floor as he agrees that it did. The Dalek Emperor, however, denies it, stating that he still has control over the now-deadly Dalek info points in the dome. Meanwhile, Georgette tells the gorilla Dalek Dome workers Claire and Claudine to follow her as they leave to teleport to Skaro and save the Doctor. Two of the imitation Daleks threaten them to remain still, but suddenly the chief appears, taking full advantage of his lion body to lunge at them and maul and tear the head off one. While his employees are determined not to lose him, he promises to die like a lion - with pride - and buys enough time to allow Georgette, Claire, and Claudine to escape before he is exterminated by the remaining Dalek info point.

As the army of Quadruple-Brained Algebraists continues calculating the necessary parameters to form a reality gate, the Dalek Emperor orders it to be built. However, the Doctor questions how he could generate enough psychoplasm to convert a whole space fleet. The Emperor decides to drain the power of the other eleven Dalek Dome zones, even at the expense of the other artificial realities, as he believes that only his reality counts - despite the Doctor explaining that this simulation is based on children's books from the 21st century.

Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Georgette's group, crashing through the ceiling while riding a hoverbout and carrying a gunstick, destroying one Dalek in the process. The Doctor orders them behind his force-shielded TARDIS so the Dalek's death rays can bounce off it and potentially damage themselves. Realising the TARDIS is still out of action and teleporting back to the Dome is too dangerous, the Doctor orders Claire to carry a Dalek informational headscreen while he works on Claudine's 'porting glove. He puts his glasses on and teleports them away to the next psychoscape along: the Jungles of Spiridon Zone, aiming to get to his destination in short hops. Upon being spotted by two Marsh Daleks accusing them of being Thal agents, they teleport again.

The group lands in a dark black and blue alleyway, where the Doctor admits his plan is a bad one. He follows a menacing "ba-dum" noise to the nearest Dalek control centre, where he cheerily says "hello again, you" to its occupant: the huge immobile Dalek Emperor, controller of the Dalek City.

Part Thirteen: The Hell Gate!
On the Golden Emperor's Skaro, a Dalek informs it that a space/time disturbance has opened above the Mathematicians' Moon, which the Golden Emperor identifies as the reality gate, which also opens on Earth. Above the Dalek Dome, the Golden Emperor sends a Dalek Scout Craft through the gate, declaring it a paramount success and that Earth is now for the taking.

In the Dalek City, the immobile Emperor questions the Doctor invading his inner sanctum and his guards threaten to exterminate him, but the Doctor explains that the Emperor's universe is in danger due to the Golden Emperor making raw psychoplasm for his fleet. As the Emperor declares he is the only Emperor, the Doctor wires up visuals of the Golden Emperor and explains his plan. Unhooking two of his support cables to grab the Doctor's body like tentacles and raise him to eyestalk height, the Dalek City Emperor asks how to stop them.

The Golden Emperor launches its flotilla through the reality gate, with a large fleet of saucers emerging above the Dome. In the Dalek City, mass production of Short-Range Teleport Daleks are being produced to teleport to the Alt-Skaro in 300 rels, but the Doctor says production is not fast enough and half the universe could be laid waste to by the time they are finished; he says he needs to join the assault and sends Georgette back to the Dome to manually link up the eight remaining mutants. Claire and Claudine also teleport back to the Dome to create a distraction and teleport back as visitors are prepared for robotising.

Georgette asks Merlin to open channels to every mutant except Specimen Nine Lambda and patch them through to Specimen Eight Delta on a shared wavelength. As she does, the Golden Emperor orders the protection of Nine Lambda (his own mutant self) at all costs. In the Dalek City, the Emperor receives transmissions from eight alternate Dalek leaders and the Doctor asks them all to help save the Earth if it is not too late, just as the Golden Emperor orders his fleet to attack targeted population zones on 2323 Earth, with people from London, San Francisco and Giza posting their help pleas via tel•e•pixXx social media posts.

Part Fourteen: The Nightmare Ends
As the Golden Emperor watches his fleet fly through the reality gate, his deputy the Black Dalek tells him that the World Government of Earth wishes to surrender in full, but the Emperor promises only to subjugate the planet. However, he is interrupted by a group of Daleks from the alternate Dalek City on hoverbouts, and the Dalek City Emperor orders them to destroy the "false" Golden Emperor. Although the Doctor protests, the Daleks obey and destroy the Black Dalek, while the Dalek City Emperor tells the combined Dalek Alliance from the other psychoscapes to teleport in en masse and destroy everything. Sure enough, a mass war breaks out across the simulated Skaro.

The Golden Emperor escapes into his control centre, planning to fly it as a rocket through the reality gate to Earth, which the Doctor describes as "predictable", so with only sixty rels to go, he teleports on board next to his TARDIS. The Golden Emperor's comms drone alerts them to the fact that the Dalek City Emperor has rebelled and sent an Imperial Phalanx through the reality gate towards the Dalek Dome as well. The Doctor claims this is also predictable, knowing in advance that the other emperor would plan to assassinate all of the other Dalek Dome mutants and lay claim to Earth himself.

The Doctor reveals that he made a deal with the Dalek City Emperor to have him rebuild his sonic screwdriver in return for the use of the TARDIS, so he activates his new sonic and sends the rocket flying towards the Mathematicians' Moon which powers the reality gate. Proud of himself for being about to defeat nine Dalek Empires in one go, and with only thirty rels until impact, the Golden Emperor destroys the sonic screwdriver once more and reminds the Doctor that he will die when the psychoscape collapses. Therefore, he has no choice but to take the Emperor in the TARDIS with him. However, when he opens the doors, the Golden Emperor realises only too late that his casing is too wide and is left stranded outside as the rocket destroys the moon, leading to the meltdown of all the simulated saucers attacking Earth just as the TARDIS returns to the Dalek Dome concourse.

Later on, Georgette notices that the Golden Emperor's mutant, Nine Lambda, is still alive and very angry. Thousands have died across the world, which the Doctor says is the price of promoting Daleks as providing "family-friendly thrills". She asks if she should destroy the mutants, but the Doctor says that as the Dalek Studies expert, the choice is on her, and ignores her cries for help as he leaves for good.

Finally returning safely to the TARDIS again, the Doctor takes a look to see what the universe has to offer next and is disappointed to see that the simulated Jules Rimet Trophy has melted over the console. He hopes aloud that it did not jam the fast return switch before he left, adding that he would not want to return to Skaro any time soon, as the TARDIS flies on through the time vortex once more...

Characters

 * King Arthur
 * Bobbie
 * Boy
 * Nicholas Briggs
 * Chief
 * Claire
 * Claudine
 * Daleks
 * Black Dalek 1
 * Black Dalek 2
 * Bronze Daleks
 * Dalek Emperor 4
 * Dalek interrogator
 * Dalek priest
 * Glass Dalek
 * Golden Emperor
 * Imperial Daleks
 * Manufacturing Zone Supervisor
 * Marsh Daleks
 * Multiplying Mathematicians
 * Red Supreme Dalek
 * Specimen Eight Delta
 * Specimen Nine Lambda
 * Specimen Six Sigma
 * Stained-Glass Dalek
 * Type I Dalek Emperor
 * Type II Dalek Emperor
 * White Supreme Dalek
 * Fourteenth Doctor
 * Georgette Gold
 * Georgy Gold
 * Lancelot
 * Merlin
 * Alien man
 * Alien woman
 * Alien boy
 * Alien girl

Worldbuilding

 * The Fourteenth Doctor uses his psychic paper to enter Wembley Stadium, claiming to a security guard that he is Nobby Stiles's cousin.
 * There are 98,600 fans watching the 1966 World Cup Final.
 * The Doctor can speak German and French.
 * The Doctor nicknames the Supreme Dalek "Diana Ross" and attempts to make a pun on her name, comparing "Di Ross" to "Davros". He later nicknames the Golden Emperor "Napoleon", the Dalek in charge of manufacturing teleport units "Vic Spanner", and the Type I Dalek Emperor "Slippery Jim".
 * The Doctor refers to a Medi-Dalek.
 * There are twelve zones in the Dalek Dome, including the Jungles of Spiridon Zone (Spiridon campaign), the Skaro Civil War Zone (Dalek Civil War, Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War), the Vulcan Factory Zone (Vulcan Factory), Death Wheel Zone (Death Wheel), the Earth Invasion Zone (Daleks Versus Dragons, Daleks' Invasion Earth 1966 A.D., Daleks of the Sierra Madre), the Zeg Duel Zone (Zeg Duel), and the Dalek Wedding Zone. A previous simulation at the Earth Invasion Zone included the Dalek Fire of London.
 * The Doctor claims that the Dalek Dome "has about as much educational value as Baron Munchausen's memoirs".
 * Georgette utilised mil/ind/ent files to discover the TARDIS' time/space signature.
 * Georgette's crew used a hovvaship and autochutes to reach the crashed Dalek flying saucer.
 * When the Doctor's TARDIS materialises inside the Dalek Dome, he initially assumes that its displacement system has been activated.
 * Georgy has never heard of holograms or firewalls.
 * Upon trying to start a moral debate, the Doctor tells the Supreme Dalek to call the Archbishop of Canterbury.
 * A Dalek on Skaro uses the Dalek word "clyffil", while Zolfian's encasement in the Corridor of Conquests is inscribed with the word "insli".
 * The Doctor acknowledges the Dalek variants on Skaro and admits to somewhat liking the fact that they are "old skool".
 * The voice actor announces to the Dalek Dome that an Earthling called Bobbie is missing their mummies and should be collected from the Lost Parents Point.
 * The Doctor states that the average Dalek and human are both made up of around a billion billion billion atoms.
 * The Doctor claims that for the entire population of Skaro to be stabilised at the quantum level at a pace that would not take thousands of years, they would need a billion billion billion billion expert mathematicians at the level of "the love children of Fermat, and Pythagoras, and a Quadruple-Brained Algebraist from Statistikon IV".
 * Upon explaining how the Golden Emperor's simulation is based on children's books from the 21st century, the Doctor states that at the time "before the invasion", most people on Earth thought the Daleks were a myth like Bigfoot.
 * Upon hearing the giant Dalek Emperor's booming voice, the Doctor sarcastically asks if he has been receiving voice coaching lessons from Brian Blessed.
 * The Doctor identifies two other Dalek Emperors, a Dalek Autarch, a Dalek Imperator, another Supreme Dalek, and three he has not met yet on the shared communication.

Liberation

 * In order to avoid spoiling the appearance of the Daleks, the story title was given on the spine as simply "Liberation Part 1", was not given at all on the magazine's contents page, and does not appear in the strip itself until the final page.
 * The yellow text box in the first frame reads "Born Again, Again", a reference to Born Again, the 2005 Children in Need special.
 * When questioning random members of the crowd in German, the Doctor asks, "Welches team unterstützt du?", which roughly translates to, "Which team do you support?" However, this is not exactly grammatically correct as the informal "du" is only used towards friends, relatives and other people that you know well. When addressing strangers, especially in the apparent 1960s setting, "Sie" would typically be used instead, to be polite.
 * Additionally, with Sie as the pronoun, the correct conjugation of the verb would be "unterstützen", with the full sentence becoming "Welches team unterstützen Sie?"
 * The time tourists' line, "'All over'? Well... it is now" is based on the famous final words of Kenneth Wolstenholme's BBC TV commentary of the World Cup final.

Daleks' Invasion Earth 1966 A.D.!

 * The cover of Doctor Who Magazine #585 featured a photo-realistic version of the Daleks invasion on the cover and as a full-size poster inside.
 * The title of this part of the story is a reference to Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., starring Peter Cushing as Dr. Who.

Dead Again
To be added

Earth Shock!

 * The full-page introduction of the Dalek Dome re-uses several alien crowd members whom Lee Sullivan had pencilled for a similar panel in the comic story Bazaar Adventures. These aliens include:
 * Astrans, who originally appeared in the Fireball XL5 comic strip published in TV Century 21.
 * Raxacoricofallapatorians, aliens who, in the form of Slitheen and Slitheen-Blathereen, originally appeared throughout Russell T Davies's original era as showrunner from 2005 to 2010.
 * A Sycorax, also seen throughout Davies' original 2005-10 showrunner era.
 * The title of this part of the story is a reference to the TV story Earthshock.

The Atrocity Exhibition

 * Much like Lee Sullivan's previous work for the stories Land of the Blind and (50th anniversary celebratory story) Bazaar Adventures, the crowd art in this section has several cameos from early Doctor Who tie-in comics and annuals and their cultural environment. Among those hidden in the crowd at the Dalek Dome include (in order of appearance):
 * Two Ethereals from the 1967 Dr Who Annual.
 * A Voord and Menoptera, originating from the serials The Keys of Marinus and The Web Planet respectively but also associated with The Dr Who Annual of 1966.
 * A high-collared man with white streaks in his hair, possibly holding a saxophone. As-yet-unidentified on this wiki, but likely originating from the pages of TV Century 21 or Eagle. This man also cameos in Bazaar Adventures.
 * A Korad and two Kandalinga, both from the 1966 Dr Who Annual.
 * James T. Kirk and Mr Spock from the Star Trek franchise, which had annuals published by World Distributors (Manchester), Ltd starting in 1969 and also had a TV21 tie-in comic in the early 1970s. Sullivan previously drew Spock in the background of the short story Between the Wars: A Slow Night in Paradise.
 * A Trod, from TV Comic's Doctor Who.
 * A Mechanistrian from the 1966 Who annual and a flying individual resembling the Mekon.
 * Georgette describes the Daleks Versus Dragons Zone as "So close you can feel the fire!". This was a paraphrasing of a similar line from a trailer for Dr. Who and the Daleks, also used as the strapline for DWM 580. Similarly, the Daleks' Invasion Earth 1966 A.D. showreel was in reference to the film's sequel, Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., as well as a reference back to Part 2 of the comic, titled Daleks' Invasion Earth 1966 A.D.!.

When the Sleeper Wakes

 * In the panel where the Doctor's TARDIS arrives at the Dalek Dome, another recognizable alien cameo as guests:
 * A member of Ming the Merciless' species in their design from the original Flash Gordon comics, which also appeared in the Flash Gordon annuals published in the late 1960s by World Distributors (Manchester), Ltd.
 * When rescuing Georgy, the Doctor comforts her by saying "Hey there, Georgy girl!", in reference to the song "" by.

The First Death!

 * A young boy is seen carrying a version of the real world toy gun, Dr. Who's Anti-Dalek Fluid Neutraliser.

Dome of the Brave!

 * Although not explicitly stated, one of the previous Earth Invasion Zone simulations lived through by Georgy is based on the Beatles' real-life concert at the Shea Stadium in New York City. This is evidenced by discarded banners reading "Shea welcomes the..." and "We wanna hold...", a reference to the song "I Want to Hold Your Hand".
 * It is left unexplained if the Dalek Fire of London simulation is meant to be the Great Fire of London given its placement of 1666, in which the Great Fire took place, or if it just coincidentally happens during the same time period.
 * If the former is the case it would contradict previously established lore that the Terileptils were the culprits.

Deep in Hyperspace

 * The first page is intentionally designed to replicate the TV Century 21 The Daleks comics, with the credits taking up a frame of the comic, sideways with red writing, a masthead with the story title, a white background to the page instead of black, and 1960s-style text boxes setting the scene of Skaro.
 * This is reflected in the mentions of several species that originated in the aforementioned comics: the Monstrons, Engibrains, and Terrorkons.
 * Additionally, the design of the Skaro Daleks and the Golden Emperor is based on the style they were illustrated by Ron Turner.

Golden Age

 * The first page once again replicates the TV Century 21 The Daleks comics, and continues over the flashback scene of the first three pages.

Slave to the Rhythm!

 * This issue has the title and and framing of the pages go back to the previous style. However, title is now displayed on the second page of the comic, rather than the first.
 * The voice actor speaking through the Dalek-shaped info points in the Dalek Dome is clearly modelled after Nicholas Briggs, the long-time voice of the Daleks since 2000.

The Garden of Death

 * Marsh Daleks make a brief appearance in the Jungles of Spiridon Zone after having previously only been seen in The Dalek Book comic story Monsters of Gurnian in 1964. Here, they are shown to be entirely gold and feature some differences: they have a more traditional upper casing with slats and have gained an extended claw manipulator arm.
 * The Doctor's line, "Badum badum. I hear it and I know" when approaching the Type I Dalek Emperor's control centre is a reference to Kylie Minogue's song "". Notably, the song was not released until 18 May 2023 - six months after this story began publication.

The Hell Gate!
To be added

The Nightmare Ends

 * When the simulated Golden Emperor's attack fleet dissolves, Claire and Claudine state "It's raining Daleks", followed by "Hallelujah", in reference to the song "" by.

Production errors

 * In Part 1, when the Doctor's TARDIS displays the notification for activating Automated Protocol Epsilon Delta Rho, its screen shows the Greek letters "ΔΣΡ", meaning "Delta Sigma Rho", instead of the correct "ΕΔΡ".
 * This error was fixed in Part 9, in which the Doctor uses the protocol again.
 * The tail of the last speech bubble in Part 1 is slightly cut off.

Original print details

 * (Publication with page count and closing captions)


 * DWM 584: (6 pages): Next Issue: Daleks' Invasion Earth 1966 A.D.!
 * DWM 585: (6 pages): Next Issue: Dead Again
 * DWM 586: (6 pages): Next Issue: Earth Shock!
 * DWM 587: (6 pages): Next issue: The Atrocity Exhibition
 * DWM 588: (6 pages): Next Issue: When the Sleeper Wakes
 * DWM 589: (6 pages): Next Issue: The First Death!
 * DWM 590: (6 pages): Next: Dome of the Brave!
 * DWM 591: (6 pages): Next Issue: Deep in Hyperspace
 * DWM 592: (6 pages): Next Issue: Golden Age
 * DWM 593: (6 pages): Next Issue: Slave to the Rhythm!
 * DWM 594: (6 pages): Next Issue: The Garden of Death
 * DWM 595: (6 pages): Next Issue: The Hell Gate!
 * DWM 596: (6 pages): Next Issue: The Nightmare Ends
 * DWM 597: (6 pages): N/A

Continuity

 * The story opens with the Doctor having just regenerated from his thirteenth incarnation on a cliff, placing this as directly after the events of TV:.
 * PROSE: is retroactively set between The Power of the Doctor and Liberation of the Daleks, signified by the last line in the short story being the first line spoken by the Doctor in Liberation.
 * The Fourteenth Doctor's entry in seems to be set moments after the events of The Power of the Doctor, depicting his inner monologue where he questions his familiar appearance, setting it before A Letter from the Doctor.
 * The Doctor displays the ability to smell when and where in time he is, previously used as a gag in TV:.
 * The Doctor has been at the 1966 World Cup Final before in COMIC:, COMIC: and PROSE:.
 * The Dalek gunsticks of the first batch of psychoplasm Daleks seen fire out red rays instead of the typical bluish-white as a subtle clue to their fake nature; the man-made Defence Drones of TV: similarly had red gunfire to distinguish them from the original articles.
 * The Doctor claims that the only football match that could change history is Christmas 1914, referencing the Christmas truce, prominently depicted in TV: where it was witnessed and monologued about at length by the First and Twelfth Doctor.
 * Georgy tries to hand the Doctor the Jules Rimet Trophy before it is stolen again. The First Doctor previously helped recover the same trophet from its theft in AUDIO:.
 * The Doctor comments on the colour of his kidneys, claiming that them being blue is normal. The Twelfth Doctor previously complained, following his own regeneration, that he did not like the colour of his new kidneys in the final moments of TV:.
 * The Daleks have no sense of smell, a point previously highlighted in TV: as a joke to explain why they alone out of all the other enemies of the Doctor had been willing to ally with the Master after his extended imprisonment in the foul sewers of Tersurus.
 * Among the various zones in the Dalek Dome based on past eras of Dalek history, the attraction contains a Jungles of Spiridon Zone, alluding to TV:, a Vulcan Factory Zone referencing TV: , a Death Wheel Zone referencing COMIC: , an Earth Invasion Zone referencing , and a Zeg Duel Zone referencing COMIC: . There is also a Skaro Civil War Zone; as its contents are unseen, it is not clear whether it references TV: 's Dalek Civil War or TV: 's Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War; although a Zone based on Evil of the Daleks is indeed seen later in the story, it is not identified by name and no Civil War seems to be underway.
 * After its destruction, the Doctor refers to the Thirteenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver as a "Swiss Army sonic" and recalls it being made out of Sheffield steel, referencing its origins in TV:.
 * The Doctor's sonic screwdriver has been destroyed on various other occasions including TV:, TV: , and TV: The Doctor again mourns over the sonic screwdriver upon its destruction, describing it as having been "killed", as he did in The Visitation.
 * The Corridor of Conquests includes references to various plot points of the Daleks comics on which the Zone is based, including a Mechanoid in reference to COMIC: /, 2K's vehicle from COMIC:, the Solturian Pentaray from COMIC: , a display of War Minister Zolfian from COMIC: , and the all-important directions to Earth from COMIC: . The Doctor describes the Golden Emperor's Daleks as being replicas based on tabloid-style reports published in "children's books in the 21st century", referencing the original framing device of the series as "hyperspace reports" printed for junior agents in the 2060s in the in-universe TV Century 21 magazine.
 * After Georgette's hoverbout is outed as an intruder, the Doctor jokes that it broke in "intruder ceiling". The Tenth Doctor previously joked that he got onto General Staal's ship "intruder window" in TV:.
 * Upon meeting the Type I Dalek Emperor, the Doctor recalls not having met him in this form for "yonks"; the Evil of the Daleks-style casing design was encountered by the Second Doctor in TV: and the Sixth Doctor in AUDIO:.