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 by David Tennant.

In what was pre-emotively described by editor Marcus Hearn 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, being printed 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.

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".

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 and is immediately 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Done, 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.

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.

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.

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 and room and teleports away... to Skaro.

Characters

 * Fourteenth Doctor
 * Time tourists
 * Daleks
 * Football fans
 * Supreme Dalek
 * Georgy Gold
 * Claire
 * Claudine
 * Georgette Gold
 * King Arthur
 * Merlin
 * Lancelot
 * Imperial Daleks
 * Chief
 * Specimen Six Sigma
 * Boy

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?".
 * 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 live-action 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' 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 Doctor Who Annual 1967.
 * 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 Doctor 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.

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".
 * 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

Continuity

 * The Doctor has just regenerated from his thirteenth incarnation on a cliff. (TV: The Power of the Doctor)
 * The Doctor displays ability to smell when and where in time he is. (TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp)
 * The Doctor has been at the 1966 World Cup Final before. (COMIC: The Love Invasion, They Think It's All Over, PROSE: Extra Time)
 * The Dalek gunsticks fire out red rays just like the Defence Drones. (TV: Revolution of the Daleks)
 * The Doctor claims that the only football match that could change history is Christmas 1914. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)
 * Georgy tries to hand the Doctor the Jules Rimet Trophy before it is stolen again. The First Doctor previously helped recover it from its theft. (AUDIO: This Sporting Life)
 * The Doctor comments on the colour of his kidneys. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
 * The Daleks have no sense of smell. (TV: The Curse of Fatal Death)
 * Among the various zones in the Dalek Dome, the attraction contained a Jungles of Spiridon Zone, (TV: Planet of the Daleks) Skaro Civil War Zone, (TV: The Evil of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks) Vulcan Factory Zone, (TV: The Power of the Daleks) Death Wheel Zone, (COMIC: Nemesis of the Daleks) Earth Invasion Zone, (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) and Zeg Duel Zone. (COMIC: Duel of the Daleks)
 * After its destruction, the Doctor refers to his sonic screwdriver as a "Swiss Army sonic" and recalls it being made out of Sheffield steel. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
 * The sonic screwdriver has been destroyed on various other occasions. (TV: The Visitation, Smith and Jones, The Eleventh Hour)
 * The Doctor again mourns over the sonic screwdriver upon its destruction, describing it as having been "killed". (TV: The Visitation)