Blood of the Daleks (audio story)

Blood of the Daleks was the first story in the first series of the Eighth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Steve Lyons and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and introduced Sheridan Smith as the new companion, Lucie Miller. It was released in two parts in January and February 2007, respectively. Co-produced with BBC 7, this was the first Doctor Who audio story to debut on the radio since The Ghosts of N-Space in 1996. This story takes place after the final story featuring Charlotte Pollard with the Eighth Doctor, namely The Girl Who Never Was. The story was released along with the other stories in Series 1 in the collection The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller on 3 October 2023.

Part one
"People of Red Rocket Rising, my fellow citizens. Our long night is over. I've been contacted by a benevolent people. They too have known great trials, but they have overcome them and made it their mission to help others do the same. They have offered us refuge, and passage to the nearest human worlds. They have the resources, and the patience and compassion, to evacuate every one of us. My fellow citizens, my friends, rescue is at hand!"

Part two
"The crashed ship. The one Tom Cardwell saw all those years ago. And you borrowed its technology, didn't you? Maybe even found a Dalek or two in the wreckage. Dead, but intact. And you began to turn human beings into creatures like them. You did that? I'm right, aren't I?"

Part 1
To the Eighth Doctor's puzzlement and consternation, Lucie Miller appears in the TARDIS; he attempts to return her to the north of England in 2006 but finds that a temporal shield prevents him from landing there. Instead, the two find themselves on the human colony world Red Rocket Rising, which has suffered an asteroid strike. The survivors include the colony's acting president, Eileen Klint, disgraced scientist Asha Gryvern, and the apparently paranoid Tom Cardwell. Klint receives a message from a Dalek fleet offering rescue to the colony's citizens and accepts the offer, believing the Daleks to be benevolent. Lucie reveals that the Time Lords have placed her in the Doctor's care because of something she had seen, although she doesn't know what it is. Asha, apparently the assistant to Professor Martez, is, in reality, Martez himself. He had combined dead and living humans with technology salvaged from a crashed Dalek ship in an effort to ensure survival; Martez has created a new race of Daleks. When the true Daleks land, they welcome the survivors onto their ship and demand that Klint hand over the Doctor to them. Meanwhile, Martez orders his Daleks to open fire on the Doctor.

Part 2
The Doctor tricks Martez's Daleks and escapes. Martez has summoned the true Daleks for assistance with his own Dalek creations, but the true Daleks view Martez's Daleks as a threat to the purity of the Dalek race and plan to destroy them. The Doctor temporarily allies himself with the true Daleks to destroy Martez's Daleks, but then collaborates with Tom Cardwell to eliminate both Dalek factions. The Daleks reveal that they caused the asteroid strike on Red Rocket Rising in a failed attempt to eliminate Martez's creations; they also destroyed the exodus ships carrying refugees from the disaster. Martez's Daleks, which are being produced at a rapid rate, initially have an advantage over the true Daleks, who are weakened by another conflict. The Doctor eventually convinces Martez that a Dalek-dominated world would be filled with only hatred, war, and death. Martez, whose stolen body is deteriorating, stops the birthing process; in response, his creations kill him. Eventually, the two groups of Daleks (aided by Cardwell's resistance) annihilate each other. The humans are left to rebuild, and Klint announces that a new offer of rescue has been received from the inhabitants of a planet whose name begins with "Tel-".

Lucie considers staying with the survivors on Red Rocket Rising, but the Doctor discovers that the Time Lords will not let him leave the planet without her. Meanwhile, a woman calling herself the Headhunter accepts a commission from a man named Mr. Hulbert, promising him that she will find Lucie Miller anywhere in space and time...

Cast

 * The Doctor - Paul McGann
 * Lucie Miller - Sheridan Smith
 * Headhunter - Katarina Olsson
 * Eileen Klint - Anita Dobson
 * Tom Cardwell - Kenneth Cranham
 * Asha - Hayley Atwell
 * Lowell - Gerry O'Toole
 * Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

Crew

 * Cover Art - Alex Mallinson
 * Director - Nicholas Briggs
 * Executive Producers - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
 * Music - Andy Hardwick
 * Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Sharon Gosling
 * Script Editor - Alan Barnes
 * Sound Design - Gareth Jenkins
 * Written - Steve Lyons
 * Daleks created by Terry Nation

Daleks

 * The Doctor asks the Dalek Supreme whether they're at war with the Mechonoids, Movellans or maybe other Daleks.
 * The Doctor mentions to Eileen Klint that he was present at the time of the Daleks' creation, and describes his decision not to erase the Daleks from history as a "big mistake".
 * The Daleks measure time in rels.
 * The main Dalek force was deployed in Sector Gamma Z Alpha 9.

The Doctor

 * Lucie describes the Doctor as "that bloke dressed like Casanova".

Time Lords

 * As a Time Lord, the Doctor has a body temperature of only 15 degrees.

Cybermen

 * After the Daleks wipe each other out, Klint announces that a race similar to humans from a planet with a name beginning with 'Tel' are sending ships to aid the human survivors.

Davros

 * The Doctor tells Martez that he knows from experience that the Daleks will kill Martez when he has outlived his usefulness.

Locations

 * The Doctor attempts to drop Lucie off in Preston.
 * Lucie says that she's used to going clubbing in Blackpool.

Continuity

 * It is revealed in AUDIO: The 100 Days of the Doctor that the Eighth Doctor met Lucie (as well as a future version of himself) prior to the events of Blood of the Daleks in his personal timeline. This happened while he was travelling with Charley Pollard and C'rizz during a visit to the American Frontier in the 1870s. This encounter between two versions of the Eighth Doctor was observed by his sixth incarnation and his companion Evelyn Smythe. To avoid disrupting the Web of Time, the Doctor does not share this information with Lucie.
 * The Doctor mentions the Daleks' wars with the Mechonoids, introduced in the television story and later appearing in the audio drama  and the Movellans, which was introduced in the television story  and their various Civil Wars. Previous civil wars shown included the "Dalek Civil War", introduced in  and the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War introduced in, , and
 * The Doctor is adamant in his desire to destroy Martez's Daleks, as he regrets not averting the creation of the Daleks when he had the opportunity to do so, referencing the television story.