Palindrome (audio story)

Palindrome was the first story in the audio anthology The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by John Dorney and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, Rakhee Thakrar as Bliss and Terry Molloy as Davros.

Publisher's summary
In an alternative universe, Davros lives in peace, until the Doctor and Bliss arrive, and the Daleks emerge in a new reality.

Part one
With Charn's help, Davros has built a portal which he hopes will change Skaro forever. On their way back home from viewing it, they meet the Doctor, whom they do not recognise but who claims to know them. The Doctor tells them that Bliss is waiting and that they must beware the Time Strategist, but they ignore him. Soon after, the house is attacked by Daleks and, at Bliss's insistence, they run back to the portal.

Davros, Charn and Bliss reach the portal and meet the Doctor. The Doctor, Bliss and Charn are all exterminated, but Davros manages to escape through the portal. He wakes up next to Charn, believing that what happened was all a nightmare, but soon realises that he has awoken the previous day. On the news, they see that multiple Thal settlements have been attacked by "metal things" which left no survivors. Davros answers the door to the Doctor and Bliss, who tell him that they met three days ago when he first opened the portal. He refuses to believe them, however, and closes the door on them.

Davros and Charn leave for their safety, but the Daleks destroy the bridge and exterminate Charn. Davros wakes up the previous day and goes to the Gallows Inn to meet with the Doctor and Bliss, telling them what has happened to him and realising that he has no memory of activating the portal for the first time. He learns about how another version of the Doctor ended a war in the Doctor and Bliss's universe by wiping out the Daleks, but the Time Strategist escaped and came to Davros's universe. Forced to believe them, Davros goes with them to one of the destroyed Thal settlements.

In the ruins of the Verden District, the trio find a destroyed Dalek which looks cruder than the ones Davros previously encountered. They follow a Dalek to a factory owned by the Davros Foundation and see from afar the creator of the Daleks, whom the Doctor and Bliss recognise. To prevent the attack on the Thal settlements, Davros gets Bliss to shoot and kill him. He awakens the previous day and explains everything to the Doctor and Bliss, taking them to the factory to stop the Daleks. However, the Doctor and Bliss are exterminated and Davros captured and taken to meet the creator of the Daleks.

The creator tells Davros that the Kaleds and Thals cooperated to destroy the Time Lords, of which the Doctor is one, after they meddled in the history of Skaro. He claims that the Doctor is a villain and that the Daleks are Davros's saviours. To save Charn, the creator says, Davros must destroy the portal after it becomes operational and kill the Doctor with the help of the Time Strategist. Davros is conflicted, but trusts the creator. The Daleks exterminate him so that he will awake on the day of the portal's activation. Davros goes immediately to the portal and activates it. He sees the Doctor and Bliss emerging and sets the portal to overload and destroy itself, despite Charn's protestations.

Part two
On the day that the portal is to be activated, Davros awakens and presumes that time must now be back on track and moving normally again. The portal opens of its own accord and the Time Strategist emerges. Davros tells him about the Doctor and the Strategist tells him about the Thal-Dalek War and the Time War, as well as how the latter was ended by the Valeyard and that Davros, creator of the Daleks, must save them. To save Charn and the Thals, he agrees to help merge parts of his universe with that of the Strategist's and other realities, turning the Kaleds into Daleks.

Davros connects the Strategist to the portal and begins to merge with his alternative selves, causing him to lose the use of his legs and collapse. The following day, he finds himself in the factory, partially blind, confined to a chair and full of hatred for all other races, the Thals in particular. The factory workers are in the process of merging with their Dalek selves. He has them exterminate the Doctor and Bliss, capture his earlier self and kill him to send him to the previous day.

Now fully blind, Davros is fitted with an advanced ocular system. He sends the Daleks to destroy the Thal settlements, now unable to remember who Charn is, and laughs as he watches the attacks. The Doctor and Bliss enter, having no memory of their deaths, and tell Davros the truth about the Time Strategist's manipulations and how he is being used. They also remind him who Charn is. When his dominant personality takes over once again, Davros has his Daleks kill the Doctor and Bliss and dispose of their corpses.

The following day, Davros tells the Time Strategist to destroy the bridges to keep the Thals from escaping the city. He receives a message from Charn, who asks where he has been and says she will soon shut down the portal, but he cannot remember her. He goes to the house with a Dalek and finds Bliss there with Charn, who had Charn make and send the message in order to trap him. Bliss tries to kill Davros with a gunstick, but the merging of realities means that he cannot die here. The Doctor and the Time Strategist both arrive, the latter killing Charn. The Doctor reprograms the portal and escapes with Bliss.

By the next day, the merger is complete. Davros remembers that the owners of the house where the portal is are a wedded Thal and Kaled and sends Daleks to kill them, forgetting that they are himself and his wife. The house is destroyed and his younger self and wife are both exterminated. The portal is destroyed, completing the restoration of the Dalek race.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Paul McGann
 * Bliss - Rakhee Thakrar
 * Davros - Terry Molloy
 * Charn - Isla Blair
 * Daleks / Kaleds - Nicholas Briggs

Clothing

 * Davros has a dressing gown which Charn bought him. He does not like the colour.

Food and drink

 * Davros and Charn eat cereal and fruit.
 * The Doctor uses Varga extract to make tea.

Individuals

 * Charn receives a message from Kraylo, telling her to check the news.
 * The Doctor says that he is no Cary Grant.

Locations

 * Davros and Charn live on Skaro.

Science

 * Davros describes his and Charn's invention as "transdimensional engineering, not rocket science!".

Continuity

 * Frequent mention is made of the Valeyard wiping out N-Space's Dalek race, save the Time Strategist. (AUDIO: The War Valeyard)
 * The Doctor and the Time Strategist both allude to the Davros of N-Space being presumed to be deceased after facing the Nightmare Child. The alternate Davros briefly hears his N-Space counterpart's last words before encountering the creature. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
 * As he begins merging with his alternate selves, Davros notes that he can still use his organic eyes, but he prefers not to. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
 * Davros notes that in the infinite realities of the multiverse, there must be realities where the Daleks are not evil. (AUDIO: Masters of War)
 * The Doctor notes that Davros' chair has a life support system, one that has saved the Kaled's life before. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)