Invasion of the Daleks (audio story)

 was the first story in the Dalek Empire I audio series produced by Big Finish Productions. This series, beginning with this story was Big Finish's first foray into audio stories featuring Doctor Who universe elements without the Doctor or another known character such as Bernice Summerfield in their Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series. This story was written, directed and had all of its post production and music performed by Nicholas Briggs. Additionally, Briggs also provided most of the Dalek voice work including the voice of the Dalek Emperor.

Publisher's summary
The Milky Way is at peace.

After centuries of struggle, the Earth Alliance has been created and all is well.

Then, without warning, the Daleks launch their invasion.

An invasion which threatens to tear apart the fabric of our entire galaxy...

Plot
A starliner called Victorious is attacked by daleks, On the planet Vega 6, Susan Mendes complains that her taxi driver is driving too fast, she sees a flash of blue on the shoreline, and they go there. Susan gives the taxi driver a pickled onion. They see the Victorious crashing. Soon, the daleks invade, exterminating many people and devasting the planet. Many people try to run away in several directions, but are exterminated.

A few days later, Alby (the taxi driver) is drunk on a starliner; he talks with 2 other men. After a minute, Susan "Suz" Mendes is brought up; Alby says that he was unable to convince her to escape from Vega 6. Flashback to a few days ago, Alby tries to convince Susan to escape from the planet, but she only cares about finding her family. Back in the present, Alby passes out from being drunk; he later is woken up by a call from Gordon Pellan.

Back on Vega 6, the daleks are taking the surviving humans somewhere. One of the daleks announces that any humans who are unable to walk will be exterminated. A man near Susan has hurt his foot, a dalek think he is unable to walk, and orders Susan to move aside so that he can be exterminated. Susan repeatedly defies the order, and eventually makes the dalek realise that the man only has a minor foot injury that will heal over time. Susan's behaviour is witnessed by a higher class dalek, who finds it interesting and decides to relay all footage of her from now on to the Supreme dalek.

The daleks attack and take control of the Aquitania, but Alby manages to escape in a small craft. Back on Vega 6, the humans are being forced to mine Veganite; the daleks have turned some humans into robomen to help control the workforce. Susan talks to a man and tries to get him to be hopeful, and they are berated by a roboman for stopping working. Susan turns to one of the daleks and asks it when they will be given food, as they won't survive if they don't have food; the dalek tells her food will be provided later. Back in space, Alby decides to return to Vega 6 to rescue Susan, and his ship is quickly attacked by single occupant dalek ships. He evades and destroys 5 of them, but his ships engines sustain damage. His ship detects a large ship approaching, he assumes it is the dalek mothership; however, it is a news starliner, which destroys the remaining dalek saucers.

Hours later, the humans have become too hungry and exhausted to continue working. Even the robomen are too tired to control the workforce anymore; one of them goes to sleep, and is exterminated. Susan angrily tells the daleks that they are not machines, that they can't work without food and rest, and that the have not been given food despite being told that they would be. The Supreme dalek wishes to speak with Susan, and so she is taken to a room with a chair and a screen; the escort dalek leaves Susan alone in the room. The Supreme dalek appears on the screen, it knows Susan's name, and questions her on her recent actions. The Supreme dalek allows Susan and the rest of the workforce to have food and rest, and says that they will speak again tomorrow.

On the news starliner, Alby finds Gordon Pellen, who escaped the Aquitania in a lifepod, and came to the news starliner because he hoped to get a job there. Back in the mines, Susan tells the man she talked to the previous day about how she talked to the Supreme dalek. The Supreme dalek has a meeting with the Dalek Emperor, who gives some information to the Supreme dalek, and tells him not to share it with the other daleks. The news starliner is attacked by daleks, but Alby and Pellen escape in Alby's ship, which was repaired earlier. Susan talks with the Supreme dalek again, and this time she is the one asking questions. The Supreme dalek tells Susan to come up with a more efficient mining system. Susan returns to the mine and gives an encouraging speech to the miners, about how she was the reason they were given food and rest, and how they will continue to be given food and rest so long as they keep working. She then goes on to tell them her new, more efficient system.

Much later, on Alby's craft, they decide to monitor dalek frequencies, and discover that the daleks have just taken Susan into another galaxy.

Cast

 * Susan Mendes - Sarah Mowat
 * Alby Brook - Mark McDonnell
 * Kalendorf - Gareth Thomas
 * Pellan - John Wadmore
 * Narrator - Joyce Gibbs
 * Admiral Cheviat / Ed Byers / Roboman - Ian Brooker
 * Ernst Tanlee - David Sax
 * The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs, Alistair Lock
 * The Dalek Emperor - Nicholas Briggs

Astronomical objects

 * The Vega System has two suns.

Foods and beverages

 * Suz's grandmother lives on Earth and regularly sends her homemade pickled onions.

Individuals

 * Alby served as a steward and temporary bar manager on the Luciana.
 * Although he is a human, Alby has never been to Earth. Suz tells him that he should not bother visiting it.
 * Alby is an Earth Alliance B-grade security operative who was sent to Vega VI six months earlier to meet Kalendorf, one of the Knights of Velyshaa, in the hopes of opening up negotiations to form a defence pact against the Daleks.
 * Tanlee's transmission is patched through to Alby by the Communications Officer.

Locations

 * Alby mentions Southampton Terminus.
 * The Aquitania passes through the L'Garshoo Nebula.

Spacecraft

 * A Repulse-class star destroyer, the SD Victorious, from the Earth Alliance Rapid Response Fleet crashes near the southern part of Vega City on Vega VI after a battle with the Dalek Empire's fleet in the outskirts of the Vega system.
 * The Vega VI Dalek commander reports to the Dalek Supreme that there is an Earth Alliance ship still in the Vega system transmitting anti-Dalek propaganda.
 * Alby flies Scout-Ship X49.

Species

 * Prior to the Dalek invasion, Suz's only knowledge of them came from school history lessons which she vaguely remembered.

Technology

 * Captain Medem performs a nav-scan.
 * The Daleks use a distortion field.

Continuity

 * The Daleks travel in space individually. (COMIC: Invasion of the Daleks, et. al)
 * The Daleks have extracted data from the Kar-Charrat library which contained information about the human mind. Only the Dalek Emperor and the Supreme are able to access the data, for the information is considered dangerous to the Dalek race. (AUDIO: The Genocide Machine)
 * The Daleks previously recreated the Seriphia Galaxy with the Apocalypse Element. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element)
 * The Dalek Supreme tells Suz of the human factor, which distinguishes humans from the Daleks. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)
 * Kalendorf mentions the war between the Earth Alliance and the Knights of Velyshaa in the 36th century, which concluded in Earth's favour in 3562. (AUDIO: The Sirens of Time)
 * After removing Suz from Vega VI, the Daleks transport her to the Garazone system, a "backwater" of the interstellar spacelanes which the Eighth Doctor and his companion Charley Pollard had visited in the 26th century. (AUDIO: Sword of Orion)
 * Alby and Kalendorf would later determine that the reason that the Dalek invasion of the galaxy began in the Vega system: the Daleks required high quantities of veganite to power Project Infinity in order to locate a parallel universe in which the Daleks had established dominion over the entire universe. (AUDIO: Project Infinity)
 * This Dalek invasion and occupation of Mutter's Spiral would later become known as the Second Great Dalek Occupation. (AUDIO: Return of the Daleks)
 * The famous singer Siryo was killed in the invasion of Vega VI. (PROSE: Kalendorf)
 * Invasion of the Daleks occurs six months before AUDIO: The Human Factor.