Nightmare of the Daleks (audio story)

Nightmare of the Daleks was the third and final story in the audio anthology The Lost Resort and Other Stories, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Martyn Waites and featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka and George Watkins as Marc.

Publisher's summary
Deep within a drilling rig on planet XB93, its crew has been suffering nightmares: dreams of cold, metallic creatures, stalking them through the base, killing them as they sleep. Fortunately for the crew, the Daleks' own worst nightmare has just arrived – and he goes by the name of the Doctor.

Part one
Marc collapses at the TARDIS' console after changing the coordinates. The Doctor suggests that something might have manipulated the Cyber technology within him and, once they land, Nyssa and Tegan carry the unconscious Marc outside to see where he has brought them.

Jez tells Foster that the enemy killed Oberman in front of her and she ran to save herself. A Dalek approaches them and shoots at Foster whilst Jex is pulled into a hiding place by Marc, who has no idea how he got here.

The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan find themselves in a sleep chamber, causing the Doctor to wonder if Marc brought them here so that he could have some sleep following his conversion. They put Marc in a sleep pod and are taken away by Chelmer, who is told that Jez and Foster are yet to wake up. The trio learn that they are on a rig on XB93 in the 51st century, drilling for gas and minerals under the crust, and that nightmares are a significant problem.

Marc wonders if he is in the Underworld and tells Jez, who last remembers being in a sleep pod, that he felt evil trying to contact him before waking up here. According to Jez, everybody has been having nightmares of the Daleks and some people have failed to wake up, dying in their sleep. Elsewhere, Foster is taken prisoner by the Daleks.

From Chelmer's description of the nightmare that everybody has been having, the Doctor realises that they are dreaming about Daleks. He tasks Tegan with mingling with the workers whilst he returns to the sleep chamber with Nyssa and Chelmer. Tegan learns that use of the sleep pods is compulsory and that the workers have no way of leaving and calls for help when the worker that she is talking to is injured by a loose pipe.

Marc suggests that he and Jez are not in each other's dreams but in the dream of the Daleks. Upon hearing Foster's cries, they go to try to save her.

The Doctor manages to persuade Chelmer to allow him to enter the sleep pods; he asks Nyssa to accompany him and Tegan to wake them up if they seem to be distressed. He and Nyssa enter the dream world, which they find is a nightmarish version of the rig underwater, and are chased by the Daleks.

Part two
The Doctor demands that the Daleks scan and identify him, causing them to escort him and Nyssa to the Dalek Supreme for interrogation rather than exterminated. Upon hearing cries, the Doctor and Nyssa escape from the Dalek Supreme.

The Daleks experiment on Foster and threaten to enter her mind and unleash her greatest fears unless she does as instructed. Marc and Jez arrive and try to save her, but Jez is killed just before the Doctor and Nyssa enter. The Doctor, Nyssa and Marc run, unable to free Foster, and call out to Tegan. Tegan notices Jez convulsing and, on Chelmer's orders, releases him. They find that he is dead. She then notices that the Doctor, Nyssa and Marc are mouthing her name and wakes them up.

Foster weeps over Jez and is once again subjected to the neural warp. She no longer resist, having lost her reason to put up a fight.

Marc insists that Chelmer gives the piece of lexion which Jez told him about to Clarice, his daughter, which she eventually agrees to do. The Doctor says that they will have to re-enter the dream state to jam the frequency connecting the Daleks to the sleep chambers; he asks Nyssa to join him again whilst Tegan and Marc remain with Chelmer, but Marc feels guilty for having been controlled by the Daleks and bringing the TARDIS here and insists that he joins them.

Detecting irregular sleep pattern activity, the Dalek Supreme orders the neural warp to be accelerated and for the vanguard to be deployed.

The Doctor, Nyssa and Marc go to sleep whilst Tegan finds that Foster has awoken. Chelmer takes her to be looked over and asks about how she managed to escape the Daleks, but she is unable to give a detailed answer. Tegan is suspicious of Foster, who uses a projected energy weapon from the dream to force Tegan and Chelmer to enter the sleep pods.

The Doctor and Nyssa work to jam the frequency whilst Marc goes in search of Foster, as Jez would have wanted him to. The Doctor confronts the Dalek Supreme and learns that the Daleks are only memories of real Daleks sustained by mental energies and pure hatred. Nyssa begins to jam the signal to stop the Daleks from converting the rig's workers into Dalek slaves.

Marc finds Foster, who tells him that she has given her body to the Daleks and asks to be left with Jez's body as the facsimile drains and kills her.

Foster activates the sleep pods and dies. Tegan enters the dream and Nyssa's machine, now cut off from the real world, ceases to exist. The Doctor enters the Pathweb with Time Lord telepathy and keeps the Daleks from firing their weapons before telling Nyssa, Tegan and Marc to escape and keep his body alive so that his mind can continue to keep the Daleks at bay. Marc refuses and takes his place in honour of Jez and Foster, telling the Daleks that he is their worst nightmare and that his arrival here was ordained by the Fates. He puts the Daleks to sleep.

The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan do not want Marc to stay, but he believes that he can make a better world and that, since the Daleks were able to exist as memories, some good people might exist as well. He will remember the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, Cicero and his family and asks them to name a planet after him if they want to remember him. They bid him farewell and wake up. The Doctor charges Chelmer with guarding Marc's body and says that they must return to the TARDIS; whilst Tegan is initially shocked that he wants to move on so quickly, he tells her that time heals.

Marc sometimes wonders if his time in the TARDIS was real. He remembers the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan as the best of friends, each of them incredible in their own way but especially so when together, fighting injustice. He promises that he will never forget them.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Davison
 * Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
 * Tegan - Janet Fielding
 * Marc - George Watkins
 * Foster - Ajjaz Awad
 * Chelmer - Alana Maria
 * Jez - Kayi Ushe
 * Worker 2 - Carlyss Peer
 * Worker 3 - Ryan Forde Iosco
 * The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

Continuity

 * This is Tegan's second encounter with the Daleks, after The Elite. She would later encounter them once again on the day she parted company from the Doctor. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)
 * Nyssa is already familiar with the Daleks due to encountering them on many previous occasions. (AUDIO: The Mutant Phase, Renaissance of the Daleks, Plague of the Daleks, Alien Heart)
 * The Doctor would once again deal with monsters invading by using sleep pods in his twelfth incarnation. (TV: Sleep No More)
 * The Doctor refers to himself as the Daleks' greatest enemy. (TV: The Chase, Victory of the Daleks, Evolution of the Daleks)
 * The Daleks tell the Doctor that "Daleks do not take orders". (TV: Doomsday)
 * The Doctor describes his friends as "the best of me". His eleventh incarnation would also refer to his companions in the same way. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
 * Marc recalls his history and his travels with the Doctor, remembering Cicero and his family, Tartarus, (AUDIO: Tartarus) Cybermen (AUDIO: Warzone) and Slitheen. (AUDIO: Madquake) He also mentioned Adric's death. (AUDIO: The Lost Resort)