Doctor Who: How to make one of the biggest stories ever twice as epic
By James Aggas
The Daleks’ Master Plan is one of the most epic stories in Doctor Who history. But how would you make it even more epic?
(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.
Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)
The Daleks’ Master Plan is one of the most epic stories in Doctor Who history. But is there a way to make it twice as epic?
I’ve always had a soft spot for the classic Doctor Who serial The Daleks’ Master Plan. At twelve episodes long – not including the prelude episode Mission to the Unknown – it’s one of the longest stories of the Classic Series. And while it has a couple of rough patches, it does a great job of justifying that length overall. It’s got a huge sense of scale, strong villains, and some truly shocking moments. It’s one of the bolder stories of the Sixties, maybe even of Doctor Who overall.
However, when I decided to re-listen to it for the first time in a few years, I wanted to try something just a little different. This time, I wanted to listen to the whole story, but I also wanted to expand it, too. And it’s actually very easy to do that, thanks to Big Finish.
I’ve been wanting to try this ever since listening to The Sontarans back in 2016. The story tells of the Doctor’s first ever encounter with the titular race, and features the First Doctor, Steven Taylor and Sara Kingdom. This last companion is important, as The Daleks’ Master Plan was literally her only appearance on television. The reason the character didn’t appear afterwards is because (spoiler alert) she dies at the end of the story.
Ordinarily, this would make creating more stories for such a companion incredibly difficult without feeling like a cheat. But there’s a rather nice, clear gap in the original story. While the first half of Master Plan is very fast-paced and non-stop, the Doctor and his friends get a breather at the end of Christmas episode The Feast of Steven. It isn’t made clear how much time has passed in the next episode, but Volcano certainly doesn’t continue directly from where the previous episode left off.
As such, Big Finish took advantage of this gap, and have given us more stories of Sara Kingdom. Quite a few more, actually.
While not ideal to listen to in the middle of Master Plan, the trilogy that began with Home Truths was a first step in expanding Sara’s story…
(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
Expanding the story
Their first release featuring the character was Home Truths back in 2008. Part of The Companion Chronicles range, the story revealed how Sara – or at least, a version of her – survived after the events of The Daleks’ Master Plan. A version of her that isn’t quite the Sara who died, but is pretty close.
This began a trilogy of stories that was eventually resolved with a kind of resurrection for Sara. This trilogy was a strong one, and explored the companion in a fresh and interesting way. But, while the stories that the older Sara told were set in the middle of The Daleks’ Master Plan, due to the surrounding narrative, you couldn’t listen to them in the middle of the serial.
The stories that best fit
However, that wasn’t true of The Sontarans. Not only was the perspective of the First Doctor, Steven and Sara very much a “present” one, rather than the characters looking back on the events. It also ends with a cliffhanger that leads directly into Volcano – complete with a surprise Dalek cameo! It made me want to dig out The Daleks’ Master Plan and re-listen to it, to see just how well the cliffhanger leads back into the original story.
More than that, it also made me realize that there were two other Big Finish stories that you could listen to in the middle of The Daleks’ Master Plan: The Anachronauts and An Ordinary Life. Both of these feature Peter Purves and Jean Marsh as Steven and Sara, and both narratives are firmly fixed on the time they traveled together, with no direct references to what happened afterwards.
On top of that, just as The Sontarans leads directly into Volcano, The Anachronauts continues directly from The Feast of Steven, with the Doctor and his friends celebrating Christmas on the TARDIS. And The Sontarans makes a lot of nice, little references to both The Anachronauts and An Ordinary Life, specifically.
It’s not that other stories couldn’t have taken place – we know they did. But it does feel that with these three particular stories, they can be slotted into The Daleks’ Master Plan rather nicely. And that’s exactly what I did on my last listen of the epic story.
The Anachronauts begins a loose trilogy of stories that you really can listen to in the middle of The Daleks’ Master Plan. Do they enhance the original story?
(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
What the new stories add to the original
There are a lot of enjoyable things about listening to The Anachronauts, An Ordinary Life and The Sontarans in the context of The Daleks’ Master Plan. Firstly, it gives us a great glimpse of this TARDIS crew when the Daleks weren’t looking for them.
The threat’s always there, and they know that the Daleks will find them eventually. But we do get to see them in other situations, whether it’s finding themselves facing another iconic monster, or even discovering what it means to live an ordinary life on Earth.
Secondly, the fact that we get to experience adventures without the Daleks is a nice lead-in to the second half of The Daleks’ Master Plan. In Volcano, the TARDIS team are reunited with the Monk and are having a relatively fun adventure in Egypt when the Daleks show up. So the fact that they’re taken by surprise is just that little more believable when you hear more of this team’s adventures without the Daleks chasing them.
Steven and Sara
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But I think the greatest thing about this loose trilogy of stories is how it explores the relationship between Steven and Sara. You really get a sense of this strong bond between the two.
I think there were hints of this in their original TV story together – there’s a feeling of mutual respect between these two characters, at least – but the pair are truly explored during these audio stories. Because of this deeper exploration of this particular companion relationship, Sara’s death at the end of Master Plan hits much, much harder as a result.
I’m not saying everyone should try this. Especially when experiencing The Daleks’ Master Plan for the first time, as its best to enjoy that in its original context, at least on the first listen.
But for huge fans of the story, listening to these three audios in the middle definitely enhances the original story. Together, they make an already huge serial twice as epic in a very easy and natural way. But it also adds a wonderfully personal touch to a short-lived era on television.
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Are you a fan of The Daleks’ Master Plan? Have you listened to any of the audio stories set during the middle of it? Do you think the original epic benefits from being extended? Let us know in the comments below.