Fugitive of the Daleks

"I always dreamt of one more adventure in the TARDIS."

Writer: Jonathan Morris

Format: Audio

Released: January 2024

Series: First Doctor Adventures 3.01

Featuring: First Doctor, Dodo, Vicki

Synopsis

Years after ending her travels with the Doctor, Vicki finds herself back in the TARDIS. The Doctor desperately needs her help, and she's only too happy to oblige. But in the process, the two of them fall into a series of perilous encounters, with the dreaded Daleks never far behind them.

What is the mysterious presence inside the TARDIS? And precisely what damage do the Daleks and their agents intend to cause to the flow of Earth's history?

The Doctor and Vicki must call upon all their guile and bravery to discover the truth and save the day.

Verdict

Fugitive of the Daleks was an outstanding story to serve as the third series of the new First Doctor Adventures! I really did think this was a sublime adventure and definitely worth the three hours plus running time. I usually do prefer for releases to have multiple stories, especially when we only get one instalment of the First Doctor Adventures each year, but this was just magnificent. It felt like the continuation of Dalek stories for the First Doctor era on screen and that's a huge compliment. There really was so much going on. We followed up the mysterious cliffhanger to The Incherton Incident with the TARDIS randomly arriving at the time of a familiar former companion. And it was unlocked! Having Vicki just saunter back into the control room was wonderful and I loved how her maturity was now presented given her old age. We've seen in The Time Meddler Tales of the TARDIS and from the cover artwork how she looks now, so that was a real treat to have her reunited with the First Doctor once again. Of course, this time around he's played by Stephen Noonan who I think did a fine job and the writing definitely helps in giving this a genuine feel. It certainly is authentic and having the Daleks involved helps with that. I loved the continuity heavy nature of the story with allusions to the Doctor wanting a sonic screwdriver and Vicki recognising that the TARDIS must have had a translation circuit. There was also a nice reference to The Doctor's Wife with the Doctor mentioning how if any room was jettisoned in the TARDIS, any lifeforms would just be deposited back in the console room. I loved how the story was essentially The Chase 2.0 in having the Doctor and Vicki for the most part jumping around from numerous destinations. Except the Doctor accompanying Vicki was actually the robot duplicate she saw in the Dalek Time Machine in that very aforementioned serial! That was honestly extraordinary and whilst I did suspect something was up when the Doctor mentioned only having memories up to waking up in the jungles of Mechanus, I didn't see that coming. It was magnificent. The Doctor's disappearance that Dodo witnessed turning out to be him skipping a time track and that was still being felt at the end so I suspect that's something we'll take further moving forward in the range. I'm certainly intrigued to hear where that element goes. I thought some of the different settings were really good and I think the opening one of Perpetuity Station in particular was really good with the robots not knowing they were robots. Anytime it was mentioned their programme quickly reasserted their story. It was also a good way of stabilising the Doctor when the listener didn't know he was also a robot! I thought the humour that came from the quick visit to Earth and the twentieth century was just tremendous as we heard the back end conversation of two workers who had been knocking down police boxes after their decommissioning. And yet here was a brand new one appearing right as their job was being inspected! The fact it had disappeared and the confusion that caused to the two council workers' superior was just wonderful. So simple but so good. The true article Doctor turning out to be within and imitating the Dalek Supreme was not expected and the links back to The Daleks' Master Plan to explain that was really good! It was on the right line of silliness in that it was just about believable. The robot Doctor aiming to self destruct himself in 1911 at the gathering of many of human history's most important scientists in a way to lure the real Doctor was intriguing and that sparked an emotional reaction from Vicki. She knew he wouldn't be coming because she'd wished for him on many occasions throughout her life. I liked that she saved the day on her extra journey in the TARDIS. The meeting she had with Dodo was really nice too and it's easy to forget they never travelled together. It was really nice for Vicki to learn of what became of Steven in The Savages and I also liked how important family was to her. She wanted to stay with the Doctor, but he and the TARDIS knew that she needed to return home to her grandchild. She was a widow now, but she still had family. The Doctor could deal with the Daleks! Having them trapped in ice was brilliant and rather ingenious of Vicki. The fate of the robot Doctor was staggeringly good as Vicki's deactivation warned off the Daleks, but then the Doctor set him off to become the Abbot of Amboise! That obviously has some rather fun implications for The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, but it was a fitting end to what was a sensational adventure! Overall, an excellent listen. 

Rating: 10/10