The Dalek Masterplan reviewed

Editor: Peter Labrow · Last update: 05 November 2007

The final bows are taken, the pyrotechnics spent and the stage swept clean – the stage production of the Dalek Masterplan has come and gone. All that remains are photographs and memories – glorious memories.

It seemed an impossible goal; to take twelve twenty-five-minute episodes, plus the ‘teaser’ episode Mission to the Unknown, and turn it into two coherent forty-five-minute acts of a modestly budgeted stage production – using mainly amateur actors.

The result, though, was stunning.

The story

To make the story fit the new duration, and to make it run at a pace more akin to the current series of Doctor Who, Nick Scovell took a judicious red pen to the original script and began a brave but intelligent adaptation.

The story opens on Kembel – New Year’s Eve, 3999. Amidst the celebrations, Space Security Agent Marc Corey is trying to send an urgent message. Before he can, he is shot and killed by Governor Zephon. Dying in the arms of Katarina Taylor, he confers on her his authority as a Space Security Agent – just as the Dalek invasion fleet lands on Kembel.

(Opening credits)

The Doctor arrives – Cory is dead and Katarina unconscious. A second Space Security Agent, Bret Vyon, holds the Doctor at gunpoint, initially convinced that he is partly responsible. They are joined by Stephen Taylor, Katarina’s brother.

It is this core group which quickly becomes pitted against the Daleks – as they try to discover why the Dalek fleet is massing around Kembel and what the Dalek Masterplan is.

As Mavic Chen delivers the taranium  core, the final component of a new Dalek secret weapon, the Doctor rushes forwards and steals it from his hand. The Daleks are powerless – taranium is so volatile that one shot from their blasters would destroy them all. The Doctor flees with his new companions – taking a space ship from the nearby spaceport in an attempt to reach Earth to warn the authorities of the Daleks’ plan.

The Daleks believe that it is not necessary to chase the Doctor – that they can easily head him off in the vicinity of the planet Mira. They create a duplicate of the dead agent Cory and teleport him onto the ship, where he threatens to kill Katarina if he is not given the taranium core. As the Doctor is about to deliver the taranium, Katarina opens the airlock, sucking herself and the Dalek duplicate out into space to die instantly. This destabilises the space ship, which crash lands on Mira.

(Interval)

At the crash site, the Doctor is trying to console Stephen when Space Security Agent Sara Kingdom arrives – sent by Mavic Chen to recover the taranium core. Bret Vyon threatens Kingdom, who kills him – so focused is she on her mission that she kills Vyon, who, it is revealed, is her own brother.

But Kingdom’s allegiance is faltering and she starts to believe the Doctor when he tells her of the Daleks’ Masterplan – and that Mavic Chen is a traitor.

The Time Destructor, programmed with DNA from every branch of humanity, is capable of removing all humans from time – as if they never existed – leaving the Daleks free to conquer the Universe.

The Doctor agrees to hand back the taranium to Chen – who arrives with a single Dalek escort. The Doctor, Stephen and Sara disable the Dalek – and the Doctor hands Chen the taranium core, telling him that he must help humanity and not trust the Daleks.

Chen, of course, does no such thing, and hands the taranium core to the Daleks, who fit it in the Time Destructor – but it doesn’t work. The Daleks kill Chen for his failure and the Doctor arrives – with the real taranium core.

He tells the Daleks that the human DNA programming of the taranium core has been removed, so that if it is used, it will kill all life. The Daleks have a choice – not to succeed as the only race in the Universe or to kill everything including themselves. They choose the latter and the taranium core is fitted to the Time Destructor. But the Doctor has bluffed them again. With DNA extracted from the disabled Dalek, he has programmed the Time Destructor to remove all Daleks from existence.

In a flurry of explosions, the Daleks are destroyed, leaving only their casings behind. But the Dalek Supreme still lives – just – and, as a last act, initiates Emergency Temporal Restart Programme , to kill everything in the Universe. The Doctor places Stephen and Sara in the TARDIS while he tires to absorb the resulting Time Wave – but Sara leaves the TARDIS to try to help him and is killed.

The power of the Time Destructor is too much for the Doctor and he is forced to regenerate – emerging from the TARDIS, now played by Nick Briggs, much to the delight of the audience.

He agrees to take Stephen home, and, on checking his reflection in the dome of a Dalek and finding he is now bald, comments that ‘oh well, at least I’m not ginger’.

(End credits)

Critique

As those familiar with the original story will know, this is a significant departure from the original, but contains all of the essential elements – and quite a bit more.

The production, being for charity and wanting to keep costs tight, was slightly hampered in terms of production values, but the only place this really showed was in the Time Destructor, which didn’t quite match up to the splendour of the team’s last production, Evil of the Daleks, when a superb Dalek emperor was unveiled. This was, however, only a slight blip in an otherwise impressive production – and it certainly didn’t detract from the story or the performances.

The Dalek props were excellent, sporting a design and colour schemes unique to this production. The most impressive Dalek was the black Dalek Supreme, a new series Dalek identical to Dalek Sec. The hidden stars of the show, the Dalek operators, did a terrific job of maintaining some tight choreographics within a very tight space – and for the most part moved as well as their television counterparts.

The minimalist set worked well, becoming Kembel, Mira and various interiors with ease – keeping the focus very much on the actors.

The actors each played their parts very well. Especially impressive was Nick Scovell as the Doctor. Nick has told Dalek Links that his Doctor was a mix of the first and second, but mostly the second – but that really understates Nick’s achievement. He made the part very much his own, with a natural and commanding performance – moving from serious delivery to jest with ease.

Nick Briggs as the Daleks was every bit as awesome as he is on television and in audio adventures – performing all of the voices of the Daleks, even when they spoke in rapid succession, shifting the pitch of his voice to denote each Dalek. Additional voices were only used when the Daleks spoke in unison. His Dalek Supreme drew much from his Dalek Emperor – a deep commanding voice from a Dalek who is not to be messed with.

The rest of the cast were excellent, each delivering the part convincingly.

Martin Johnson’s outstanding music in many ways really made the show – textured layers of incidental music which created a rich and often brooding atmosphere, without ever becoming over-dominant or distracting.

The revised script was excellent – well-paced, exiting and intelligent, with some nice jokes thrown in for good measure, some aimed specifically at older fans. The line where the Doctor asks the date and then comments that it’s too late to wish the people at home happy Christmas brought a knowing laugh and a round of applause (during the first screening of the Dalek Masterplan, the first Doctor, William Hartnell, had originally spoken directly to camera during the episode which took place at Christmas, wishing everyone at home a merry Christmas – something which still draws debate as to whether it was scripted or impromptu).

Facts

  • The production team were originally refused permission to stage the play by the BBC (although the estate of Terry Nation had agreed) but intervention from the Cardiff office allowed the play to continue – on the understanding that this would be the last time that permission was granted to stage a production of a classic story.
  • Nick Briggs performed all of the voices of the Daleks – even when they were talking in conversation with each other – except on the few occasions when they all spoke at once. Nick delivered his performance from the third tier (’the gods’) next to the sound and lighting crew but unseen by the audience. When the black Dalek Supreme came on stage to a round of applause Nick did an unseen victory dance! Peter Labrow was stood behind Nick Briggs during the Friday evening performance.
  • All of the money for the production, minus the essentials for set-building and so on, went to charity.
  • This is the fourth time that Nick Scovell has played the Doctor on stage: he was also in the Evil of the Daleks, Web of Fear and Fury from the Deep. This is the first time he was played (notionally) the first Doctor.
  • Barnaby Edwards (Dalek operator), Terry Molloy (Davros) and Rob Shearman (the writer of ‘Dalek’) watched the performance from within the audience at the Saturday matinee on 27 October.
  • Martin Johnson has successfully auditioned to work on projects at Big Finish as a result of his Masterplan/Evil scores. Pretty darned good for someone who is largely self-taught and doesn’t read or write music. You read it here first!

Comments from the audience

A selection of comments from people who saw the show. If you want to send us a comment, we will add it (comments are moderated).

Tony Holt:
“What a great time I had at the Dalek Masterplan. The story held its own and the actors did a wonderfull job; the Daleks just brilliant. I’ve seen the Masterplan on TV (I’m 53) this was just as good if not better. Wouldn’t it be great if they could do the Power of the Daleks next year. I can only hope. Dalek Links is the best Dalek site on the net it was good seeing a face to fit it.”

Robert Trice:
“Great review of Masterplan and Return of the Daleks, I saw the show on Thursday and Saturday evenings and commend you for your summing up. Thanks also for being there on Saturday it was good to see the face behind my favourite site. Thanks again for your wonderfull site and for getting the Masterplan/Return material up so quickly after the weekend.”

Marianne:
“Myself, husband and five-year-old nephew had front-row tickets for Saturday’s matinee of The Dalek Masterplan and we thought it was amazing! We thoroughly enjoyed Nick Scovell as the Doctor and all the other cast too. My husband is a massive Doctor Who fan (rather a massive Dalek fan) and he loved the Daleks! My five-year-old nephew loved it all too, though he did get a little scared when the Daleks came to the front of the stage and he whispered to me to shut up in case I attracted their attention! Would love to go again!”

Matthew Boult:
“I just want to say how much my daughters and I enjoyed the Saturday matinee show. The script, performances, effects and music were all excellent. As were the Daleks, of course! It was quite an achievement to condense the somewhat rambling original story into a couple of hours and to come up with something that was far superior. (I’d have loved this back in the 60s when I was a child. Well, I did see William Hartnell in a panto in 1965 or so. Daleks were on the bill, but they turned out to be kids running around in some really bad Dalek outfits. What a disappointment that turned out to be!) It’s a pity that BBC is saying no more stage plays. I do hope they change their mind and hope that we can see more in the future – continuing with The Power of the Daleks, perhaps. Well done everyone!”