[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7d7beb5a251fb806aae25e309d467935.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:In which a scatload of [[TimeParadox time paradoxes]] [[OhCrap hit the fan.]]]]

The final part of the multi-Doctor Dalek Empire arc. It sees the Eighth Doctor's first run-in with the Daleks, the culprits behind all the continuity conundrums in his stories, and the reason why a certain famous poet keeps cropping up in his conversations.

The Eighth Doctor is shocked that Charley has never heard of Creator/WilliamShakespeare, something that should be quite, quite impossible. When he remembers that [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho028InvadersFromMars Orson Welles suffered from the same problem]], he gets just a bit scared. He travels to Britain in the near future and discovers a general obsessed with Shakespeare, and more disturbingly, Daleks who quote Shakespeare and profess an appreciation for Earth's greatest playwright.

The general's up against a rebellion, who are clinging to what's left of their RippleEffectProofMemory in order to protect Shakepeare's heritage. She's also working together with the Daleks to create a time machine. The Daleks, for their part, need a time machine for their own purposes, and claim that they've already been to Gallifrey and (after [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho011TheApocalypseElement a bit of a failed invasion]]) made their own Eye of Harmony. The last bit of work can be done by the Doctor. They take Charley along in order to secure the Doctor's help. The Doctor isn't exactly up for it, but he's intrigued by the general's time portals, which also happen to lead back to all the eras of [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho030SeasonsOfFear "Seasons Of Fear"]]. (Well, that explains a thing or two. [[TimeyWimeyBall Probably]].)

As it turns out, the general made a pact with the Daleks because she's the world's biggest Shakespeare fan, and the Daleks promised her that she'd be the only one to remember Shakespeare, therefore making the man her own private intellectual property. True to Dalek form, of course, they meant that they'd turn her into a Dalek and give her a nice complimentary Shakespeare data disc. An alternate timeline in which the Daleks have always been the masters of Earth is slowly becoming reality. Also, the Doctor realises that LaResistance has used the time machine to take Shakespeare out of his own time in order to prevent him being taken out of his own time. And the bookish, terrified kitchen boy in the base happens to be named Will.

However, that still isn't what's causing all the paradoxes. And even as the Daleks are trapped in a time bubble and little Will is returned to Stratford-upon-Avon, time continues to unravel. [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho016StormWarning Charley's paradoxical nature itself]] is the key, and her being captured by the Daleks has enabled them coming to Earth in the first place and conquering humanity in the divergent timeline.

[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho033Neverland An ominous narrator confirms that time itself is in a dire state.]]

!Tropes

* [[ApocalypseHow/Class3B Apocalypse How]]: Class 3B, with an explosion going through the portals, which can potentially 'cause the end of history itself and sets up the Daleks as the Masters of Earth.
* BigNo: Major Ferdinand!! [[BigNo Noooooo!!!]]"
* BodyHorror: General Learman gets converted into a Dalek.
* CallBack: The Dalek that ends up in ancient Rome is the one that was destroyed in [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho030SeasonsOfFear "Seasons Of Fear"]]. [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho030SeasonsOfFear Lucillius]] gets to kill him.
* ContinuityNod: The Doctor mentions when the Daleks invaded Gallifrey, back in [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho011TheApocalypseElement The Apocalypse Element]].
* ConquerorFromTheFuture: The Daleks plan to become this.
* CreativeSterility: General Learman fears the future is turning into this.
* DelayedRippleEffect
* ExactTimeToFailure: The Nuclear Reactor.
* ExactWords: The Daleks promise that General Learman will remember the words of Shakespeare.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: The kitchen-boy, William Shakespeare, though it's not played for laughs.
* FluffyTheTerrible:
--> Dalek: "Once we are within the vortex we will employ our [[ApocalypseHow Temporal Extinction Device]]!"
--> The Doctor: "It's hard to take seriously a weapon with the [[FunWithAcronyms Acronym TED]]. [[LetsMockTheMonsters Sounds warm and cuddly somehow.]]"
* GadgeteerGenius: The Doctor can tap into the HallOfMirrors with a random mirror and stuff from his pocket.
* GoForTheEye: The eye stalk weakness is brought up for fighting them.
* GroundHogDayLoop: The Daleks are stuck in this at the end of the story. Forever forced to re-enact this adventure.
* HallOfMirrors: The TimeMachine is in one.
* HandyRemoteControl: The Master Clock
* HeroicSacrifice: Major Ferdinand
* HiddenInPlainSight: William Shakespeare is the 10 year old boy wandering around.
* HoistByTheirOwnPetard: Namedropped By the Bard himself.
* InsistentTerminology: "[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments You mean]] [[FluffyTheTerrible TED]]?"
* ItsAllAboutMe: General Learman rips time and space apart so everybody forgets Shakespeare so SHE can remember him with her RippleEffectProofMemory. Because no one else is entitled to.
* KlingonsLoveShakespeare: Daleks love him, actually. Or at least that's what they'll tell you.
* LaResistance
* MeanwhileInTheFuture: Inverted. The more a certain probability is likely to happen, the more tangible and present it becomes in the present (The Doctor is in at that point), [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble which is the future]],
* MirrorUniverse: Namedropped but not literally. The MirrorUniverse in this adventure is an image of the past, which technobabbles the past into existence.
* {{Narrator}}: The play opens with an unidentified narrator who quotes a number of Shakespeare lines that have to do with time. He's also the same person the Doctor was talking to in [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho030SeasonsOfFear "Seasons Of Fear"]]. We find out his identity in [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho033Neverland "Neverland"]]
* NeverTheSelvesShallMeet: Mentioned that when they would, the older would be consumed by time energy, due to the energy released by the portals.
* [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice Job Breaking It General]]
---> Daleks: " We are the Masters of Time!! We are the Masters of Time!!"
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: General Learman sounds more than a little like UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher.
* NoHonorAmongThieves
* NonAnswer: "Doctor of what?"
--> The Doctor: "Everything, really."
* PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny: Learman was planning to reintroduce Democracy in order to become an elected Tyrant so the people have an impression of having a say.
* PercussiveMaintenance: The Doctor bangs a make shift portal a few times, and it works.
* PhlebotinumAnalogy: "[[PhlebotinumAnalogy Like frost cracking]]!"
* PortalNetwork
* [[PortalPicture Portal Mirror]]
* PortalToThePast
* PragmaticVillainy: By radiation contaminated Daleks won't approach human workforce and will be locked away. [[FateWorseThanDeath Forever]].
* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: General Learman.
* RoboSpeak:
--> "Voices... Sort of metallic."
* RippleEffectProofMemory
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong
* ShoutOut/ToShakespeare: Of Course.
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: [[BodyHorror Ill met by moonlight]].
* StuffBlowingUp: Hell yeah, [[PineappleSurprise grenades!!]]
* TakingYouWithMe: See HeroicSacrifice
* TemporalParadox
* TimeCrash
* TimeMachine: And not the TARDIS.
* TimeyWimeyBall
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Mid-21st century. New Britain after the Euro Wars, during General Mariah Leahman's benevolent dictatorship.
* VillainOpeningScene
* YouHaveFailedMe: The Dalek that fails to uphold security has to give up its casing for the BodyHorror trope listed above.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: "All non-essential humans are to be [[CatchPhrase exterminated]]."