History Recap / BigFinishDoctorWhoUnboundE8MastersOfWar

* CoincidentalBroadcast: ''Several'', each helping keep the plot going at a good pace.

* DeathEqualsRedemption: [[spoiler:Surprisingly, Davros.]]

* ForWantOfANail: Oddly, a slightly positive example. Due to not being able to meddle in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks the creation of the Daleks]] ''([[TimeyWimeyBall or not being sent back in time yet]])'', the Daleks that inhabit Skaro are actually somewhat reasonable. It turns out, these are a 'second batch' of Daleks, made to be loyal to Davros and to have a kind of rudimentary ''(if skewed)'' moral compass. While they're still Daleks, it turns out their occupation of the Thal city was actually to protect the Thals from a greater enemy - not to oppress them. Well. They still do, [[OrangeAndBlueMorality just for their own good]].

* TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil
* HeroicSacrifice: Completely subverted in Davros' final actions, as they were entirely about personal revenge... [[DoubleSubverted and yet it was also to save his creations and home world.]]

** Played straight earlier by a heavily-damaged Dalek attack saucer with a Thal/Dalek crew deciding to buy more time by being a bigger distraction for the Doctor and Brigadier's own saucer, rather than risk getting shot down as they ran away. [[WeAreStrugglingTogether It was the one thing they agreed on]].
* IChooseToStay: Alistair, in the end.

!!Tropes

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: The Daleks and the Thals have incredibly differing opinions on how to pull off fighting the Quatch. Fortunately, they manage to grit it through to the end.

* DeathEqualsRedemption: Surprisingly, Davros.
* DevelopmentGag: This story contains several elements which were originally supposed to be in ''The Daleks'', but were cut for time and budget reasons, such as the revelation that the war on Skaro was started by an alien invasion, and not by either side.

* BigBrotherIsWatching: The Daleks have set up a complete surveillance system on Skaro, though the Thal resistance knows hwo to work around it. The Doctor gladly makes use of it.

* CoincidentalBroadcast: ''Three''.

* DeathEqualsRedemption: Surprisingly, [[spoiler: Davros]].

* [[spoiler:IChooseToStay]]: Alistair, in the end.

The Doctor assigns himself to leading the Thals and Daleks within the city, and Alistair takes charge of the military aspects and of the strike. As it turns out, the Quatch are after a transdimensional source deep within the diamond core of Skaro, which would enable them to quickly travel between their home dimension and this universe [[ApocolypseHow at the cost of turning Skaro inside out]]. Currently, they're being kept dimensionally stable using cyborg implants developed for them by Davros. The Quatch' main war tactic depends on statistical analysis of their opponents' combat moves, based on many years of experience -- in practice, this means that every strike against them only makes them more cunning. The Doctor, realising this, orders his soldiers to attack using only a single saucer, and to focus on diversion tactics. A captured Quatch (whom the Daleks want to torture, before the Doctor expressly forbids it) adds more information: this is not the first Quatch strike on Skaro. The first one was many centuries ago, when the Thals were a thriving, war-like empire and the Kaleds (the species the Daleks originally came from) were peaceful scholars. The Quatch attack back then came seemingly out of nowhere... and it provoked an all-out war between the two groups, resulting in everything we know about Skaro.

The Doctor assigns himself to leading the Thals and Daleks within the city, and Alistair takes charge of the military aspects and of the strike. As it turns out, the Quatch are after a transdimensional source deep within the diamond core of Skaro, which would enable them to quickly travel between their home dimension and this universe. Currently, they're being kept dimensionally stable using cyborg implants developed for them by Davros. The Quatch' main war tactic depends on statistical analysis of their opponents' combat moves, based on many years of experience -- in practice, this means that every strike against them only makes them more cunning. The Doctor, realising this, orders his soldiers to attack using only a single saucer, and to focus on diversion tactics. A captured Quatch (whom the Daleks want to torture, before the Doctor expressly forbids it) adds more information: this is not the first Quatch strike on Skaro. The first one was many centuries ago, when the Thals were a thriving, war-like empire and the Daleks were peaceful scholars. The Quatch attack back then came seemingly out of nowhere... and it provoked an all-out war between the two groups, resulting in everything we know about Skaro.

* BigBrotherIsWatching: The Daleks have set up a complete surveillance system on Skaro. The Doctor gladly makes use of it.

* EnemyMine

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: The Daleks and the Thals have incredibly differing opinions on how to pull off fighting the Quatch.

* HeroicSacrifice: Completely subverted in Davros' final actions, as they were entirely about personal revenge... and yet it was also to save his creations and home world.

* DeathEqualsRedemtion: Surprisingly, [[spoiler: Davros.]]

-> '''Davros:''' ''"Although it is not quite the end I envisaged, I feel... it strikes '''the appropriate note!'''"''

* OneGenderRace: The Daleks, who no longer have any concept of gender, also refer to all Thals as "it".

This Unbound release features an alternate Third Doctor (played by DavidWarner) who landed near the Brigadier in 1997, instead of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace next to UNIT base during the first Auton invasion]]. Because of this, UNIT has had to face off against the Earth's invaders without the Doctor's help, and history has been altered significantly as a result.

This Unbound release features an alternate Third Doctor (played by David Warner) who landed near the Brigadier in 1997, instead of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace next to UNIT base during the first Auton invasion]]. Because of this, UNIT has had to face off against the Earth's invaders without the Doctor's help, and history has been altered significantly as a result.

A sequel to [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoUnboundE2SympathyForTheDevil "Sympathy For The Devil"]], although both episodes both work very well as standalone stories.

* BigBrotherIsWatching: The Daleks have set up a complete surveyance system on Skaro. The Doctor gladly makes use of it.

* TheFettered: This Doctor very calmly states that his job is to protect the oppressed. If the Daleks want him to stop fighting him, they should stop being the oppressor.

* TheFettered: This Doctor very calmly states that his job is to protect the oppressed. If the Daleks want him to stop fighting them, they should stop being the oppressor.

The Doctor assigns himself to leading the Thals and Daleks within the city, and Alistair takes charge of the military aspects and of the strike. As it turns out, the Quatch are after a transdimensional source deep within the diamond core of Skaro, which would enable them to quickly travel between their home dimension and this universe. Currently, they're being kept dimensionally stable using cyborg implants developed for them by Davros. The Quatch' main war tactic depends on statistical analysis of their opponents' combat moves, based on many years of experience -- in practice, this means that every strike against them only makes them more cunning. The Doctor, realising this, orders his soldiers to attack using only a single saucer, and to focus on diversion tactics. A captured Quatch (whom the Daleks want to torture, before the Doctor expressly forbids it) add more information: this is not the first Quatch strike on Skaro. The first one was many centuries ago, when the Thals were a thriving, war-like empire and the Daleks were peaceful scholars. The Quatch attack back then came seemingly out of nowhere... and it provoked an all-out war between the two groups, resulting in everything we know about Skaro.

Once the newly formed resistance manages to capture a Dalek, the Doctor cleverly re-programs it into believing that it's Davros, then sends it back to Dalek HQ. The Black Dalek in charge tells it that it's insane, but the reprogrammed Dalek insists on being the second coming of the Daleks' creator. This causes terrible problems for the Daleks, since this particular group was created by Davros after the earlier experiments -- that team TARDIS knows from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth various]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace encounters]] -- would inevitably betray him. Tired of being seen as inferior by his own creations, Davros had implanted this particular group with a stronger sense of loyalty and a rudimentary moral compass and respect for life. But while ensuring his own safety, this does make the Daleks less effective in combat. And when confronted with the alleged return of their creator, the Daleks now turn against each other and quickly fall into arguments, then conflict, and soon enough, all-out civil war.

* ContinuityNod: The Doctor repeats that "A Dalek can't change its bumps". Then comments that the bumps are actually quite easily replacable, and that it's a rubbish saying.

The Doctor can barely believe it, never having met [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks a warlike Thal]] or a scholarly Dalek (though [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks he's heard of the latter]]), but realises that this information gives him leverage against Davros. Using diversion tactics, he decides to take a massive risk and sneaks aboard the warship, where for the first time in their lives, he and Davros come face to face. Davros is all set to give his grand MotiveRant, but the Doctor tells him the truth: Davros' entire life, the war, the air strikes, and the accident that left him burned and crippled, were caused by the Quatch. Although Davros had planned to betray them anyway after the (in his eyes, welcome) destruction of Skaro, he had never expected that they were the cause of every moment of his pain and grief. he tells the Doctor to get off the ship, and -- in a glorious sacrifice -- uses the built-in failsafe he installed in the Quatch' cyborg implants, ripping the entire ship out of the universe and back to its home dimension.

The Doctor assigns himself to leading the Thals and Daleks within the city, and Alistair takes charge of the military aspects and of the strike. As it turns out, the Quatch are after a transdimensional source deep within the diamond core of Skaro, which would enable them to quickly travel between their home dimension and this universe. Currently, they're being kept dimensionally stable using cyborg implants developed for them by Davros. The Quatch' main war tactic depends on statistical analysis of their opponents' combat moves, based on many years of experience -- in practice, this means that every strike against them only makes them more cunning. The Doctor, realising this, orders his soldiers to attack using only a single saucer, and to focus on diversion tactics. A captured Quatch (whom the Daleks want to torture, before the Doctor expressly forbids it) add more information: this is not the first Quatch strike on Skaro. The first one was many centuries ago, when the Thals were a thriving, war-like empire and the Daleks were scholars. The Quatch attack back then came seemingly out of nowhere... and it provoked an all-out war between the two groups, resulting in everything we know about Skaro.