Recap / Doctor Who Magazine 584 To 597 Liberation Of The Daleks

The One With… Daleks in a theme park.

The Fourteenth Doctor’s first story, as presented in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine. This was the longest story in the history of the strip, featured in fourteen issues from late 2022 to late 2023, and was also the first strip story to be explicitly stated to be in continuity with the TV show. It begins immediately after the Thirteenth Doctor's regeneration into the Fourteenth at the end of "The Power of the Doctor", and ends with a sequence leading into the 2023 ''Children In Need'' special.

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Immediately after regenerating, the Doctor travels to Wembley Stadium during the World Cup Finals of 1966. But soon, Daleks attack and destroy the Earth, which soon hints that things are not what they seem.

Tropes featured in Liberation of the Daleks include:

• Beast Man: The Dalek Dome was originally a zoo where the staff underwent "cross species body mods" to become the attraction in order to remain relevant. The legacy of this is that the chief is a lion man, security guards Claire and Claudine are gorillas. There's a giraffe person as well.
• Berserk Button: The Doctor’s rage at the creation of a theme park centred around making his mortal enemies Lighter and Softer, after they came close to destroying his people, threatened the universe countless times and killed several of his friends is quite palpable throughout his interactions with Georgette and the staff.
• Bittersweet Ending: The simulated Daleks' invasion of Earth is stopped, but not before thousands are killed across the globe, including Georgy and the Dalek Dome chief of staff. The Doctor, who was never a fan of the attraction to begin with, leaves Georgette with the choice whether or not to destroy the captive Dalek mutants behind it all as he coldly takes his leave.
• Brick Joke: The Doctor gets handed the World Cup by Georgy to keep it safe, and then he gives it back to her when he hurries her into the TARDIS. At the end, the Doctor discovers that it ended up melting with the rest of its simulation and made a mess on the TARDIS console.
• Call-Back: The opening words of the strip are "Born Again, Again", a reference to the alternate title of the 2005 CIN special that introduced David Tennant. A second one shows up with the teaser for part 3 being “Dead Again”.
• Chekhov's Gun: One of the simulations offered in the Dalek Dome is a “Dalek Civil War” zone. The Doctor later ventures into this zone to recruit the native Daleks to battle the Golden Emperor.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The alien family are important early on, but once the Daleks escape their simulation, they vanish from the plot.
• Clone Angst: Georgy is angered enough at being a duplicate meant to die that she travels into one of the zones and informs the Daleks inside of the truth.
• Continuity Cavalcade
  • Beyond the Dalek fanservice, there are many familiar sights amongst the visitors at the Dalek Dome, including Astrans, Raxacoricofallapatorians, a Sycorax, Ethereals, a Voord, a Menoptera, a Korad, two Kandalinga, a Trod and a Mechanistrian. Even Kirk and Spock are there.
  • The Golden Emperor's Corridor of Conquests contains exhibits all from the TV Century 21 comics, namely a Mechanoid shell, models of a Monstron and a Engibrain, 2K's vehicle, the Solturian Pentaray, an encased model of War Minister Zolfian inscribed with the word "insli" and finally the directions to Earth: "circle Andromeda - then N by NS to landfall Earth".
• Continuity Nod:
  • This isn't the first time a long dormant Dalek has woken up in the presence of the Doctor.
  • The Doctor refers to the myth of the TV Century 21 Daleks on Earth as being before the invasion. TV Century 21 itself followed the Daleks from their pre-Davros origins to their declaration of war against humanity and their plans to invade Earth.
  • The Imperial Daleks appear in multiple simulations.
  • One of the zones the Doctor visits is Spiridon.
  • Among the various Daleks the Doctor recruits are the New Paradigm Supreme, the Time War Emperor, an original Black Dalek, the Emperor from the 90s McCoy era strips and a Stained-Glass Dalek from the Big Finish play "Order of the Daleks".
  • The Doctor’s "Swiss army Sonic", made from Sheffield steel, is destroyed by the Daleks, with the Doctor treating its destruction the same way he did when the Tereleptils did it.
  • The Evil Emperor dispatches a Death Squad, specialists in killing other Daleks, to assassinate the mutant selves of his rivals.
  • Different varieties of Dalek extermination vary between the post-1988 X-Ray Sparks style and the earlier "photonegative" style.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The Doctor has trouble operating the TARDIS because, while he knew it like the back of his hand, said hand is now "Someone else’s hand - my old hand".
• Disc-One Final Boss: The RTD-era Daleks are the initial threat, but they get dealt with 8 parts in. The rest of the story then switches to the TV Century 21 Daleks.
• Don't Explain the Joke: A Running Gag is that the Doctor will make a Pun, and then provide the punchline for those who don't understand.
• Enemy Mine: To stop the TV Century 21 Daleks, the Doctor and co team up with the Evil Daleks to gather all the Dalek simulations into an army to stop them.
• Exty Years from Publication: The Doctor arrives at the Dalek Dome in the year 2323, 300 years into the future.
• Foregone Conclusion: Chapter 2 ends with the Doctor being exterminated by the Daleks, which obviously isn't going to stick.
• Foreshadowing: The alien family casually taking selfies during the apocalypse while the Daleks ignore them basically tells you that this isn't an actual Earth invasion.
• Gender Flip: The King Arthur simulation features a female "Lancer Lotte".
• Heroic Sacrifice: The leonoid chief of the Dalek Dome gives his life to hold off the Daleks, allowing Georgette, along with Claire and Claudette, to escape and rescue the Doctor.
• Historical Character's Fictional Relative: The Doctor enters the World Cup grounds by claiming to be the cousin of England player Nobby Styles.
• Historical In-Joke: As the Daleks attack and disrupt the Cup Final, one of the aliens sarcastically quips, "All over? Well, it is now.", a reference to the famous announcement at the final goal of said match.
• I Lied: The Doctor tells the 1966 scenario Supreme Dalek that he created a system that will electrocute the Dalek generating it that can be activated with his sonic screwdriver, and that, since the screwdriver was destroyed, Merlin is working on a programming command to do the same function. After the Daleks melt away, the Doctor points out that he had no time to actually do such a thing, and was simply bluffing.
• I Warned You: The Doctor is about ready to say this to Georgette after he gets called back to the Dalek Dome by the same distress signal, but then he sees that it was sent by the Golden Emperor.
• Large Ham: The Evil Emperor is clearly intended to be read as one, given his larger font and red text.
  Doctor: "Who’s your voice coach? BRIAN BLESSED?"
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • The TV Century 21 Daleks are said to have originated from a 21st century children's book. They also have never heard of the Doctor, alluding to his non-entity presence in that strip.
  • The announcer voicing the Dalek Dome tannoy is modelled on Nicholas Briggs, the long-serving voice of the Daleks.
• Let's Mock the Monsters: The gathered tourists have become so used to the Harmless Villain Daleks from the simulation that when two separate groups appear and threaten violence, they assume it's All Part of the Show.
• Literal-Minded: When the Supreme Dalek hacks into the Doctor’s emergency hologram and refers to breaching the firewall, the programmed-to-think-she-was-a-1960s-native Georgy is confused, since the wall isn't on fire.
• Merchandising the Monster: It's a Dalek theme park.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Among the "next" captions at the end of the individual instalments are “Daleks Invasion Earth 1966 AD”, “Dead Again”, “Earth Shock” and “The Nightmare Ends”
  • Georgette promotes the Daleks Versus Dragons experience to the Doctor with the tagline, "So close you can feel the fire!", which was used for the film Dr. Who and the Daleks.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: The Doctor is surprised to see the Evil Emperor sprout tentacles from its casing, something it never displayed in its television appearance.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Doctor’s mere presence in the 1966 simulation stirs the Dalek generating it from its sleep, making the characters in the simulation more aware than they should be. Though as Georgette summoned him in the first place for a mere questionnaire without considering what would happen if he ended up in the simulations without context, the ultimate blame for the fallout falls squarely on her.
• Number of the Beast: The King Arthur simulation is set in the year 666.
• Pirates vs. Ninjas: One of the scenarios in the Dalek Dome is "Daleks Versus Dragons".
• Puff of Logic: After the Doctor points out that it would take an absurd number of a specific species to make the calculation to convert the psychoplasmic constructs into real Daleks, the TV Century 21 Emperor has Merlin program a new moon with that exact number on it.
• Race Lift: The King Arthur simulation features a black man as Merlin, his appearance being derived from a worker at the Dalek Dome.
• Real Time: Though it's impossible to accurately gauge passage of time in a comic strip, the story was envisioned and plotted in a fairly consecutive pace equivalent to sixty minutes, per Russell T Davies's recommendation to fit into lines he initially wrote for the 2023 specials, though the reference ultimately showed up in the Children in Need short instead. Per that, this story is the Doctor's adventure in-between him regenerating "sixty minutes ago".
• Retraux: The opening pages of parts nine and ten, set on TV Century 21 Skaro, are laid out, narrated and drawn in the style of TV Century 21.
• Sci-Fi Bob Haircut: Georgette wears a Romulanesque black bob with white streaks, whilst Georgy, her 1966 avatar, has a more contemporary style bob in the same colours, with earrings that make her look not too dissimilar to Bernice Summerfield, the breakout companion from both the Virgin New Adventures and the DWM comics of the 90s.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Doctor calls the 1966 Supreme Dalek “Diana Ross”.
  • The Daleks adding a Dalek upper section to Mount Rushmore parodies a scene in Mars Attacks!, when the Martians deface it to depict four of their own kind.
• Special Effect Failure: Parodied in-universe — the Doctor notices that the alien tourists at the 1966 World Cup final are "fringing", similar to what happened in 1970s Who stories when the Chroma Key (or at the BBC, CSO) went wrong.
• Spoiler Title: Averted. The first chapter doesn't give the title of the book until the final page and the contents page didn't include a name, while the issue's spine referred to it as "Liberation".
• Spy Catsuit: Georgette wears a dark one as an "intelligent uniform" with the ability to change form, which is used to remove her military insignia from sight to avoid alarming the public. It also explains the odd inconsistencies which would otherwise be chalked up as an error of the comic, such as her changing neckline and the appearing and disappearing sleeves.
• Take That!: The Dalek Dome seems to be one to Westworld, and the concept of the Mascot Villain, pointing out just how much Lighter and Softer you'd have to make creatures like the Daleks for such a notion to be possible in-universe.
• Tempting Fate: At the end, the Doctor hopes that the melted World Cup hasn't messed up the Fast Return Switch, since he doesn’t want to go back to Skaro in a hurry. A few days later, a special was announced in which exactly just that happens, with it being set just after the comic for more delicious irony.
• There Can Only Be One: The Golden Emperor decides to drain the other psychoscapes to sustain himself and his Dalek Empire into reality. Later, the Evil Emperor sends Daleks in an attempt to exterminate the mutants sustaining the other Dalek leaders.
• Waxing Lyrical:
  • As the Daleks are all reduced to goop, the two sapient gorillas comment, "It’s raining Daleks", and, “Hallelujah”.
  • The Dalek base thrums with energy that sounds like Ba-Dum Ba-Dum. The Doctor takes this as his cue to announce "Badum Badum, I hear it and I know- Dalek control centre, dead ahead!"
• Wham Shot:
  • The final page of part 1 reveals the antagonists to be the Daleks!
  • Part 7 has Georgy teleporting to Skaro… as it was depicted in TV Century 21.
  • Part 12 ends with the Doctor greeting the Emperor from the Patrick Troughton era.
• Writing Around Trademarks: As Georgy remembers a previous simulation in which she died, all we learn is that it was also in 1966, with the fallen banner only saying "Shea Stadium Welcomes" and "We Wanna Hold...", nearly sidestepping just who was performing on that date at that location.