Jubilee [AUDIO/2003.2.4]

★★★★★

  There's a reason Russell T Davies asked Robert Shearman to adapt this particular story for the new television series first, but even then, the finished product (which is still a fine slice of telly, Christopher Eccleston is amazing in it) is leagues below this audio adventure. It's almost unfair to compare this story to, well... any other Dalek story, really... because this is the typical Dalek narrative flipped on its head, in which humanity has turned the fascist pepperpots into a cultural fetish and a lucrative commodity. The United Kingdom has become a place of eugenics, "racial purity", ruthless patriarchy and misogyny and public executions... and no one enjoys all these things more than the common people. Hatred has become an integral part of British culture, or rather the preexisting hatred has internalized the Daleks' modus operandi to a sick level. It's a deeply uncomfortable and piercing gaze on our world, and Shearman explores the theme with the utmost precision.

  Colin Baker and Maggie Stables are a duo that's never not pleasant to listen to; their TARDIS duo is stuff of legend by now and rightly so. They're given some terrific material to work with in this adventure, and both actors go above and beyond with these characters. The Doctor delivers a speech to the bloodthirsty rabble below, a superbly written and performed piece that blows the already-wonderful Trial of a Time Lord speech out of the water. Evelyn, as a history lecturer, gets an entirely new meaning on "history written by the victors", sees the darkest dredges of her own cultural background with her own eyes — and even in the midst of all this madness, she hangs onto her dignity and sanity. There's one moment inside the Tower when Evelyn meets the withered and maimed Doctor and she comforts her delirious friend through the only way she knows — by saying she forgives him as he desperately whispers his apologies to his dead friend — and in that one moment, the already fantastic character becomes the quintessential companion. I don't think I've often experienced such a level of emotional solidarity and strength in Doctor Who.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ  

  So, brandish your Dalek toys and sip on your Dalekade as you open your ears to this harrowing classic. Jubilee is the best of practically all perceivable worlds, and it's perhaps one of the most poignant Dalek stories in the entire mythos. You'll never quite think of the word 'Dalekmania' the same way ever again.