This release comprises two dual part stories, Alien Heart and Dalek Soul, starring The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa with a connecting theme of- you guessed it- Daleks.
Alien Heart by Stephen Cole
In the TARDIS, the Doctor and Nyssa stumble across a trail of ten destroyed worlds, all of them obliterated by means of some utterly monstrous but utterly unknown device. The planet Traxana would seem to be next in line to suffer the same fate. But when the TARDIS lands on an outpost on Traxana’s moon, Nyssa is carried away by a tide of giant green arachnoids, leaving the Doctor behind…
And the coming menace is closer than he thinks.
Alien Heart contains examples of:
- Call-Back:
- Nyssa brings up the destruction of her home planet by an entropy wave.
- The planet Traxana is home to lucanol mines.
- The Doctor again proclaims himself to be a "citizen of the universe".
- The Daleks believe the Doctor and Nyssa to be agents of the Movellans.
- Casual Danger Dialogue:Sonderal: Hands in the air!The Doctor: Would you settle for one hand in the air while I finish this little job?
- Chekhov's Gun: The Doctor's souped-up intercom system.
- Cliffhanger: Nyssa and the Doctor are taken prisoner by the Daleks.
- Disney Death: Theebe throws Nyssa down a mine shaft. Fortunately, it turns out to be a gravity elevator, and Nyssa instead spends a few minutes floating harmlessly about.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Sonderal having the standard Bigger on the Inside moment upon entering the TARDIS is what prompts the Doctor to consider that the time spillage on Traxana isn't just random, but caused by someone else with a time machine.
- Giant Spider: Engineered from Dalek DNA and capable of generating time distorting energy. Yikes.
- Foreshadowing: The "heartbeat" noise that Nyssa and Theebe pick up on their scanner is distorted, but sounds naggingly familiar...
- Humans Are Bastards: Despite his fondness for them, the Doctor is quick to guess that humanity is responsible for the destruction of the planets, probably in the name of expanding their empire. As he notes, it would hardly be the first time.
- Improbable Weapon User:The Doctor: I should remind you, I have a dangerous intercom at my disposal.
- It Can Think: This eventually becomes clear about the cell spiders, which only makes them creepier.
- Jerkass: Theebe. She murdered the other mine workers because they wanted to abandon the project, then took it over so she could sell the mine herself. She confesses all this to Nyssa right before she tries to kill her too.
- Karmic Death: Theebe murdered the original miners and pretended the spiders had taken them. The spiders kill her in the end.
- Locked Out of the Loop: The "deep cover" Daleks on Traxana still believe they are engaged in war against the Movellans, when that war has been over for quite some time.
- Mood Whiplash: The Daleks have been defeated, their scheme undone and the Doctor and Nyssa bid a fond farewell to Captain Sonderal at her spaceship... and then more Daleks turn up out of nowhere, immediately exterminate Sonderal and take Nyssa and the Doctor captive. End credits.
- Nice Girl: The Doctor lists Nyssa's characteristics as "curly hair" and "very nice". Sonderal even comments on it when she eventually meets Nyssa.
- Sacrificial Planet: Ten of them, thanks to the Daleks and their latest insane scheme for universal domination.
- Space Base: The Doctor and Nyssa come across a base on Traxana's moon, quite some time before Traxana's people are supposed to have set foot on their moon.
- Tele-Frag: The time shifts on Traxana can reform rock walls when they're torn down, and several people are unlucky enough to be standing where the rocks once stood. The results are not pretty.
- Tunnel Network: The cell spiders have been building one for a long time. It connects across the entire planet.
- World-Wrecking Wave: The Daleks plan to stop the planet spinning in space while the atmosphere around it continues to spin, assaulting the planet with thousand-kilometer winds and wiping out all life.
Dalek Soul by Guy Adams
On the Dalek-occupied world of Mojox, a group of rebels is engaged in a futile fightback against the invaders – but at last they’ve found an ally, in the form of the mysterious Doctor. Elsewhere, however, the Daleks' Chief Virologist is seeking to perfect a biological weapon to wipe out the Mojoxalli, once and for all.
Her name… is Nyssa.
Dalek Soul contains examples of:
- Ax-Crazy: The Daleks' top enforcer takes a lot of pleasure in killing, destruction and needless cruelty. He's also a clone of the Doctor.
- Bait-and-Switch: The opening scenes show us Nyssa working as the Daleks Virologist, presumably under threat of death, while the Doctor helps a band of rebels, as is his way. Nyssa is working for the Daleks completely freely, and the Doctor is their sadistic enforcer, betraying the rebels to the Daleks.
- Call-Forward: This is not the last time the Daleks will create a genetic duplicate of The Fifth Doctor.
- Clone Angst: Once Toru reveals the truth to Nyssa about her and the Doctor being clones, her horror and despair inevitably drive her to kill all the bad guys, including herself.
- Clone Degeneration: Nyssa's virus targets Dalek DNA, which also exists in herself and the Doctor, Dalek duplicates. Their skin burns and withers, killing them in the end.
- Despair Event Horizon: Falex, once it appears Nyssa helped the Daleks by creating a virus to wipe out her people, has nothing left to lose, and tries to kill Nyssa, not caring that it will get her exterminated.
- "Everybody Dies" Ending: Thanks to The Virus that Nyssa's duplicate unleashes, all of the Daleks on Mojox are destroyed, and so are Nyssa, the Doctor, and all their many clones.
- Evil Doppelgänger: The Doctor's clone(s). Nyssa's duplicate is a much softer example, though she does note that the real Nyssa would still never have done half the things she has.
- Fake Memories: Nyssa and the Doctor's clones have been imprinted with these by the Daleks to control them. They have a vague idea that they have worked for the Daleks for a few months, not knowing that any number of clones have been cycled through in the last five years.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: The real Doctor and Nyssa have no idea about anything going on in this story, having escaped the Daleks five years previously on Traxana, completely unaware that their DNA had been sampled for cloning. Nyssa's clone destroys herself, the clone Doctor and all the Daleks, and since Toru and the resistance have no contact with the real Doctor, he and Nyssa will probably never know what went on here.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: The Daleks were aware that even a clone of the Doctor could potentially try to stop them, and put a huge amount of effort into making sure his duplicates were completely evil and loyal to the Dalek cause. They put no such effort into cloning Nyssa, and her duplicates are much more willing to turn against the Daleks. In the end, she destroys them all with The Virus.
- La Résistance: As per usual with Dalek occupations, one of these springs up on Mojox, aided, naturally, by the Doctor. Or so he leads them to believe.
- Redemption Equals Death: For Nyssa's clone.
- The Reveal: The Doctor and Nyssa escaped their imprisonment in the last story and flew off in the TARDIS. But the Daleks managed to take samples of their DNA, and have used a huge amount of Doctor and Nyssa clones to do their dirty work for five years.
- Reluctant Mad Scientist: Nyssa has done plenty of horrific experiments for the Daleks as their Chief Virologist, but it's clear she's not entirely happy about it.
- Running Gag: The Doctor curses himself for never getting around to replacing his sonic screwdriver.
- Secret Identity Vocal Shift: Toru, the rebel leader, disguises his voice during his conversations with Nyssa. He never removes the vocal effects, thus we never find out his true identity.
- Time Skip: This story is set five years after "Alien Heart".
- Tomato in the Mirror: Nyssa realizing that she is only a clone of the real Nyssa, and not even an accurate clone, at that.
- The Unreveal: Whoever Toru, the rebel leader actually is, or even what his real voice sounds like is never disclosed.
- The Virus: Nyssa has spent five years on Mojox developing one of these at the Daleks' behest, one that will target the Mojoxalli and kill them all. In the end, she reconfigures it to target Dalek DNA, which includes herself and the Doctor, Dalek duplicates.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The real Doctor and Nyssa escape Traxana and the Doctor notes that the planet is in no serious danger since their scheme from the previous story has been stopped, but would they really have just run away and never looked back, not even trying to foil the Daleks' domination plans?
