The Time of the Daleks ( audio story ) Publisher ' s summary . The Doctor has always admired the work of William Shakespeare . So he is a little surprised that Charley doesn ' t hold the galaxy ' s greatest playwright in the same esteem . In fact , she ' s never heard of him . Which the Doctor thinks is quite improbable . General Mariah Learman , ruling Britain after the Eurowars , is one of Shakespeare ' s greatest admirers , and is convinced her time machine will enable her to see the plays ' original performances . Which the Doctor believes is extremely unlikely . The Daleks just want to help . They want Learman to get her time machine working . They want Charley to appreciate the first - ever performance of Julius Caesar . They believe that Shakespeare is the greatest playwright ever to have existed and venerate his memory . Which the Doctor knows is utterly impossible . Plot . Part 1 . Inside a time fissure , a group of Daleks have deployed a Temporal Extinction Device . However , its detonation renders the fissure unstable , overpowering their time ship . Just before destruction , they open a time corridor with one end on the fissure and the other on the planet Earth . They send out three strategists , plus their pilot , to find a solution . One strategist is crushed by the corridor as it collapses ; the other three Daleks escape , leaving their fellows behind to await rescue . Elsewhere , the Doctor and Charley Pollard feel the effect of the Dalek action , as the TARDIS is forced to ride out the temporal energy wave . In the course of the incident , the Doctor makes a Shakespearean reference , but is stunned to realise that Charley does not know the famed poet . When he remembers that Orson Welles also did not remember Shakespeare during their recent encounter , he realises the problem is larger than he thought — and he detects the time fissure , reaching from the 21st century backward through time to 1572 . It seems Shakespeare is disappearing into the fissure — not definite as yet , but definitely possible . The Doctor sets out to save the playwright , and all of time with him . In the 21st century , Britain has survived the Eurowars and become a benevolent dictatorship under the leadership of General Mariah Learman . Learman is steadfastly refusing to allow general elections and restore the democracy , to the consternation of her niece Viola and her young kitchen boy ; Viola wants her to step down and allow elections . Meanwhile , Learman ’ s subordinate , Major Ferdinand , supports her in this show of strength . As she concludes a public address ( with a Shakespeare quote , no less ) , rebels Priestly and Hart listen in , and vow to fight to restore democracy . . . and William Shakespeare , as well . The TARDIS lands in Learman ’ s home , Britain ’ s new capitol . The Doctor and Charley immediately encounter Ferdinand , who takes the Doctor to be an expected public relations expert summoned by Learman ; he plays along , after ensuring the real expert will be denied entry . Learman reveals that people have begun to forget about Shakespeare , and that they blame her for it , adding fuel to the relatively small rebel movement . She introduces the Doctor to Viola , sending the kitchen boy back to the kitchen . Viola acknowledges Shakespeare ’ s improbable removal from history , though Learman attributes it to mass hysteria . The Doctor suggests that the removal of Shakespeare from history hasn ’ t happened yet , but is becoming more probable , accounting for the increasing loss of his memory in the public . Learman is not surprised ; and to the Doctor ’ s own surprise , she admits that the rebels blame her because she has been experimenting with time travel . The rebels themselves are falling victim — one of their number has forgotten Shakespeare . Hart suspects that Learman ’ s experiments are intended to save Shakespeare , but Priestly scoffs at the idea . Viola contacts the rebels and urges them to wait before acting , as she hopes to persuade Learman to step down . She tells them about the Doctor , and they agree to hold off attacking Learman . Meanwhile , Learman takes the Doctor and Charley to her would - be time machine — a hall lined with mirrors and filled with hundreds of clocks . A Professor Osric is there , working on the machine ’ s master clock . The mirrors are coated with orthopositronium , which uses the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to alter time itself ; using a parallel universe in which light moves at a different speed , it can connect its mirrors to a mirror at any point in the past . However , it is not working ; it requires a steady source of chronons for power . Osric claims it has worked once ; a month prior , the mirrors opened , admitting someone who has helped him . The Doctor suspects he knows what is coming . Osric ’ s “ help ” enters the room : the Daleks . These Daleks are different , however . They make no attempt to exterminate ; and they claim to revere Shakespeare , which the Doctor does not believe . However , their help has started the recharging of the master clock ; within an hour it will be fully powered . Learman , also a Shakespeare enthusiast , intends to see the first performance of Julius Caesar live ; she brushes off the Doctor ’ s warnings about the Daleks . The Doctor returns to the library , leaving Charley in the hall of mirrors . He meets Viola en route , and she tries to enlist him in her attempts to persuade Learman to concentrate on the country rather than Shakespeare . She explains that everyone is having nightmares of a future full of oppression and conformity ; and she suspects it will become real . The Doctor understands ; the Daleks will bring in such a future . In the library , the kitchen boy is reading , and the Doctor falls into a trance because of the temporal anomalies . When he revives , he and the boy look at the historic First Folio of Shakespeare ’ s works , which had been on display , and find it blank . They may be out of time already . Meanwhile , Ferdinand , Learman , Charley , and Osric await the activation of the machine in the hall of mirrors . When the clock is fully powered , Osric uses it to bring up an image of the Globe Theatre in the mirrors . The Doctor arrives and tries to stop the machine , but is himself stopped by Ferdinand . The Daleks use the machine to open a time portal via the mirrors , connecting the hall to their time ship in the vortex . Daleks flood through the portal and into the room . Part 2 . Learman welcomes the Daleks , who set about guarding Learman ’ s work . They insist on rescuing Shakespeare , but the Doctor remains unconvinced , even though Learman knows about their stranded ship . He agrees to help for the moment . Meanwhile , the Daleks exterminate all extraneous humans in the palace , and their compatriots on the ship are preparing another Temporal Extinction Device , which will be powered by the palace ’ s nuclear reactor . A source of chronons in the hall of mirrors , assumed to be the master clock , will stabilise the device , allowing them to conquer all Time . In the library , the Doctor , Charley , and Viola examine the now - blank folio ; Viola is distressed to find that the kitchen boy had been reading it earlier . She bluffs her way past the Dalek guarding the library and goes out . To delay things , the Doctor begins converting the now - useless master clock into an actual temporal stabiliser , but lengthens the work . As he returns to the hall of mirrors , he again quotes Shakespeare . . . but the quote , strangely , is recognised by the Dalek in the hallway . Viola gets in touch with Priestly , but is tracked and captured by the Daleks . Priestly , hearing her capture , tells Hart to attack , and the rebels storm the palace . As the Daleks retaliate , Viola escapes in the confusion , but refuses to go with the rebels , as her presence will attract the Daleks . She sends Priestly and Hart away , but they are captured by Ferdinand . However , he knows the Daleks are a bigger threat , and joins forces with them ; he lets them escape while he holds off the Daleks . Meanwhile Viola breaks into the hall of mirrors and takes the master clock while the Doctor and Charley watch ; she threatens to destroy it if the Daleks don ’ t back off . The kitchen boy arrives and interrupts the scene ; to prevent the Daleks from killing him , Viola resets the master clock , causing a new time period to appear in the mirrors . Viola escapes through a mirror , accidentally taking Charley with her . They find themselves in 19 September 1572 , still on the palace grounds ; they must make their way to another mirror , hidden a half mile away in the building where — in the 21st century — the rebels have been hiding . They see Daleks herding slaves along the road and killing the weak . Charley realises what the Doctor meant earlier : the Daleks have used the time fissure to change history , trying to bring about a timeline in which they have always enslaved Earth . It is this timeline of which people have been dreaming . She and Viola are spotted by the Daleks , who chase them toward the mirror . The Doctor is forced to concede that the master clock works ; however , without it , the Daleks can ’ t open time portals . The Doctor can build a short - term stabiliser , and so the Daleks lock him in Ferdinand ’ s office , with Ferdinand , to work . There is a mirror in the office ; and with the jury - rigged stabiliser , they step through . They find themselves in the rebel camp , where the rebels ’ mirror is set to 1572 . Although it has not worked since a month ago , it is opening now , showing Viola and Charley as they try to open a portal . The Doctor hears Charley warn Viola about Daleks , indicating that history is already changing . He opens a portal to the hall of mirrors , where he finds Osric and the kitchen boy . Osric admits to helping Viola give the rebels a mirror , but can ’ t explain why . The Doctor sends him to the rebel camp to rescue Charley and Viola . Afterward , he wants the rebels to hit the Daleks before they can make permanent changes to history . Immediately after Osric leaves , the Supreme Dalek arrives with Learman , and realises they have been betrayed . Unfortunately , Osric needs a chronon source to open a portal , and the Daleks are approaching . Charley meets with Viola , and the portal suddenly opens , allowing them through just before the Daleks open fire . This changes the probabilities of history again , and the Daleks in the Elizabethan period vanish , replaced by human soldiers . Priestly and Hart decide to use their mirror to enter the hall of mirrors and surprise the Daleks — but when Osric goes through , he finds that the Daleks are onto him . They exterminate him and summon reinforcements to handle the invading rebels . The Doctor tells the kitchen boy to stay hidden , and then steps out to confront the Supreme Dalek . He tries to persuade the Daleks to capture the rebels rather than kill them . However , the rebels open fire anyway — and in the crossfire , Charley is shot by a Dalek . Part 3 . The master clock takes the brunt of the blast , leaving Charley stunned but alive . The rebel survivors retreat into the palace , having taken many losses — and Priestly learns that Hart no longer remembers Shakespeare . Instead , Hart remembers the Daleks ruling Earth since the dawn of time , with Learman as a current puppet ruler . Priestly decides the only way to stop the Daleks is with the nuclear reactor . Meanwhile , Learman dismisses Charley as unimportant and checks on the damaged master clock ; it will not open any portals . The Daleks imprison Charley as leverage on the Doctor , and set Viola and the kitchen boy to care for her . The Supreme Dalek orders the Doctor to repair the clock , and then returns to its ship — but the Doctor still doesn ’ t know how it worked in the first place . He bluffs for permission for himself and Ferdinand to speak to Charley , while on the ship , the Supreme Dalek reports to the Emperor . The Doctor manages to get some privacy with Charley , Ferdinand , and Viola , and plan to escape the room — but the Daleks have smashed all the mirrors inside . The Doctor sends the kitchen boy to get lunch , with some very specific instructions . When he returns , the Doctor uses the silver foil on the food to create a makeshift mirror , and then assembles another device to open it . The Daleks detect the new portal , however ; and though Viola and Ferdinand escape , the Doctor , Charley , and the boy are taken captive . Charley and the Doctor are taken to the Dalek ship . The rebels find the reactor swarming with Daleks , who want to use it to power their ship . Priestly decides to blow up the reactor ; Hart , having new memories of years of combat with the Daleks , is able to help . They are met by Viola and Ferdinand , who raided the armoury on their way over ; they reveal that the Daleks have taken Learman to their ship for reasons unknown . Ferdinand stages a decoy attack , followed by an attack on the reactor from the rear , using plastique to gain entrance . The Supreme Dalek gives the Doctor an ultimatum : fix the master clock within an hour , or see everyone left in the palace exterminated . They leave to return to the hall of mirrors ; but when Learman visits the Supreme Dalek , the Doctor and Charley stay to eavesdrop , losing their guard in the process . Learman , it seems , believes that Shakespeare is too transcendent for the masses to understand , and therefore she wants the Daleks to kill Shakespeare rather than save him . She intends for them to provide her with a temporally shielded copy of his complete works , making her the only person in the universe to know he existed . The Doctor then accesses the ship ’ s flight data recorder , and learns how the Daleks got here — the time fissure was already present before the Daleks arrived , and they have an entire fleet in the vortex . He learns of the damage to the ship , and the escape corridor which allowed a few Daleks to escape ; the survivors made the deal with Learman and used her machine to access and stabilize their ship . However , the pilot is unaccounted for — and what was the device the Daleks were using in the time fissure ? The attack on the reactor commences . Hart and most of the rebels are killed , but Ferdinand , Viola , and Priestly make it to safety behind the radiation shielding . They begin sabotaging the reactor , knowing this has become a suicide mission . The Doctor and Charley return to the hall of mirrors , but are detected . The Daleks also detect a chronon source in the hall , which seems to indicate that the Doctor has repaired the master clock . Learman and the Supreme Dalek arrive , and set the clock to show several different time periods , all of which are being overrun by Daleks , making their victory more and more certain . Learman consents to it , saying that humanity is too decadent to win ; with her plan , at least the memory of Shakespeare will not be lost . The Doctor plans to stop her , but suddenly an alarm announce that the reactor will explode . If it happens while the mirrors are open , the explosion will be transmitted through the portals and destroy London in every time period — and it will also reach the Dalek ship , causing a chain reaction throughout their fleet of 1700 ships . This could irreparably damage the web of time itself . The Supreme Dalek refuses to accept it , believing his forces will stop the rebels ; and he sends a squad to assassinate Shakespeare . The Doctor realises the nuclear explosion is the event which created the time fissure in the first place , allowing the Daleks to invade ; and Time is about to be conquered . Part 4 . Several Daleks self - destruct to break into the reactor , but in the process they damage its core seals . More Daleks manage to enter the reactor and shut it down , and Priestly is killed . Ferdinand and Viola escape , and the blast shutters close behind them — the crisis is averted , but the Daleks inside will be trapped forever in the irradiated area . When Learman leaves the hall of mirrors , Charley gives the Doctor an idea . He resets the master clock in Charley ’ s hands ; had she not been holding it , she would have gone back in time a few seconds , met herself , and been destroyed by the resultant energy discharge , but as it is , the portals ’ endpoints have simply been changed . The Daleks who were headed to Shakespeare ’ s era arrive in other places : one is destroyed in the Blitz , while the other is destroyed by the Romans at a fort near London . The Supreme Dalek is not dismayed ; he tells the Doctor that the Daleks are using Time Lord technology gained from their aborted invasion of Gallifrey and their study of the time barrier at Kar - Charrat . The Doctor learns the Emperor is aboard one of the ships in the fleet , indicating the Daleks are confident of victory ; they must have some other means of opening the fissure . The Supreme Dalek reports to the Emperor ; the Temporal Extinction Device is ready , and the master clock is functional , and they only lack a pilot , as theirs was destroyed in the palace . The Doctor deduces that the Daleks tried and failed to detonate a weapon in the fissure , which is what trapped them there . He uses the mirrors to view the past — specifically , the arrival of the pilot and two surviving strategists in the palace , and sees Learman quote Shakespeare , only to have the Daleks respond in kind — thus laying the groundwork for their agreement . When Learman touches the pilot , it disintegrates in a burst of temporal energy . In the present , the Daleks take Learman captive and announce that they will transform her into their new pilot , as she has the necessary knowledge . They force through a temporary time corridor and into the reactor ; this setup , coupled with certain drugs , will cause her to mutate at an accelerated rate , becoming a Dalek mutant . The Supreme Dalek kills a Dalek who has failed him , and places the newly - mutated Learman in its casing . As an ironic fulfilment of their agreement , they attach a memory sphere containing Shakespeare ’ s complete works . With Charley ’ s help , the Doctor realises the truth of the situation , and returns to the library . The kitchen boy is there ; and the Doctor has guessed the truth about him : he is the playwright himself , William Shakespeare , kidnapped at the age of eight by Viola . The master clock has never worked ; it was residual energy from the first temporal extinction device , bleeding through the fissure , which powered the mirrors a month ago . At that time , Viola slipped through the rebels ’ mirror and rescued “ Will ” to prevent Learman from reaching him — but this inadvertently caused the changes in history they are all trying to prevent , creating a paradox , which is what caused the time fissure in the first place . The Daleks , preparing for their triumph , summon the Doctor , Charley , Viola , Ferdinand , and Will to the hall of mirrors . The new pilot departs for the ship , quoting Shakespeare as it goes ; the Doctor realises it must be Learman . To ensure that the Doctor does not interfere , the Supreme Dalek takes Charley hostage , and reveals that the TARDIS is now aboard the ship . Charley is taken to the ship as well . The Daleks place the master clock on the ship , and chronon levels begin to rise ; they sever the link with the palace . Determined to rescue Charley , the Doctor and Ferdinand distract one of the two Daleks on guard ; when it fires on them , the mirrors deflect the blast to destroy the second guard , as the Doctor intended . Ferdinand tackles the other Dalek with his last grenade ; but he can ’ t get it attached , and so sacrifices himself to blow up the Dalek . The Doctor opens a portal to the ship , and he , Viola , and Will enter ; he tells Viola that the master clock doesn ’ t work , and another source of chronons is present on the ship , just as it was the first time the portals opened . The Supreme Dalek sends Charley for extermination , but the Doctor rescues her , sending her guard tumbling to destruction in the vortex . The Doctor , Charley , Will , and Viola retreat to the TARDIS and leave . He tunes the scanner to the Daleks ’ monitors to see the endgame . The master clock will not work as a stabiliser , because the real source of chronons is — both now and before — Charley . The Daleks deploy the Temporal Extinction Device in the fissure , but as before , the fissure becomes unstable , and a wave of temporal energy strikes the ship . The Daleks open a corridor and send out three strategists and a pilot ; one strategist is destroyed . It seems time is repeating itself , and the Daleks are caught in an infinite loop . This is why the pilot detonated when Learman touched it — it was Learman , and the touch shorted out the time differential . Outside the loop , history will continue unimpeded — and everyone ’ s memories of Shakespeare are restored . The Doctor takes Viola back to her own time and Will to his . However , all is not as it should be ; the constant string of paradoxes has revealed the truth to the Doctor . The web of time itself is unravelling , and Charley Pollard is the cause . It remains to be determined if it can be saved , and how .