An Earthly Child
20 years after the Daleks were driven off of 22nd century Earth, Susan Campbell still lives among humans. Her human husband has long since died, leaving her to raise her son Alex in a world that had grown paranoid, fearful of another alien invasion. Susan is outspoken in her opposition to the anti-alien Earth United movement… of which Alex is a member. The Doctor arrives to check up on his granddaughter, and finds that humanity has reverted to a Luddite mentality, destroying technology and working to avoid any contact with alien life. Susan has called upon an alien race to render aid to humanity, without consulting what passes for the planet’s government. But Earth United’s tendrils reach inside the government, and there are plans afoot to use Alex against his activist mother. The friendly aliens turn out to be the first wave of another invasion, which plays right into Earth United’s hands… but how much credibility will Alex Campbell have among his xenophobic friends when his great-grandfather and his mother are revealed to be from another world?
written by Marc Platt
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by David DarlingtonCast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), Carole Ann Ford (Susan Campbell), Jake McGann (Alex Campbell), Sheryl Gannaway (Holly Barrett), Leslie Ash (Marion Fleming / Hope), Matt Addis (Faisal Jensen / Reporter), Ian Hallard (Duncan), Ian Brooker (President / Policeman / Air Control / Helicopter Pilot / Reporter)
Notes: An Earthly Child follows on years after Susan (still played by Carole Ann Ford) left the TARDIS crew in 1964’s Dalek Invasion Of Earth – the first series regular to do so; as an homage to that episode, this story utilizes the original 1963 version of the Doctor Who theme rather than the heavily remixed version used for the eighth Doctor/Lucie audio stories. Alex’s resemblance to the Doctor is no accident in the real life recording studio, as Jake McGann is Paul McGann’s son. An Earthly Child ignores the continuity of the BBC Books novels, which depicted their own reunion of Susan and the eighth Doctor in Legacy Of The Daleks. This single-CD story was exclusive to Big Finish subscribers, and was included with the December 2009 release, Plague Of The Daleks.
LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green
Determined to make amends for the Christmas that he ruined for her in 2009 – the Christmas that made her decide to leave the TARDIS – the Doctor offers to provide Lucie with a more relaxed Yuletide holiday, taking her to Earth’s future to celebrate with his family for a change. Susan Campbell, still helping to rebuild the Earth and raising her son Alex, is surprised to see the TARDIS show up on schedule. For his part, Alex is still coming to grips with the fact that his mother is an “alien,” and his great-grandfather travels through time and space in a police box. As Lucie dives headfirst into preparations for a perfect Christmas, Susan’s fears about Alex’s future come to the surface: she’s worried that he’ll want to travel with the Doctor instead of staying on Earth to take part in the reconstruction effort. And deep in the TARDIS, something dating back to Susan’s travels with the first Doctor is about to crash the party.
The Doctor miraculously survives the destruction of the Dalek ship on which he’s being held prisoner, but his brief time among the Daleks leaves him riddled with guilt: the Dalek Time Controller, who he thought he had destroyed in the distant future, has traveled back in time to lead the Daleks’ second invasion of Earth. The Doctor learns that the Dalek Time Controller was sucked into the time vortex and had an eternity to observe history and concoct a plan to wipe out all non-Dalek life using a combination of potent viruses, spreading disease through the universe by using Earth as a mobile plague planet. The Doctor plans to take a nuclear bomb that the Monk has stashed away forward in time to correct his error and prevent this chain of events from happening, but Lucie insists on using the nuke in the present to wipe out the Dalek invasion force. For once, the Doctor is in no position to save the world, but he will witness the death of many dear friends and family members as they battle the Daleks without him.