Excelis Dawns

Big Finish Productions audio play
Excelis Dawns
Series	Doctor Who
Release number	1 in Excelis series
Featuring	Fifth Doctor Iris Wildthyme
Writer	Paul Magrs
Director	Gary Russell
Producer(s)	Gary Russell Jason Haigh-Ellery
Executive producer(s)	Jacqueline Rayner
Set between	During Frontios, prior to the final sequence.
Length	1 hr 30 mins
Release date	February 2002

Excelis Dawns is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is part of the Excelis trilogy which continues in Excelis Rising and Excelis Decays. The events are also connected to the Bernice Summerfield audio drama The Plague Herds of Excelis.

Plot

The Doctor discovers Iris Wildthyme in a nunnery, on a medieval world called Artaris.

Cast

• The Doctor — Peter Davison
• Iris Wildthyme — Katy Manning
• Warlord Grayvorn — Anthony Stewart Head
• Sister Jolene — Posy Miller
• The Mother Superior — Patricia Leventon
• The Zombie King — Billy Miller

Continuity

• This story is set during the last episode of Frontios, after the Doctor has dropped the Gravis off on Kolkokron but before his return to Frontios.

• Iris Wildthyme was a character (created by Paul Magrs) who appeared in several Doctor Who books such as The Scarlet Empress, The Blue Angel, Verdigris and Mad Dogs and Englishmen

• The Scarlet Empress takes place on the planet Hyspero, where Iris claims to have bought the Excelis Relic.

• This is the first Big Finish story to include Iris. She returns in the Bernice Summerfield story The Plague Herds of Excelis, which brings closure to elements of this story. She also meets the Sixth Doctor in The Wormery and even gets her own audio series, Iris Wildthyme.

• Some of the adventures Iris claims to have shared with the Doctor include The Web Planet, The Three Doctors, Genesis of the Daleks and Invasion of Time. She also claims to have had a solo adventure similar to The Five Doctors, but orchestrated by Morbius and involving Mechanoids, Voord and Zarbi.

Notes

• Katy Manning, who plays Iris Wildthyme in this story, previously played the Third Doctor's companion, Jo Grant, for three seasons between 1971 and 1973.
• Anthony Head played Mr Finch in the 2006 TV episode School Reunion and was the narrator for that year's series of Doctor Who Confidential.

External links

• Big Finish Productions - Excelis Dawns
• Excelis Dawns at the Doctor Who Reference Guide