Fear of the Daleks

Zoe Herriot is having bad dreams. Very vivid bad dreams. She wakes up at night tormented by very clear images of monsters and feelings of absolute terror; with her eidetic memory this is worse than a normal nightmare. She seeks the help of a counselor and tells of her dream, a dream where she is with two men she met just once on the Wheel: Jamie McCrimmon and the Doctor. How she can dream of them so vividly is a mystery to her and she suspects her memory is being blocked, for how else could she recall with such clarity a time when she was with the Doctor and Jamie and they encountered the most evil creatures in the universe - the Daleks.

It's curious that in this instance the Daleks are trying to be all subtle in their plans; they are attempting to use third parties as assassins to disrupt a peace conference and set the parties at war, but this kind of cunning is not really them at all. I was surprised that the Daleks were not just going to roll in and wipe everyone out. Zoe is absolutely terrified of them, with her dream detailing watching them on a screen in the TARDIS and then falling into their trap; her eidetic memory makes her a perfect candidate for the assassination mission they have in mind. Zoe is then used against her will as their puppet to attempt to carry out their plans.

There are really two stories being told here; the first and most obvious is the adventure with the Daleks, but the other is the start of a loose story arc. Zoe's memory being so sharp has somehow resisted some of the Time Lord voodoo they used to wipe it of her time with the Doctor, and over the years bits of what happened while she was on board the TARDIS is percolating through the layers. Being a logical type of gal, Zoe makes the conclusion that she is actually being blocked somehow and slowly realizes that she actually has been with the Doctor and Jamie, even if she can't remember everything in any coherent order or detail. Did the Time Lords get the whole mind wipe wrong? Did they understand so little about humans that the whole thing was just a big fail?

And if Zoe's memories are still lurking somewhere in her subconscious, bubbling up in her dreams, then what about Jamie...?

NEXT EPISODE: HELICON PRIME