It’s time to listen to and discuss Jubilee
Buy it online using the link above, or listen for free - you’ll find links where to listen free on the story page!
Once you’ve listened, talk about it below! Even if you listened to it before and just want to discuss it - dive right in! Just please use spoiler tags where appropriate.
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Started listening to it a while back. After a bit, suddenly realised I had totally lost track of what was going on and where everyone was. Stopped, and haven’t gotten back to it.
I need to retry listening to it sometime.
I really like this one. Probably my favourite Six Story yet. Almost a 5/5 but I thought it to be a bit too long. 4.5/5
I haven’t much to say here that needs to be said.
Jubilee is a Robert Shearman story, and therefore it is near perfect and in my top five stories ever. Funny, horrific, scary, philosophical, morbid, it’s the distillation of the Shearman script, his blackest of black comedies and the greatest depiction of the Daleks. Ever.
My main complaint is that it’s now ruined Dalek for me because I always think of it as “Jubilee but worse”.
Full review here. If you enjoy, feel free to drop a like:
A brilliant story and so much more than the TV ‘version’. The whole Davros bait and switch is rather fun.
What is there to say? Jubilee is an absolute masterpiece and a classic for a reason. Stunning on all fronts.
Last time we had Shearman and Sixie together it resulted in one of my favorite Doctor Who stories ever in any medium, so super excited for this. Totally expecting it to be way better than Dalek.
Love Jubilee. Haven’t listened to it in years, but it was one of the very first Big Finish stories I ever heard! Really evocative and horrible– paints a world full of darkness, strangeness, cruelty and absurdity.
I agree that it’s better than Dalek, but I’ll also say I think the two stories are doing fundamentally different things.
Dalek is about introducing the overwhelming power of the Daleks to a new generation: it’s an action-horror story that also delves into the Doctor’s war trauma. Jubilee is about society’s response to fascism, and how the UK’s belittling and making light of the Nazis, turning them into funny fairytale villains, paves the way for real, dangerous neofascism and extremism to emerge.
They’re doing very different things, both very well! Jubilee is just more interesting to me personally. And is much funnier!
I’ve always really loved this story. I think there are some small things I’d change. But most importantly, there were so many moments when there was a very strong thought in my mind: ‘Well, this is prescient.’ It’s almost a very hard listen at times, exploring the alternate fascist Britain. A Britain that has honored the Doctor but become everything the Doctor hates.
When everything hits the fan in part 4, there’s a beautiful moment of humanity between the Rochesters. You start to feel a messed up sympathy for the two. And then not even 30 seconds later, it ends and you can’t help but shed a tear for the demons. There’s a cruelty to the entire scene. The entire story is twisted and dark. There’s a pitch-black sense of humor and I think that it underlines the tragedy. Pair it all with absolutely stellar performances from the entire cast and you have a perfect start to a really interesting and experimental year in the Main Range.
It is brilliant, I happily concede. That said, Dalek is bolder with it’s unflinching depiction of a single Dalek developing an identity and facing a genuine existential crisis. The Dalek in Dalek is a true and full character.
None of that is to knock Jubilee which is beautifully rich, genuinely brilliant story. It’s wonderful! Yet it would not have been right for the 2005 series. Jubilee is rightly, a celebration (and subversion) to delight deep fandom. Dalek’s genius is in knowing exactly what the popular audience needed, and in re-establishing the threat of the Daleks, long after they had become a public joke.
I’ll be honest, they are both brilliant in different ways. Given the root similarities, it really highlights Shearman’s insight into DW.
I was, of course, curious about Jubilee because I know it’s highly rated by most and was adapted into the TV story Dalek for the revival.
And it’s written by the maestro Robert Shearman.
It turns out to be just as dark, disturbing, funny, and effective as I had hoped. Meaningful, memorable, scary, tense, and original. A superb cast and so well-written, complex characters. One of the best uses of the Daleks I have ever come across. It shares a few things with Dalek but is also so much more.
I loved the Davros fakeout, the little singing toy Daleks, and the James Bond reference at the start.
10/10
OK so I went into this only knowing that A) it’s a fan favourite and has really positive reviews and that B) it was later adapted into Dalek, in my opinion one of the best NuWho uses of The Daleks. It was also my first, true introduction to The Daleks on TV, and was what got me into the series.
I always regret knowing the fan consensus before going into a piece of media because it does affect my enjoyment - I was very hyped up for this story and did come back a little disappointed, but I understand that is 100% on me.
I suppose I thought it might be more like Dalek, but then reading some of your reviews I realise that of course it cannot be. Dalek was rewritten to accommodate the lack of Daleks being on screen for many years, the Time War, the Doctor’s guilt, and is an absolutely stunning piece of work. As soon as I pressed play and was subjected to a mock advert for a Doctor Who vs The Daleks movie, I released this was going to be very different.
None of the suspense about what the Doctor was going to face, none of the intrigue about what this creature was, and no big speech from the Doctor about how the Dalek should not have survived, how he was the only survivor of the Time War, etc. etc.
So I felt initially that it suffered because of that. Also I was a bit annoyed at how funny and silly it all was… until I realised what was going on, that this is a story about fascists, how we let them seep into our politics by not treating them seriously. How they run out of external enemies and have to turn on their own people.
So yes, it’s an excellent story. I suspect if I listen again my rating will go up. But it was not quite what I was expecting, which is the only reason really that I only gave it 4/5.
Oh and I totally fell for the Davros fakeout, I wrote it in my notes (when listening I try to make notes about tropes, inventory, characters, locations, so I can update the site) and wondered how I’d missed that character off, all until they actually revealed who it was! And how horrific!!
What a brilliant story. Comparing it to its adaptation feels honestly unfair. Dalek only really adapts a small part of Jubilee for its own purpose in NuWho. Yeah, the story just has that much on offer. You could probably adapt 20 more episodes from it lol.
Shearman’s usual style of making all side characters act completely ridiculous and nonsensical (or make them act ‘normal’ in insane situations) returns, but after two stories where this portrayal is reserved for characters living in some kind of bizarro dimension where their reality is questioned, here this characterization is mostly given to the president of the British Empire and his wife, the faces of fascism in this story. Shearman ridicules fascism and the illogicalities in it, rightfully making the people who believe in it come over as completely nuts.
At the same time, Shearman spells out to us the dangers of belittling these types of ideologies. Because if we forget the harm they did and stop treating it as a serious thing, the idea might just creep back up in people’s heads, and they won’t even realize.
I think this is one of the reasons the humor feels so dark. Because we keep being told how dangerous it is to portray fascism as silly, meanwhile fascism is portrayed as silly. We laugh at the tools of commercialized war propaganda, i mean, singing Daleks! We laugh at the result of indoctrination of sexism, i mean, crazy women wants to marry a Dalek! And we laugh because it’s funny, it’s really funny, but we also feel a teensy bit uncomfortable. Cause it’s like we’re doing something naughty, something we’re not supposed to. Brilliantly written. That Robert Shearman man.
I simplify it and I could probably talk about the remembering history part too but y’all are probably bored enough already so I’ll leave writing more walls of text to someone else lol. 10/10 btw
I feel the need to mention: if any of you track down a copy of Tiny Deaths, Rob Shearman’s first short story collection, there’s a story called Damned if you Don’t that takes some of these ideas from Jubilee and runs with them. It’s a story which is both hilarious and horrifying.
I want to read this now, but can’t find it available anywhere (that isn’t an extortionate price)
I haven’t read this in years, so you’re making me think about rereading it soon
I feel like all Shearman stories are the exact same flavour - and fortunately, that is a flavour I enjoy, otherwise I think I might find his stories quite unbearable. There’s a very definite stylistic choice that goes on in all of his writing, and it’s especially obvious in stories like this. There’s always a subversion of what you’re given - here we have the ‘silly little girl’ (Scherzo spoilers…), ‘the bumbling king’, and then the enemy and hero in the Daleks and the Doctor. Then all that is wrapped up in a dark sense of humour and turned on its head in a way that really makes you think about the broader point he’s making.
And here, the point very much is that power corrupts and Empire is not for the best. It’s pointing at so-called British Ideals and saying no, that kind of power isn’t good. It harms everyone. And that’s the kind of thing you get in The Holy Terror and Chimes too. Which I also really like. I’d love to see the thoughts of someone who didn’t like this flavour of story, I would find that an interesting read.
Otherwise, it’s been years since I listened to this and I don’t think I fully knew it was what would be Dalek in Series 1, so knowing that now is interesting. They’re different types of stories, and ultimately the Big Theme in both is different - Jubilee being very much about Power and Dalek being Grief - and honestly, I think Dalek is a lesser story. It hasn’t got the same kind of bite, and I do totally get why. But still, much to think about
I should rewatch Dalek sometime, when my memories of Jubilee are still fresh
While not a personal 10/10 for me, Jubilee is strong and should definitely be recognized as an important part of Doctor Who history.