Kaldor City
Many of the elements borrowed from these series for use in Kaldor City were originated by Chris Boucher, who wrote for Doctor Who and was script editor for all four seasons of Blake's 7.
The society is not entirely comfortable with the use of robots; the machines' humanoid design but complete lack of emotion and body language has given rise to a mental disorder termed Robo-phobia.
The novel also introduces the character of Carnell to Kaldor City, who is a psychostrategist on the run from a corrupt "Federation" and hiding out in the city whilst ingratiating himself with the board by helping them compose their strategies: Carnell is a character from one of Chris Boucher's Blake's 7 episodes, "Weapon", broadcast in 1979, and this novel is the first time that the fan-theory that Doctor Who and Blake's 7 take place in the same fictional universe has received any kind of semi-official recognition.
By the end of the novel, Topmaster Uvanov (formerly commander of the storm mine in The Robots of Death, and not a member of a founding family) has secured his succession to Chairholder of the Company Board.
In 1999, Magic Bullet Productions approached Chris Boucher to discuss the possibility of creating a range of audio plays based on the characters and concepts from his previous work relating to Kaldor City.
Once the Fendahl's involvement was made known, it was possible to return to the series's earlier instalments and see the emergence foreshadowed: for example, Uvanov is given a painting of a Fendahleen, and Carnell muses about the existence of an alien grand manipulator whose goals and methods would be unknowable.
However, as the title hints, the simplest explanation is true: Iago has been committing the murders himself, and framing another board member, in order to gain Uvanov's trust.
Many fans of the series have taken this — combined with similarities in Darrow's performance — to mean that Kaston Iago is in fact Kerr Avon masquerading for his own reasons under an assumed name.
[6] Hidden Persuaders by Jim Smith and Fiona Moore is the third play in the series, and follows the attempts of a terrorist group called "The Church of Taren Capel" to commit an act of terrorism to further their cause.
The title of the play is derived from The Hidden Persuaders by media theorist Vance Packard and is partially an attempt to introduce some of the themes of his work into the series.
Iago discovers that Capel has already programmed several robots in Kaldor City to become killers, with only a trigger phrase — specified in his diary — required to activate them.
[14] On 26 March 2011, a 15-minute Kaldor City play written by Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore was performed by Paul Darrow and Patricia Merrick at the Sci-Fi-London film festival.
Published in the 2006 charity anthology Shelf Life, "Skulduggery" by Fiona Moore and Alan Stevens centres on a scheme concocted by Carnell, at the behest of Landerchild, to assassinate Chairholder Uvanov using a skull covered in contact poison.
The story takes place shortly before Death's Head and acts as a prelude to those events shedding additional light on the motives of its various characters.
