Categories
5th Doctor Doctor Who

Omega

Doctor Who: OmegaHaving learned its lessons from time-traveling history tour lines of the past, Jolly Chronolidays opts instead to recreate history for its customers. One of its tours takes travelers on a visit to the Sector of Forgotten Souls, the very spot where the pioneering Time Lord Omega detonated – and then captured in mid-explosion – the star that became the source of Gallifrey’s power. But the unique dimensional instabilities of the sector have unintended side effects – the actor who portrays Omega’s ill-fated assistant Vandikirian goes mad, convinced that the real Omega is trying to kill him, and when he turns up dead it seems he wasn’t entirely mistaken in that fear. The Doctor, who has been along for the tour, is puzzled when his investigation of the man’s death dead-ends without a suspect. He’s even more alarmed when he begins hearing the voice of Omega himself, urging him to help the fallen Time Lord escape from his dimension of anti-matter. But will he be able to help Omega when it begins to look like the Doctor himself committed the murder?

written by Nev Fountain
directed by Gary Russell
music by ERS

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Ian Collier (Omega), Caroline Munro (Sentia), Patrick Duggan (Professor Ertikus / Luvis), Hugo Myatt (Daland), Conrad Westmaas (Tarpov / Rassilon), Jim Sangster (Zagreus), Faith Kent (Maven), Anita Elias (Glinda), Gary Russell (Medibot / Vidibot / Scintillans / Mugging Machine)

Timeline: immediately after Arc Of Infinity and before Snakedance

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
7th Doctor Doctor Who

Flip-Flop

Doctor Who: Flip-Flop…just then, the “other” Doctor and Melanie arrive on the human colony planet Puxatornee, discovering that the alien Slithergees have all but taken over, using humans are seeing-eye dogs and servants, and even edging human traditions, history and beliefs out of the humans’ own teachings by way of claiming rampant anti-Slithergee discrimination. Two terrorists, Stewart and Reed, are out to restore the balance and put the humans in charge again, and when they discover that the Doctor and Mel are time travelers, they force the TARDIS crew at gunpoint to take them back in time to change history. But the history they bring about is one where the Slithergees were refused permission to settle in the Puxatornee system, resulting in a war that left the planet permanently contaminated. Stewart and Reed are killed, and the Doctor makes a hasty exit, worried about encountering his and Mel’s counterparts from the divergent timeline that has been created. Just then, the “other” Doctor and Melanie arrive on the doomed planet Puxatornee, where two soldiers, Stewart and Reed, wish to change history so the human-Slithergee war never fatally polluted Puxatornee. When they discover that the Doctor and Mel are time travelers, they force the TARDIS crew at gunpoint to take them back in time to prevent these events. But the history they bring about is one where the Slithergees were granted permission to settle and slowly took over. Stewart and Reed are killed, and the Doctor makes a hasty exit, worried about encountering his and Mel’s counterparts from the divergent timeline that has been created…

written by Jonathan Morris
directed by Gary Russell
music by David Darlington

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie), Richard Gibson (Mitchell(, Daniel Hogarth (Slithergee voices), Trevor Littledale (Potter), Francis Magee (Stewart), Trevor Martin (Professor Capra), Pamela Miles (Bailey), Audrey Schoellhammer (Reed)

Timeline: between Bang-Bang-A-Boom! and Dragonfire

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who Doctor Who Unbound

He Jests At Scars…

Doctor Who Unbound: He Jests At Scars...During his trial, the Doctor struggles with the Valeyard and becomes trapped in the Matrix as Melanie watches in horror – and the other Time Lords, including a newly elected Lord President, watch with distant interest and no desire to interfere. Mel insists on trying to rescue the Doctor, but finds no interest from the Time Lords, who plan to watch the unfurling of the Doctor’s history with detached curiosity should the Valeyard win. And indeed the Valeyard does win, but he doesn’t limit himself to the Matrix – and he doesn’t stop with killing the Doctor. The Valeyard interferes with time and destroys Gallifrey itself, and even goes back and kills the fourth Doctor en route to Logopolis. That act begins to unravel the Valeyard’s own history, however – and in trying to go back and restore his past timeline as the Doctor, he may destroy the web of time itself.

Order this CDwritten by Gary Russell
directed by Gary Russell
music by Jim Mortimore

Cast: Michael Jayston (The Valeyard), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Anthony Keetch (Vansell), Juliet Warner (Ellie Martin), Tim Preece (The President), Jane MacFarlane (Nula), Mark Donovan (Gerrof)

Timeline: during/after part 14 of The Trial Of A Time Lord

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who Doctor Who Unbound

Deadline

Doctor Who Unbound: DeadlineMartin Bannister, in 1961, was voted one of the Times‘ ten most promising young writers for his innovative stage plays. But he tried to venture into television, and was recruited for a new BBC science fiction program called Doctor Who. Despite his extraordinary efforts to define the show’s characters, themes and parameters, Martin watched as Doctor Who made it as far as one failed pilot episode before being abandoned by the BBC. Now, 40 years later, Martin is confined to a nursing home, subjected to unsettling visits by his adult son, who’s still bitter that Martin divorced his mother when he was only six. Martin isn’t sure what is the truth and what isn’t from what his son tells him, and this isn’t the only place he’s having problems with reality – he imagines a burgeoning romance with a nurse, he imagines that he’s being tapped to write the celebratory 40th anniversary comeback of Doctor Who (but why celebrate a show that was never made?), and he imagines that he is the Doctor, that most mysterious traveler in time and space. Will Martin Bannister trade his unpromising reality for an unrealized fantasy?

Order this CDwritten by Rob Shearman
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Nicholas Briggs

Cast: Sir Derek Jacobi (Martin), Genevieve Swallow (Susan), Peter Forbes (Philip), Jacqueline King (Barbara), Ian Brooker (Sydney), Adam Manning (Tom)

Timeline: 40 years after Doctor Who was rejected by the BBC

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
6th Doctor Doctor Who

Davros

Doctor Who: DavrosThe Doctor stumbles upon a plot to revive Davros, thought to be long dead, but this time the Daleks aren’t behind it. This attempt to tap into Davros’ evil genius is a purely commercial concern, funded by a shady Earth corporation whose CEO wants Davros to work for him. Horrified by the implications of this, the Doctor counters with an offer to provide his own services in exchange for keeping Davros under lock and key. The company’s chief executive, realizing that he has two geniuses on his hands, instead strikes a bargain that both parties find even more terrifying – he will hire the Doctor and Davros, and they will share lab and office space. But what the corporation wants is someone who’s not afraid to set ethics aside for the sake of profit – and the Doctor soon becomes ripe for termination. Or, if Davros has his way, extermination.

Order this CDwritten by Lance Parkin
directed by Gary Russell
music by Jane Elphinstone

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Terry Molloy (Davros), Bernard Horsfall (Arnold Baynes), Wendy Padbury (Lorraine Baynes), David Bickerstaff (Scientist Ral), Eddie De Oliviera (Willis), Louise Falkner (Kaled Medic), Karl Hansen (Kaled Medic), Katarina Olsson (Shan), Ruth Sillers (Kimberly Todd), Andrew Westfield (Pilot)

Timeline: between The Two Doctors and Timelash

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who Doctor Who Unbound

Exile

Doctor Who Unbound: ExileTrapped by the Time Lords and tried for the crime of interfering in history, the Doctor is scheduled to be exiled to Earth – but he escapes into his TARDIS and leaves Gallifrey. Not that this really does him much good, as he winds up trapped on Earth anyway. A few incarnations later, the Doctor’s situation has become even more unsettling – he has not only changed bodies, but changed gender as well. Without her TARDIS, the Doctor becomes bored, listless, and – with the help of two friends she makes on a job she takes to eke out a meager existence – perhaps just a little bit alcoholic. Or perhaps a lot – the Doctor begins to see and hear her previous (male) incarnation, warning her of alien invasions and labyrinthine plots against modern-day Earth. When the Time Lords send two agents to track the Doctor down and bring her back to justice (though they don’t know that the Doctor is now a woman), the only thing standing between the Doctor and her doom is an increasing reliance on the bottle. When it comes right down to it, which oblivion will the Doctor choose?

Order this CDwritten by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Nicholas Briggs

Cast: Arabella Weir (The Doctor), Hannah Smith (Cherrie), Jeremy James (Cheese), Toby Longworth (Time Lord #1), David Tennant (Time Lord #2), Graham Duff (Mr. Baggit), Nicholas Briggs (The previous Doctor)

Timeline: after Logopolis – the Doctor’s sacrifice in that episode is said to be a suicide, and a non-fatal suicide attempt triggers not only a regeneration, but a gender change, in Time Lords!

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
7th Doctor Doctor Who

Master

Doctor Who: MasterIt’s a dark and stormy night in the town of Perfugium, and old friends have gathered at a stately Edwardian mansion to celebrate the birthday of their mysterious friend, Dr. John Smith. Only it’s not really his birthday – it’s the tenth anniversary of the day that the amnesiac, seemingly horribly burned, and yet compassionate-to-a-fault Smith first appeared in Perfugium. His inability to remember anything beyond the past ten years troubles Dr. Smith greatly, but he has become even more concerned recently with thoughts that seem to betray his gentle nature – thoughts that can only be described as pure evil. Even more unnerving is the arrival of a strange little man, also claiming to be a doctor, who begins to drop disturbing hints that Dr. John Smith does indeed have a past – a past in which he was known as an irredeemably evil genius called the Master.

written by Joseph Lidster
directed by Gary Russell
music by David Darlington

Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Geoffrey Beevers (The Master), Philip Madoc (Inspector Victor Schaeffer), Anne Ridley (Jacqueline Schaeffer), Charlie Hayes (Jade), Daniel Barzoti (The Man)

Timeline: before the 1996 TV movie and apparently after Excelis Decays since the Doctor assumes the nom de plume of “Vaughn Sutton,” whom he defeated on Excelis.

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
8th Doctor Doctor Who

Living Legend

Doctor Who: Living LegendThe Doctor and Charley arrive in Italy as the country celebrates its 1982 World Cup victory. But something more sinister lurks behind the revels: two aliens – Threllips – are scouting the Earth for conquest and colonization. And while the Threllips have the strength of a dozen humans, technology at least on a par with the Sontarans, and the willpower to subjugate the entire human race, they’re also a little short on brainpower. With that in mind, the Doctor and Charley set the pair of invaders up to fail under the weight of their own egos.

written by Scott Gray
directed by Gary Russell
music by David Darlington

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), India Fisher (Charley), Stephen Perring (Vendorr / Italian Bloke), Conrad Westmaas (Thon)

Timeline: between The Chimes Of Midnight and Seasons Of Fear

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

The Scream Of The Shalka

Richard E. Grant as the 9th DoctorThe Doctor, now in his ninth generation, finds himself in 2003 England. The small town he has been sent to (by powers unknown) has been overcome by strange, ground-dwelling creatures known as the Shalka. The Shalka keep the townspeople under their thrall with the ever-present threat of destruction. The Doctor comes to realize that the Shalka use sound as their weapon and turns that weapon against them. What he doesn’t realize is that the plan is much bigger than simply taking over one small town in England. All over the world similar towns are being invaded, their populations being slowly, subtly altered. Once complete, these humans can be used as a conduit to bring about the destruction of the Earth by way of a scream that will alter the Earth’s atmosphere, making it habitable for the Shalka, but little else. While combating this latest threat to the Earth, the Doctor tries to deal with the demons of his past and find his way in the Universe.

written by Paul Cornell
directed by Wilson Milam
music by Russell Stone

Cast: Richard E. Grant (The Doctor), Sophie Okonedo (Alison), Craig Kelly (Joe), Andrew Dunn (Max), Anna Calder-Marshall (Matilda), Conor Moloney (Dawson / Greaves), Ben Morrison (McGrath), Derek Jacobi (The Master), Diana Quick (Prime), Jim Norton (Kennet)

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Philip R. Frey

Categories
8th Doctor Doctor Who

Zagreus

Doctor Who: ZagreusImbued with the energy of anti-time and possessed by the power-mad Zagreus, the Doctor wrestles for self-control and terrifies Charley into hiding within the TARDIS. A familiar face appears to Charley as she hides – the Brigadier, or, more precisely, a TARDIS-projected simulation of Lethbridge-Stewart intended to help her. Its method of doing so, however, is unorthodox to put it mildly: Charley must divine the true nature of the increasingly disastrous situation from a series of metaphors, ranging from her own childhood to a visit to Gallifrey’s past to an insane amusement park where animatronic cartoon characters are slaughtering one another. The Doctor, too, hears from some familiar voices in his own past, coaxing him to regain control of his own mind. But all too late, the Doctor realizes that his body and soul are not Zagreus’ only battleground, and the real battle for the fate of the entire universe is only now being joined.

Order this CDwritten by Alan Barnes & Gary Russell
directed by Gary Russell
music by Andy Hardwick

Cast: Peter Davison (Reverend Matthew Townsend), Colin Baker (Lord Tepesh), Sylvester McCoy (Walton Winkle), Paul McGann (Zagreus), India Fisher (Charley Pollard), Lalla Ward (Romana), Louise Jameson (Leela), Don Warrington (Rassilon), Nicholas Courtney (The TARDIS / Brigadier), Anneke Wills (Lady Louisa Pollard), Stephen Perring (Receptionist), Elisabeth Sladen (Miss Lime), Conrad Westmaas (The Cat), Mark Strickson (Captain McDonnell), Sarah Sutton (Miss Foster), Nicola Bryant (Stone / Ouida), Caroline Morris (Mary Elson), Maggie Stables (Great Mother), Bonnie Langford (Cassandra / Goldilocks), Robert Jezek (Recorder), Stephen Fewell (Corporal Heron), Sophie Aldred (Captain Duck), Lisa Bowerman (Sergeant Gazelle), Miles Richardson (Cardinal Braxiatel), John Leeson (K9), Jon Pertwee (The Doctor)

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
6th Doctor Doctor Who

The Wormery

Doctor Who: The WormeryThe Doctor emerges from his trial a changed man – and a very melancholy one. Seeking a bit of refuge to contemplate recent events, he happens upon Bianca’s, an exclusive nightclub in World War II-era Berlin, but even as he tries to relax, he notices that things may not be as they appear. Worse yet, even as he tries to piece together what’s going on, Iris Wildthyme staggers into Bianca’s as well, shattering any hope the Doctor may have had of discreetly investigating the mystery.

Order this CDwritten by Stephen Cole & Paul Magrs
directed by Gary Russell
music by Jason Loborik

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Katy Manning (Iris Wildthyme), Maria McErlane (Bianca), Paul Clayton (Henry), Jane McFarlane (Mickey), James Campbell (Allis / Ballis), Mark Donovan (Corporal Sturmer), Ian Brooker (Barman)

Timeline: not long after The Trial Of A Time Lord

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
8th Doctor Doctor Who

Scherzo

Doctor Who: ScherzoIn the Divergent dimension, the TARDIS is barely able to maintain its shape, dimensions and function, struggling to keep itself intact in a pocket universe where the normal physical laws do not apply. It brings the Doctor and Charley – who stowed away aboard the TARDIS after the Doctor’s harrowing battle with Zagreus – to what seems to be a dark void. The Doctor and Charley finds themselves battered by deafening, disjointed repetitions of their own words in their own voices, and the Doctor surmises that they’re dealing with a creature made of pure sound. But Charley, preoccupied with her unrequited feelings for the Doctor, isn’t as fascinated by the experience. And before either of them knows it, they’re trapped, together alone at the whim of an unseen, and yet incomprehensibly heard, tormentor.

Order this CDwritten by Rob Shearman
directed by Gary Russell

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), India Fisher (Charley)

Note: There is no musical score in this story.

Timeline: after Zagreus and before Creed Of The Kromon

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
8th Doctor Doctor Who The Audio Dramas

Shada

Doctor WhoThe Doctor lands his TARDIS just outside the office of the President of the Time Lords, and whisks President Romana and her K-9 unit away to Earth to see to unfinished business. At St. Cedd’s College, Cambridge, an elderly Time Lord refugee going by the name of Professor Chronotis has summoned the Doctor to help him return a book, “The Ancient and Worshipful Law of Ancient Gallifrey”, to the Time Lords themsevlves. His plan to have the Doctor do this for him, this preserving his anonymity, has one major snag: Chronotis appears to have accidentally loaned the book out to one of his students, Chris Parsons. Before the Doctor can locate the book, Parsons and his friend Clare Keightly have already figured out that there’s something strange and perhaps even dangerous about the book. And something dangerous is certainly on the trail of the book – a megalomanical criminal named Skagra, using his mind-draining sphere, will stop at nothing to find Chronotis and the book. He hopes to use the book to find the well-hidden Time Lord prison planet, Shada – and once there, he hopes to drain the mind of the Time Lords’ most dangerous criminal, Salyavin, using his knowledge to take over every sentient mind in the universe.

Order this CDwritten by Douglas Adams
adapted for audio by Gary Russell
directed by Nicholas Pegg
music by Russell Stone

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), Lalla Ward (Romana), John Leeson (K-9), James Fox (Professor Chronotis), Andrew Sachs (Skagra), Sean Biggerstaff (Chris Parsons), Susannah Harker (Clare Keightly), Melvyn Hayes (Wilkin), Hannah Gordon (The Ship), Barnaby Edwards (Caldera), Stuart Crossman (Constable), Nicholas Pegg (Think Tank Voice)

Timeline: after Doctor Who and before Storm Warning

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
8th Doctor Doctor Who

The Creed Of The Kromon

Doctor Who: The Creed Of The KromonStill trapped in the divergent universe without the TARDIS, the Doctor and Charley encounter what seems to be an impenetrable barrier, guarded by a being known as the Kro’Ka. After assessing what both of the travelers fear, the Kro’Ka lets them pass through to a neighboring zone, where the native humanoid population has been enslaved by the insectoid Kromon. The Doctor and Charley meet C’rizz, a refugee from the Kromon biodomes in a suicidal mood since he lost his mate. The Doctor offers to help, and the three make their way into the nearest Kromon dome, which is also where the Doctor hopes to find the TARDIS. Once inside, however, they become prisoners of the Kromon. The insectoid creatures, following the creed set down by a long-vanished Company, intend to mine the Doctor’s knowledge of space travel and enslave C’rizz once more. And they have something else in mind for Charley – a fate worse than death in the Kromon breeding chambers.

Order this CDwritten by Philip Martin
directed by Gary Russell
music by David Darlington

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), India Fisher (Charley), Conrad Westmaas (C’rizz), Brian Cobby (The Oroog), Stephen Perring (The Kro’Ka / Kromon voices), Jane Hills (L’da), Daniel Hogarth (Kromon voices)

Timeline: after Scherzo and before The Natural History Of Fear

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Categories
8th Doctor Doctor Who

The Natural History Of Fear

Doctor Who: The Natural History Of FearThe Doctor, Charley and C’rizz arrive in Light City, a self-contained biodome whose citizens happily toil for – and all but worship – the State. State-approved broadcasts outline the approved behavior of a citizen of Light City, but certain ideas are considered thought-crime – and questions are illegal. Naturally, the three travelers are bursting with questions about where they’ve arrived, and they soon learn first-hand of the State’s other means of controlling its populace: those who break the rules are forcibly brainwashed and “revised,” and their original memories are recorded and become part of the broadcasts as a warning to others. The “revised” citizens are implanted with new, productive, docile personalities – and yet problems keep cropping up with the beings who think they were once a trio of time-travelers.

Order this CDwritten by Jim Mortimore
directed by Gary Russell
music by Jim Mortimore

Cast: Paul McGann, India Fisher, Conrad Westmaas, Geoff Serle, Alison Sterling, Sean Carlsen, Wink Taylor, Jane Hills, Ben Summers

Timeline: after Creed Of The Kromon and before The Twilight Kingdom

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green