Assassin in the Limelight (audio story)

Assassin in the Limelight
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Evelyn
Main enemy:	Robert Knox, Indo
Main setting:	Washington DC, 14 April 1865
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Robert Ross
Director:	Barnaby Edwards
Post production:	Martin Johnson
Cover by:	Grant Kempster
Release details
Release number:	108
Release date:	May 2008
Format:	4 Episodes on 2 CDs
Production code:	7C/MD
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-317-0
Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories
← Previous	The Haunting of Thomas Brewster
Next →	The Death Collectors

Assassin in the Limelight was the one hundred and eighth monthly Doctor Who audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. This story features the return of two previous characters — Robert Knox played by Leslie Phillips from Medicinal Purposes and the Indo from Pier Pressure.

Publisher's summary

Ford's Theatre, Washington. Friday, 14th April, 1865. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The place, the date and the event which made history. Or did it? Someone has been tampering with time, muddying the waters of history for his own purposes. Time itself is out of joint and the chief culprit is the enigmatic Doctor Knox. Somehow the Doctor and Evelyn must put history back on track before the future dissolves into chaos. But Knox, it turns out, may be the least of their worries...

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Colin Baker
• Evelyn Smythe - Maggie Stables
• Dr Robert Knox - Leslie Phillips
• Clara Harris / Knox's TARDIS - Lysette Anthony
• John Parker - Eric Loren
• Lizzie Williams - Madeleine Potter
• Henry Clay Ford - Alan Marriott
• John Wilkes Booth - Paul Dubois
• Thomas Eckert - Mikey O'Connor

References

Individuals

• Knox poses as the Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde. The Doctor realises this congruity immediately since, as he tells Evelyn, Wilde was "still in short trousers" in 1865.

TARDIS

• Knox has a TARDIS with voice control. Like the Doctor's TARDIS, it has a fast return switch.

Notes

Illustration from DWM 395.

• This is the final appearance of Evelyn Smythe in the main range until the audio story A Death in the Family in October 2010.
• Given that the majority of the events of the audio story The Haunting of Thomas Brewster take place in November 1867, this is the second consecutive audio drama based predominantly in the 1860s.
• This audio drama was recorded on 7 and 8 February 2008 at The Moat Studios.

Continuity

• The Doctor and Evelyn previously encountered Knox in Edinburgh in December 1828 (AUDIO: Medicinal Purposes) and the Indo in Brighton in 1936. (AUDIO: Pier Pressure)
• On this occasion, the Doctor ensures that Lincoln is assassinated in accordance with recorded history. During his fifth incarnation, he had prevented Lincoln from being prematurely assassinated by Aaron Eddowes in Richmond, Virginia on 9 April 1865. (PROSE: Blood and Hope) Conversely, the Eighth Doctor would later tell his companion Charley Pollard that he once attempted to convince Lincoln not to go to the theatre. (AUDIO: Minuet in Hell)
• The Doctor mentions that he witnessed the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War in October 1854. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)
• The Doctor refers to the Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde. Having previously met Wilde, he was later able to procure tickets for Henry Gordon Jago, Professor George Litefoot, Leela and Ellie Higson to attend the premiere of his play A Woman of No Importance in the Haymarket Theatre in London in the 1890s. At the time, the Doctor, still in his sixth incarnation, was operating under the pseudonym "Professor Claudius Dark." (AUDIO: Beautiful Things)

External links

• Official Assassin in the Limelight page at bigfinish.com
• Assassin in the Limelight at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• DisContinuity for Assassin in the Limelight at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide