The Hollows of Time (audio story)

The Hollows of Time
Adapted from:	The Hollows of Time
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Peri
Main enemy:	Professor Stream
Main setting:	Hollowdean, 1980s
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Christopher H Bidmead
Director:	John Ainsworth
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Nigel Fairs
Sound:	Nigel Fairs
Cover by:	Alex Mallinson
Release details
Number of parts:	2
Release number:	1.04
Release date:	18 February 2010
Format:	2 CDs Download
Production code:	6Y/AD
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-447-4
Official trailer
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The Hollows of Time was the fourth Lost Story of Season 23 to be developed into an audio play. It starred Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown.

Publisher's summary

The Doctor and Peri have been on holiday, visiting old friend Reverend Foxwell in the sleepy English village of Hollowdean. But why are their memories so hazy?

Piecing together events they recall a mysterious chauffeur, who is not what he seems, and Foxwell's experiments that could alter the nature of reality. Huge sand creatures have been sighted on the dunes, and many of the locals are devoted to a leader known as "Professor Stream".

But who is Stream? And what lies within the Hollows of Time?

The Doctor will discover that not every question has a definitive answer...

Plot

Part one

to be added

Part two

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor – Colin Baker
• Peri – Nicola Bryant
• Professor Stream - David Garfield
• Reverend Foxwell - Trevor Littledale
• Mrs Streeter/Simon - Susan Sheridan
• Steel Specs - Hywel John
• Jane - Victoria Finney

References

• The Doctor quotes his "friend Wittgenstein".
• When Reverend Foxwell inquires as to whether he used to have a "a metal dog", the Doctor says it was a long time ago in "another life".
• The computer under Hollowdean runs Microsoft Windows (either 3.1, 95, 98, or 2000/ME, judging by the sound effects).

Notes

Interior CD Sleeve illustration of the events of the story.

• The Hollows of Time was an unproduced serial written by Christopher H. Bidmead intended to feature the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown. It was cancelled to make way for The Trial of a Time Lord.
• This story marks the first appearance of the Tractators in an audio story. After being introduced in Frontios twenty-six years earlier, the species appeared in Happy Deathday and Life After Queth.
• In the original version of the script, Professor Stream would have been revealed to be the Tremas Master in disguise ("Stream" being an anagram for "Master"), a plot device previously used in The Keeper of Traken, Castrovalva, Time-Flight and The King's Demons. While this was changed (due to Big Finish lacking the rights to use the Master at the time of this story's production) David Garfield portrayed Stream with a voice similar to Anthony Ainley's. In-narrative, this is further explained as the Doctor and Peri suffering from slight amnesia after this adventure, creating the possibility that Stream is the Master and they just don't remember it. Additionally this story is included in Big Finish's "The Master" collection" and was included by Big Finish in sales of stories featuring the Master in 2019 and 2021, which implies the producers consider Stream to be the Master in disguise.
• This audio drama was recorded on 30 and 31 March 2009.
• It was released on 18 February 2010.

Continuity

• After Peri accuses him of deliberately deceiving her, the Doctor tells her that Time Lords do not do such things. However, his next incarnation would later deceive and manipulate his companion Ace and others on numerous occasions in furtherance of his schemes. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks, et al.)
• The Doctor notes that his previous encounter with the Tractators occurred aeons from the 20th century, which is consistent with the fact that TV: Frontios took place on the planet of the same name at an unknown time in the far future.
• The Doctor is initially unable to remember the name of his vintage car, Bessie, which he used mostly in his third incarnation. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians, et al.) The Fourth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors used the car on one occasion each. (TV: Robot, TV: Battlefield, PROSE: The Dying Days)
• The Doctor first paraphrases and then quotes "My kingdom for a horse", which appears in Act V, Scene IV of William Shakespeare's Richard III. During his fifth incarnation, he, Peri and their former travelling companion Erimem had met both a time travelling Shakespeare and the eponymous King of England in 1483 and 1485. (AUDIO: The Kingmaker) Later, in his tenth incarnation, the Doctor would meet Shakespeare again. (TV: The Shakespeare Code)
• The Doctor took a battery from Reverend Foxwell's laboratory. (AUDIO: The Macros)
• Upon meeting an older version of Peri in Los Angeles in 2009 who had no memory of their travels together beyond their first encounter on Lanzarote in May 1984 (TV: Planet of Fire), the Doctor mentions the Tractators in an attempt to jog her memory. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)
• The Doctor mentions that Alan Turing was working with Foxwell in the 40s breaking codes. During his eighth incarnation, he would later have an adventure with Turing. (PROSE: The Turing Test)
• The Doctor tells Peri that after "that business on Frontios", he found the Gravis his new home. (PROSE: Life After Queth)

External links

• Official The Hollows of Time page at bigfinish.com
• The Hollows of Time at the Doctor Who Reference Guide