The Very Dark Thing (audio story): Difference between revisions

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{{title dab away}}
{{title dab away}}
{{real world}}
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{{Infobox Story
{{Infobox Story SMW
|image                  = The Very Dark Thing (audio story).jpg
|image                  = The Very Dark Thing (audio story).jpg
|range                  = The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield (audio series)
|range                  = The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield (audio series)
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|enemy                  = [[Effenish]]
|enemy                  = [[Effenish]]
|setting                = [[Tramatz]]
|setting                = [[Tramatz]]
|writer                = [[Una McCormack]]
|writer                = Una McCormack
|director              = [[Scott Handcock]]
|director              = [[Scott Handcock]]
|music                  = [[Jamie Robertson]]
|music                  = [[Jamie Robertson]]
Line 18: Line 18:
|cover                  = [[Tom Webster]]
|cover                  = [[Tom Webster]]
|publisher              = Big Finish Productions
|publisher              = Big Finish Productions
|release date          = [[24 August (releases)|24 August]] [[2016 (releases)|2016]]
|release date          = 24 August 2016
|audio anthology        = ''[[The Unbound Universe (audio anthology)|The Unbound Universe]]''
|audio anthology        = The Unbound Universe (audio anthology)
|format                = 1 CD<br/>Download<br/>3rd of 4 stories  
|format                = 1 CD<br/>Download<br/>3rd of 4 stories  
|production code        = BFPDWNABOX003  
|production code        = BFPDWNABOX003  
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[[Category:The Unbound Universe audio stories]]
[[Category:The Unbound Universe audio stories]]
[[Category:Bernice Summerfield sources]]
[[Category:Unbound Doctor audio stories]]
[[Category:2016 audio stories]]
[[Category:One part audio stories]]
[[Category:One part audio stories]]
[[Category:Bernice Summerfield audio stories]]

Latest revision as of 07:10, 1 April 2024

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The Very Dark Thing was the third story in The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield box set The Unbound Universe.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

Tramatz is an idyllic world – the rivers hum to themselves, unicorns prance through the emerald forests, and, at the very corner of your eye, is a horrible secret.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

With the Empire of Tramatz burning, Captain Idratz and Aramatz activate a device that they never thought they would have to. Five years later, Fleet Admiral Effenish of Combined Ninth Fleet arrives above Tramatz, a world of singing rivers, talking skies and unicorns, and asks the people below to surrender. She receives no response and begins bombarding the planet.

The Doctor is camping out near a village on Tramatz and speaks with Megatz, who is aware that the rivers, skies and unicorns are strange and does not understand why nobody talks about them. Benny tracks him down several weeks after he came to save the planet from the very dark thing and is brought up to speed, but she cannot understand why she is the only one able to hear Effenish's demands for surrender and threats to drop reaper bombs. Similarly, only Benny and the Doctor are able to see the very big, very dark thing, which has always been here, until they point it out to Magatz.

As the very dark thing is in the corner of one's eye, Benny and the Doctor do not know how to reach it. Benny hears Effenish making planetfall and, when a unicorn approaches, the Doctor asks her to talk to it and believes that it is a representation of a war machine. Benny and Magatz follow the unicorn whilst the Doctor goes to find and reason with Effenish, whose entire attack squad is humming along with the river. The Doctor finds her after she has primed the reaper bombs and saves her from a unicorn; she does not accept that the Tramatzians could not hear her and, after bringing her squad to their senses by firing her gun, she returns to her ship.

Benny explains to Magatz how there was a Great War which disrupted the universe and admits that the Tramatzians were the "bad guys". The unicorn leads them to an underground research facility where the Tramatzians built weapons which wiped planets from history during the war as well as one that they used to disrupt reality on Tramatz when the war got closer. They see echoes of Idratz and Aramatz, Magatz's parents, launch the bomb which caused the disruption.

Although Colonel Neave is eager to activate the bombs, Effenish wants to give the Tramatzians one last chance. Magatz switches the weapon off rather than using it on the fleet and contacts Effenish, explaining that they could not hear her and apologising. Effenish accepts the apology and orders that the Combined Ninth Fleet returns home, although Neave does not agree and has to be hit by Sergeant Gallario. With the weapon deactivated, the Tramatzians are able to understand what they did during the war. The gravity is still intermittent and unicorns still exist because, the Doctor says, the universe can be strange.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Benny calls a unicorn "Dobbin", the name of a pantomine horse in the children's TV show Rentaghost which was broadcast between 1976 and 1984.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]