Altered Status (audio story)

Altered Status
Main character(s):	Jenny, Noah
Main enemy:	The Suits, Cybermen
Main setting:	New Damson
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writers:	Christian Brassington and Matt Fitton
Director:	Barnaby Kay
Music:	Joe Kraemer
Sound:	Joe Kraemer
Release details
Release number:	2.2
Part of:	Still Running
Release date:	11 November 2021
Format:	1 Episode on 1 CD (2nd of 4 stories)
Production code:	BFPDWJENNY02
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-83868-613-0 (physical); ISBN 978-1-83868-614-7 (digital)
Jenny: The Doctor's Daughter
← Previous	Inside the Maldovarium
Next →	Calamity Jenny

Altered Status was the second story in the audio anthology Still Running, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Christian Brassington and Matt Fitton, and featured Georgia Tennant as Jenny and Sean Biggerstaff as Noah.

Publisher's summary

On a utopian world, the perfect society toils towards its worthy 'Cause'. But the hard-working Suits are more than they seem, and the Department Head is something else altogether. And when Jenny and Noah scratch the surface, they find silver underneath. The Cybermen are coming...

Cast

• Jenny - Georgia Tennant
• Noah - Sean Biggerstaff
• Cyberleader / The Suits - Nicholas Briggs
• Department Head - Jonathan Aris
• Sogo - Deeivya Meir
• Jodi - Rhoda Ofori-Attah

Worldbuilding

• Jenny knows the Cybermen by reputation.
• Gravity buffers are used to guide the Jenny 8 into a perfect landing aboard the planet.
• The Suits are the cybernetically augmented populace of New Damson.
• Noah is given the life score of nine hundred and ninety-nine.
• The system names the two of them Jenny Gallifreyan and Noah Unknown.
• All citizens on New Damson must work for "the Cause". It is drilled into them.
• Noah wants a frothy coffee.
• The Suits, much like the Cybermen, do not have nor do they require names.
• New Damson used to be called Morabolis before the Cybermen took over.
• Sogo refers to Dorium as the Blue Man.
• When the leadership is toppled, the Cybermats leave the Suits' bodies and revert them back to normal.

Notes

• New Damson is an anagram of "New Mondas".
• The name of this story is a reference to the 1980 film "Altered States" by Ken Russell.

Continuity

• Jenny and Noah are now aboard the Jenny 8, continuing Jenny's ship naming convention. Noah shows his discontent towards this convention. (AUDIO: Inside the Maldovarium)
• Jenny and Noah have been sent to New Damson upon the recommendation of Dorium Maldovar. (AUDIO: Inside the Maldovarium)
• The Suits are dressed like and speak like Mondasian Cybermen. (TV: The Tenth Planet, World Enough and Time)
• Jenny and Noah are yet again confused when Jenny is named "Gallifreyan", a word she has never heard. (AUDIO: Inside the Maldovarium) Indeed, the Tenth Doctor and Jenny discussed Time Lords, but not their home planet Gallifrey. (TV: The Doctor's Daughter)
• New Damson is utopian above ground but the working class live in the squalid conditions below ground, much like on New Earth, as noticed by the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones. (TV: Gridlock)
• The Suits sort people into "statuses". Some of those classes are workers and suits. The Cult of Skaro did much the same to the kidnapped slaves in New York. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan)
• The Cyberleaer asks a Suit to access his human memories to answer a question. When he does so, the Suit finds it emotionally challenging to speak. The Tenth Doctor pointed out the emotional inhibitor inside the Cybersuit to Angela Price, which cut off their emotions and prevented them from grappling with what they had become. Without this, a Cyberman would simply die. (TV: The Age of Steel)
• Noah chooses to believe the term "conversion" is being used to describe "persuasion", rather than the Cyber process. (TV: The Invasion et al.)
• Microscopic Cybermats are used to enhance the inhabitants of the platinum section. (TV: the Tomb of the Cybermen et al.)
• Noah is aware of the Cybermen's weakness to gold, leading Jenny to rub Sogo's necklace into the Cyberleader's chest unit. Sogo finishes it off with her gold sword. (TV: Earthshock)
• Dorium sent Sogo to follow and aid Jenny and Noah. In return, Sogo's planet would gain energy. (AUDIO: Inside the Maldovorium)
• Sogo hands over a broken vortex manipulator, given to her by Dorium. River Song previously obtained a vortex manipulator from Dorium as well. (TV: The Pandorica Opens et al.)

External links

• Official Altered Status page at bigfinish.com