1963: The Assassination Games (audio story)

1963: The Assassination Games
Doctor:	Seventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Ace
Featuring:	Gilmore, Rachel, Allison, Toby
Main enemy:	The Light
Main setting:	London, 29 November-1 December 1963
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	John Dorney
Director:	Ken Bentley
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Wilfredo Acosta
Sound:	Wilfredo Acosta
Cover by:	Alex Mallinson
Release details
Number of parts:	4
Release number:	180
Release date:	15 November 2013
Format:	2 CDs Download
Production code:	7J/A
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-78178-080-0 (physical) ISBN 978-1-78575-727-3 (digital)
Main Range
← Previous	1963: The Space Race
Next →	Afterlife

You may wish to consult 1963 (disambiguation) for other, similarly-named pages.

1963: The Assassination Games was the one hundred and eightieth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by John Dorney and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace, Simon Williams as Group Captain Gilmore, Pamela Salem as Rachel Jensen, Karen Gledhill as Allison Williams and Hugh Ross as Sir Toby Kinsella.

It was the third story in the 1963 audio trilogy celebrating the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

Publisher's summary

London. The end of November, 1963. A time of change. The old guard are being swept away by the white heat of technology. Political scandals are the talk of the town. Britain tries to maintain its international role; fanatics assassinate charismatic politicians and Group Captain Ian Gilmore is trying to get his fledgling Counter-Measures unit off the ground.

When his life is saved by a familiar umbrella-bearing figure, he knows something terrible is going on. Whilst Rachel investigates an enigmatic millionaire and Allison goes undercover in an extremist organisation, Gilmore discovers a sinister plot with roots a century old.

The Doctor and Ace are back in town. A new dawn is coming. It's time for everyone... to see the Light.

Part one audio

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Plot

Part one

Group-Captain Ian Gilmore and Sir Toby Kinsella are attending a press conference in London for "Starfire", a new missile programme, at the insistence of John Rutherford MP who has expressed concerns about the project. The press conference starts as Defence Secretary Stephen Mulryne emerges and attempts to read a speech on Starfire, but is repeatedly interrupted by journalists asking him about an alleged affair he had with a woman called Amanda Caulfield which he denies. One journalist, David Ritchie, asks Mulryne about the ethical considerations of Starfire's development, before shooting Mulryne and fleeing.

As Mulryne dies in Sir Toby's arms, Gilmore chases Ritchie and follows him into Westminster Tube station, cornering him on a platform. Ritchie pulls a gun on Gilmore and attempts to shoot him, but the Doctor suddenly arrives and knocks the gun aside with his umbrella. Rather than be captured, Ritchie commits suicide by jumping in front of an oncoming train, but not before revealing he is part of an organisation he refers to as "D.N". Gilmore attempts to speak to the Doctor, but he has vanished.

At a mansion, Eleanor Vale meets Professor Rachel Jensen, who has come for a tour about Starfire. Eleanor invites Rachel to have some tea, summoning the maid - who Rachel recognises as Ace but keeps this from Eleanor.

In the Whitehall offices, Gilmore updates Sir Toby on the events on the platform - particularly the presence of the Doctor. Gilmore realises that the Doctor being involved must mean Starfire is significant and he wishes to investigate more. Sir Toby explains that Ritchie could not have acted alone, lacking sufficient clearance for the press conference and that he believes D.N stands for "Disarmament Now" - an extreme anti-nuclear group. He notes that Mulryne was an odd target for assassination, since the affair scandal was likely going to lead to his imminent political downfall. However, Sir Toby notes that Amanda Caulfield was not only seeing Mulryne, but also a Russian spy called Aleksi Salinsky - and as a result Mulryne had become a security risk. He then tells Gilmore about Sir Gideon Vale and his development of Starfire in the laboratories in his mansion, which few have been allowed to see. At this moment, Rachel phones from the mansion to tell Gilmore about her encounter of Ace.

Sir Francis White MP comes to see Sir Robert Devere, the Chief Whip, in his office. The two briefly feign sadness for Mulryne's death before bursting out into laughter - they had arranged for the assassination so that the Prime Minister would appoint White as the next Minister of Defence. They discuss having arranged Salinsky's escape to Russia, and that their plans for testing Starfire are proceeding.

Back at the Vale mansion, Eleanor sends Ace away for making mistakes in serving the tea. Both Rachel and Gideon Vale enter, with the two introducing themselves to each other before Gideon invites Rachel to begin the tour of the labs with him.

Back in Whitehall, Sir Toby explains to Gilmore that Rachel is unaware she was sent on behalf of Counter-Measures since she is on leave, and was instead given the pretext of a Government fact-finding mission. They see Ace's presence at the mansion as further evidence that Starfire is worth investigating. Gilmore wants to investigate D.N undercover but Sir Toby vetoes the idea on the grounds that he is too obviously military and sends him to interview Amanda instead. Instead, Sir Toby wants to send another member of Counter-Measures to infiltrate D.N - Allison Williams.

Allison prepares to go undercover, assuring Gilmore that the undercover work will be simpler than the Shoreditch Incident was. Nonetheless, Gilmore makes Allison assure him that she will contact him if there is any danger - both are aware of the implications of the Doctor's return.

At the labs inside the Vale mansion, Gideon explains the details of Starfire to Rachel. It contains an extremely powerful warhead, yet is undetectable until launched at which point it moves towards its target too quickly for them to react. He also highlights a key benefit of high destruction but with low levels of radiation fallout - as Rachel describes it, "First Strike with no consequences". Gideon assures Rachel that such measures are necessary as a deterrent of mutually assured destruction, but she is not convinced.

Gilmore finishes interviewing Amanda, and laments to Sir Toby that she provided no useful information - only that Mulryne could have accidentally leaked information to Salinsky by mislaying a sensitive briefcase. Gilmore considers a different possibility - he notes Rutherford's earlier interest in the press conference and becomes suspicious that he may be a D.N sympathiser due to their shared anti-nuclear beliefs. Gilmore decides he wishes to question Rutherford to determine whether he could have been Ritchie's accomplice.

Sir Toby takes Gilmore to Rutherford's office, explaining that Rutherford was elected six months ago as an Independent MP campaigning primarily on nuclear issues in the local constituency. He has since contributed extensively to Westminster politics, but avoids media attention. As they reach the office, Rutherford opens the door and Sir Toby introduces himself and Gilmore. Gilmore however is lost for words as he sees Rutherford's true identity - the Doctor.

Part two

to be added

Part three

to be added

Part four

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
• Ace - Sophie Aldred
• Group Captain Gilmore - Simon Williams
• Rachel Jensen - Pamela Salem
• Allison Williams - Karen Gledhill
• Sir Toby Kinsella - Hugh Ross
• Sir Gideon Vale / Handler - Oliver Cotton
• Eleanor Vale / Amanda Caulfield - Gemma Saunders
• Martin Regan / Sir Robert Devere / Stephen Mulryne - Gerald Kyd
• Sir Francis White / David Ritchie - Alisdair Simpson

Crew

• Cover Art - Alex Mallinson
• Director - Ken Bentley
• Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
• Music and Sound Designer - Wilfredo Acosta
• Producer - David Richardson
• Script Editor - Alan Barnes
• Writer - John Dorney

Worldbuilding

• Stephen Mulryne, the Defence Secretary, was alleged to have had an affair with Amanda Caulfield, a woman of "dubious morals," for several weeks. He denied the allegation in Parliament.
• Mulryne fought in the British Army during World War II and participated in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944.
• David Ritchie was born in 1932. He was a student activist and a member of the Communist Party of Britain until the Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956. Prior to his death, he was a member of the militant organisation Disarmament Now.
• Amanda Caulfield was born in 1933.
• Using the pseudonym "John Rutherford", as a reference to Ernest Rutherford, the Doctor was elected as an independent MP on a platform of nuclear disarmament in May 1963.
• In 2013, the Doctor and Ace found Gilmore's memoirs in a bookshop in London. Ace looked herself up in the index and found references to the Shoreditch Incident and the Starfire Incident.
• Ace mentions Mission: Impossible and refers to Sir Gideon Vale as "Lord Snooty." She later alludes to the James Bond film franchise and tells Rachel that she is going to love Goldfinger.

Notes

• This is the first audio drama released in the main range to feature the Seventh Doctor and Ace travelling alone since The Rapture in September 2002.
• The circumstances surrounding Stephen Mulryne's affair with Amanda Caulfield are based on the Profumo Affair.
• When Sir Francis White threatens him by calling him a "dead man," the Doctor says, "You may very well think that but I couldn't possibly comment." This is a reference to Francis Urquhart's most famous line from the political thriller House of Cards.
• Rachel's comment that the Bond films "aren't exactly [her] thing" may be an in-joke referring to the fact that Pamela Salem played Miss Moneypenny in the unofficial Bond film Never Say Never Again in 1983.
• The identity of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is never given in the story. In reality, the Prime Minister in November 1963 was Alec Douglas-Home, who served in that position from 18 October 1963 to 16 October 1964. He was previously mentioned in AUDIO: The Pelage Project and AUDIO: State of Emergency.
• Chronologically, this marks the first appearance of Sir Toby Kinsella.
• In real life, the Defence Secretary position did not exist until 1964 and there was no Deputy Prime Minister under Douglas-Home.
• This story was recorded on 11 and 12 February 2013 at the Moat Studios.
• This story was offered as a free download with DWM 467, along with a number of other "Part Ones".
• In the real world, many of the teas mentioned in episode one did not exist in 1963; notably, Lady Grey was not created until the 1990s.
• This story was released on BBC Sounds on 15 November 2023 as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of Doctor Who, under the banner title of Doctor Who: The Audio Adventures. Coincidentally, this was on the tenth anniversary of its release.

Gallery

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  Original CD cover art.

• 

  Textless cover art.

Continuity

• David Ritchie refers to the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 (PROSE: Heart of TARDIS; AUDIO: 1963) and the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy; TV: Rose; AUDIO: 1963: The Space Race)
• Group Captain Gilmore refers to the Shoreditch Incident. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
• Allison refers to her boyfriend Julian St Stephen. (AUDIO: Artificial Intelligence, State of Emergency)
• Sir Gideon Vale refers to the fact that Rachel is Jewish. (AUDIO: Threshold)
• The Doctor tells Gilmore that he was very fond of cats a lifetime ago. (TV: The Twin Dilemma)
• The Doctor tells Gilmore that there are at least five other versions of him in 1963 and that two of them are previous versions of his seventh incarnation. (TV: An Unearthly Child, Remembrance of the Daleks; AUDIO: 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men, 1963: The Space Race, The Light at the End; PROSE: Those Left Behind, Ghost Ship)
• Gilmore refers to Sgt. Mike Smith. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
• The Doctor continued to serve in Parliament as "John Rutherford" until the next general election in October 1964. (AUDIO: State of Emergency)
• UNIT had records of Ace's involvement in this incident in the 2020s. (AUDIO: Signs and Wonders)
• Ace again uses her namesake as an expletive. (TV: Dragonfire)

External links

• Official 1963: The Assassination Games page at bigfinish.com