The Three Companions (audio story)

The Three Companions
Main character(s):	The Brigadier, Polly, Brewster
Featuring:	Second Doctor, Third Doctor, Ben, Jamie, Clifford
Main enemy:	Gerry Lenz / Garry Lendler, The Coffin-Loaders
Main setting:	London and elsewhere in England, 2009 Cosmic Finance Central Five London, the 1970s An unnamed planet
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Marc Platt
Director:	Lisa Bowerman
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Richard Fox & Lauren Yason
Sound:	Richard Fox & Lauren Yason
Read by:	Anneke Wills Nicholas Courtney John Pickard
Cover by:	Alex Mallinson
Release details
Number of parts:	12
Release date:	April 2009 - February 2010
Format:	12 CDs (12-part edit) 3 CDs (3-part re-edit) Download
The Companion Chronicles: The Specials
Next →	The Mists of Time

The Three Companions was a twelve-part mini-series. It was included on the main Doctor Who range as a bonus between April 2009 and February 2010. Each episode was ten minutes long, making a two hour play in total. The entire story was collected in a compilation on The Companion Chronicles: The Specials CD box set.

Publisher's summary

Polly Wright has tracked down an old friend of the Doctor's... Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, former Brigadier at UNIT. As they trade stories of their time travelling in the TARDIS, it soon becomes clear that their pasts are intertwined, and linked to a current crisis on the planet Earth. And there's a third companion, watching them from a distance. A certain Thomas Brewster...

Synopsis

Polly's Story (1)

The present day: Polly Wright, former companion of the Second Doctor, tracks down Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart via the Internet. As they chat online, they realise that they have a shared experience - and one that began on a world far away. (Included on The Magic Mousetrap)

In Memoriam (2)

The Doctor, Polly, Ben Jackson and Jamie McCrimmon are trapped on a doomed world scheduled for cremation. What are the coffin-loaders and why does Lethbridge-Stewart remember them too? (Included on Enemy of the Daleks)

The Gathernaut (3)

On a planet scheduled for cremation in thirty-five minutes, the Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie meet an unlikely ally. (Included on The Angel of Scutari)

Cremation Point (4)

As the end of a world approaches, Polly, Ben and Jamie attempt to escape the Gathernaut. (Included on The Company of Friends)

The Brigadier's Story (5)

Polly's tale is over, but now Lethbridge-Stewart shares his story of a rare excursion in the TARDIS, when the Third Doctor answered a distress call from a distant galaxy. What is the secret of Waterloo Station? (Included on Patient Zero)

Coffin-Loaders (6)

In a place that looks like a jumbled-up Earth, the Third Doctor and the Brigadier have met a woman who looks just like Polly Wright, but she isn't. Meanwhile, in the real world, the real Polly has a new acquaintance – a young man called Thomas Brewster. (Included on Paper Cuts)

The Hunting Ground (7)

The Brigadier and the Third Doctor are fighting for survival on a model world that looks like Earth. Why are there facsimiles of Polly Wright here and who is the mysterious Garry Lendler? No one is more anxious to find out than Thomas Brewster... (Included on Blue Forgotten Planet)

The Battle of World's End Junction (8)

Cornered by the coffin loaders, the Doctor and the Brigadier make their last stand at World's End Junction. Meanwhile, the mysterious Thomas Brewster finally prepares to step out from the shadows... (Included on Castle of Fear)

Many Meetings (9)

In a café, three strangers meet: Polly, the Brigadier and Thomas Brewster. They share one thing in common – they have all travelled in time and space with the Doctor. Now the Doctor isn't here, and the world is in terrible danger... (Included on The Eternal Summer)

Brewster's Story (10)

As Polly and the Brigadier become acquainted with Thomas Brewster, chaos erupts. UNIT troops are on the streets of London and the Hunter is on the prowl... (Included on Plague of the Daleks)

The Hunter (11)

With the coffin loader on the rampage in London, Polly, the Brigadier and Brewster meet an old acquaintance. Can he cure the planet's accelerated global warming? (Included on A Thousand Tiny Wings)

The Sacrifice (12)

As London floods, can Polly and Thomas Brewster save the Brigadier from the clutches of the Hunter? (Included on Survival of the Fittest)

Plot

to be added

Cast

• Polly Wright / Alice Warner / Florrie Cooper - Anneke Wills
• Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
• Thomas Brewster - John Pickard
• Gerry "G. L." Lenz / Garry Lendler / Announcer - Russell Floyd

Crew

• Cover Art - Alex Mallinson
• Director - Lisa Bowerman
• Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
• Music and Sound Design - Richard Fox and Lauren Yason @ FoxYason Studios
• Producer - David Richardson
• Script Editor - Jacqueline Rayner
• Writer - Marc Platt

Worldbuilding

• Jo Jones mentioned in an Internet article that she worked with the Third Doctor and the Brigadier at UNIT during the 1970s. She and her husband Clifford Jones are based in Brazil and keep in regular contact with the Brigadier.
• Polly's e-mail address is [email protected].
• Polly works in the City of Westminster in London.
• The Brigadier sends Polly a photograph of himself, the Third Doctor, Jo, Captain Mike Yates, Corporal Bell and Sgt. Benton at a UNIT Christmas party. Benton was dressed as Santa Claus.
• Polly refers to the Second Doctor as "a bit sartorially challenged" and compares his hairstyle to those worn by the Beatles.
• The Brigadier was unaware that Jamie was from 1746.
• Polly describes Gerry "G. L." Lenz as being "handsome in a Terence Stamp sort of way." Lenz mistakes the Doctor for her uncle and offers her a job as his new PA as she will "be easy on the customer's eyes."
• Weather permitting, Jo and Cliff are flying to an emergency climate change summit in New York City.
• Florrie Cooper describes the Third Doctor as a "proper toff."
• The Brigadier refers to the Master.
• Brewster refers to the 19th century penny dreadfuls Black Bess and Varney the Vampire.
• The Third Doctor shares some whiskey served in a tumbler, which was a gift from Robert Louis Stevenson.
• Polly refers to the TARDIS's food machine.
• Brewster mentions the croup.
• Polly never drinks coffee anymore as it gives her the "jitters."
• Due to the extreme flooding of London, the British government has relocated to Birmingham.
• Polly works in a government office.
• Polly is unaware of the existence of TARDISes other than the Doctor's.
• Polly regularly goes to the gym.
• After seeing the TARDIS, Polly tells Brewster that she hoped that every police box which she saw was in fact the TARDIS and that the Doctor had returned for her.

Notes

• The compilation of this story came on three CDs, each with a cover focused on that part's companion.
• This was the final performance for Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart before his death on 22 February 2011.
• This audio drama was recorded on 3 June 2008.

Cover gallery

• 

  Compilation cover for Polly's Story

• 

  Compilation cover for The Brigadier's Story

• 

  Compilation cover for Brewster's Story

Continuity

• Polly mentions Jo's encounter with Mrs Killebrew and the Dolls, which Jo described in detail on her blog. (AUDIO: The Doll of Death)
• Jo is still married to Clifford Jones. (TV: The Green Death)
• The Brigadier tells Polly that he met Jamie McCrimmon on two occasions. (TV: The Web of Fear, The Invasion)
• Polly tells the Brigadier that the Doctor was able to return her and Ben Jackson to London on the day that they left. (TV: The Faceless Ones)
• Polly mentions to the Brigadier that the Doctor's appearance and personality completed changed while she and Ben were travelling with him. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
• The Brigadier mentions that the first three Doctors turned up at once on one occasion. (TV: The Three Doctors)
• During a brief trip in the TARDIS with the Second Doctor, the Brigadier was once trapped in the event horizon of a black hole (TV: The Three Doctors)
• Polly mentions meeting Jamie in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746. (TV: The Highlanders)
• The Brigadier mentions that the Doctor met his wife, Doris Lethbridge-Stewart, in Carbury in 1997. (TV: Battlefield)
• Brewster e-mails Polly and the Brigadier, telling them that the TARDIS is in his possession. (AUDIO: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster, The Boy That Time Forgot)
• Brewster states that he misses "Her Royal Highness Princess Nyssa." (AUDIO: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster)
• Polly has not seen the Doctor for 43 years. (TV: The Faceless Ones)
• Brewster tells Polly and the Brigadier that he first met the Doctor in 1867. (AUDIO: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster)
• Polly mentions the TARDIS's food machine. (TV: The Daleks)

Releases

• The original release was a series of ten-minute episodes included on the back end of the Big Finish Productions' main monthly titles, starting with The Magic Mousetrap and ending with Survival of the Fittest.
• The series was subsequently compiled into a three-disc set as part of The Companion Chronicles: The Specials box set.