Mary's Story (audio story)

Mary's Story (audio story)

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Mary's Story
Doctor:	[[doctor::Eighth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Mary Shelley (introduction, joins)
Main setting:	The Villa Diodati, near Lake Geneva, Switzerland, June 1816
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::Big Finish Productions]]
Writer:	Jonathan Morris
Director:	Nicholas Briggs
Music:	Matthew Cochrane
Sound:	Matthew Cochrane
Release details
Release number:	123d
Part of:	The Company of Friends
Release date:	July 2009
Format:	1 X 25 min.
Production code:	8Z
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-411-5

Mary's Story (audio story) was a 2009 Big Finish Productions full-cast audio short story, featuring the Eighth Doctor and Mary Shelley. It was the fruition of a nearly decade-long gag that had been running through the Eighth Doctor's audio adventures. Since his first such adventure BFA: Storm Warning, he had been dropping hints of a friendship with Shelley, but that relationship had never been depicted until this story.

This story is notable for the fact that the Eighth Doctor acknowledges comics, prose, and audio continuities. It is the first and only story, as of 2011, to explicitly and unambiguously combine the continuities of these three media.

The story was originally released as part of the 2009 omnibus BFA: The Company of Friends. In October 2011, to tie in with a new series of audio dramas featuring Mary as a companion, Big Finish released Mary's Story as a limited-time standalone download.[1]

Publisher's summary

Switzerland, 1816: at the Villa Diodati, Lord Byron's house guests tell each other tales to curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart. With a monster on the loose outside, young Mary Shelley isn't short of inspiration.

Cast

• The Eighth Doctor - Paul McGann
• Mary Shelley - Julie Cox
• Percy Shelley - Anthony Glennon
• Lord Byron - Robert Forknall
• John Polidori - Ian Hallard
• Claire Clairmont - Katrina Cooke

References

• The Doctor cries out for Gemma, Destrii and Compassion to help him.
• The Doctor mentions some of his previous companions, seemingly in order: Ssard, Trix, Charley, Lucie, Alex, Tar and Rita.
• During their travels together, the Doctor and Mary met the Cybermen, the Axons and King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Illustration featured in DWM 410.

Notes

• A future version of the Eighth Doctor names some of his previous companions all from different ranges of stories, such as Compassion (books), Lucie Miller (audios) and Destrii (comics), in one of the rare occasions in which the different continuities are acknowledged together.
• Although Percy and Mary Shelley are depicted as husband and wife in June 1816, they did not actually get married until 30 December of that year in real life.

Continuity

• The Doctor left his companions Samson and Gemma Griffin in Vienna before travelling with Mary, only to pick them up later. Samson and Gemma first appeared in BFA: Terror Firma. While they have yet to make a second audio appearance, they were depicted travelling with the Doctor in ST: The Long Midwinter and ST: Dear John.
• The TARDIS regenerates with the help of the Doctor. It would later do so again in DW: The Eleventh Hour.
• The Doctor uses a small green crystal to regenerate the TARDIS which is similar, if not identical, to the one used in DW: Rise of the Cybermen.
• The future Eighth Doctor refers to an encounter that he and Mary Shelley had with the Cybermen. (BFA: The Silver Turk)
• The future Eighth Doctor claims that he and Mary Shelley met Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. While in his sixth incarnation, he and his companion Peri Brown met Harold, who was then operating under the alias of "Hereward the Wake", in the aftermath of the battle. (DWAN: The Real Hereward)
• The Fifth Doctor previously expressed a desire to meet Mary's husband Percy Shelley. (BFA: Castle of Fear)

Timeline

• Mary's Story occurs after: ST: Dear John (present Doctor) and ST: Not in My Back Yard (future Doctor).
• Mary's Story occurs before: BFA: The Silver Turk (present Doctor) and ST: The End (future Doctor).

External links

to be added