The Light at the End (audio story)

The Light at the End
Doctors:	Fourth Doctor, Fifth Doctor, Sixth Doctor, Seventh Doctor, Eighth Doctor
Companion(s):	Leela, Nyssa, Peri, Ace, Charley
Featuring:	First Doctor, Second Doctor, Third Doctor, Straxus
Main enemy:	Decayed Master
Main setting:	Totton, Hampshire, 23 November 1963 The Factory
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Nicholas Briggs
Director:	Nicholas Briggs
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Jamie Robertson
Sound:	Jamie Robertson
Cover by:	Alex Mallinson
Release details
Number of parts:	2
Release date:	23 October 2013
Format:	2 CDs (standard release) 5 CDs (box set) 4 disc vinyl Download
Production code:	BFPDW50CD (standard release) BFPDW50DELUXE (5-disc box set) BFPDW50LP (vinyl)
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-78178-116-6 (standard release); ISBN 978-1-78178-107-4 (5-disc box set); ISBN 978-1-78178-116-6 (vinyl)
Official trailer
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Big Finish Doctor Who Special Releases
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The Light at the End was Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who fiftieth anniversary special story. It was notable for being the audio story with the most Doctors until Collision Course in 2019 — all eight for which the company had a license in 2013. The only previous stories to feature all of the first eight Doctors were the EDA novel The Eight Doctors, the DWM comic Happy Deathday, the IDW comic miniseries The Forgotten and the short stories The Glass Princess and Categorical Imperative. It was selected as the best Big Finish audio release of 2013 by readers of Doctor Who Magazine, with the results of the poll published in DWM 479. It was also notable for introducing a new incarnation of Straxus.

Publisher's summary

November 23rd 1963 proves to be a significant day in the lives of all eight Doctors...

It's the day that Bob Dovie's life is ripped apart...

It's also a day that sets in motion a catastrophic chain of events which forces the first eight incarnations of the Doctor to fight for their very existence. As a mysterious, insidious chaos unfolds within the TARDIS, the barriers of time break apart...

From suburban England through war-torn alien landscapes and into a deadly, artificial dimension, all these Doctors and their companions must struggle against the power of an unfathomable, alien technology.

From the very beginning, it is clear that the Master is somehow involved.

By the end, for the Doctors, there may only be darkness.

Plot

Part one

On 23 November, 1962, Bob Dovie is at his home at 59A Barnsfield Crescent in Totton, Hampshire with his two children, Kevin and Linda. While the two kids are playing, the radio Bob has been listening to goes out for a few seconds. During that period, Kevin claims to see a police box; Bob doesn't see anything, though. The police box appears again, crashing into the Dovies' garden shed, and their chimney. Kevin asks if Father Christmas has come, to which a stunned Bob can only point out that it's too early for him to be here.

The leader of the Vess is talking to the Decayed Master; the Master is being given one of the weapons created by the Vess. The leader is intrigued by the choice the Master has made. He asks if the weapon pleases the Master, who admits to such. With just a stray thought, he will be able to take his revenge on the Doctor.

Meanwhile, the Eighth Doctor is making adjustments to his TARDIS, while Charley is enjoying the arboretum. She returns to the console room just as the Doctor finishes his adjustments. While the two are talking, the TARDIS goes haywire, and is suddenly on the verge of destroying itself. A few seconds later, everything returns to normal, except a flashing, red light appears on the console, one that hadn't been there before. Checking everything, the Doctor discovers the light appeared when the TARDIS passed through a specific place and time: 17:03 on November 23, 1963, at 59A, Barnsfield Crescent in Totton, Hampshire. The Doctor decides to investigate, and sets the TARDIS to land there. The TARDIS materialises instead on a strange planet. While trying to figure it out, the Doctor and Charley are interrupted by a large machine near them. The machine separates the two from each other and from the TARDIS. The Doctor tells Charley to run, and they would meet up later. Charley ends up locating the TARDIS; she uses her key to enter it. To her dismay, the Doctor still hasn't arrived. Suddenly, the doors begin to open and close of their own accord.

A machine separates the Doctor and Charley.

Meanwhile, the Doctor tries using his sonic screwdriver to locate his ship, but instead ends up passing through a forcefield and into a viewing gallery in the Vess weapons factory. There, he meets a visiting alien who has been complaining about the pathetic demonstrations that the Vess are using to show off the effectiveness of their weapons. The strange planet that the TARDIS has landed on is a simulation. The alien leaves, leaving the Doctor confused about who the Vess are.

Back in the TARDIS, Charley is trying to find the door controls, when the doors finally shut and stay shut. At that moment, ghost-like images start appearing and disappearing, images of the previous Doctors and their companions. All of them notice Charley in those few seconds that she can see them. She tries to talk to them, but can't get anywhere. Suddenly, space warps around Charley, and she finds herself in a different TARDIS control room, along with the Fourth Doctor and Leela. She has somehow been transported to the Fourth Doctor's TARDIS.

The Eighth Doctor has finally managed to use his sonic screwdriver to hack into the reality orientation controls. He starts adjusting the viewscreen to try to locate the TARDIS. Though he succeeds in doing so, he does not realise that he is in fact not looking at his TARDIS, but at that of his fourth incarnation. One of the Vess security drones informs the Eighth Doctor that, while the planet is fake, the creatures are real, as the Vess believe that using their weapons on living beings is the only way to prove the effectiveness of their weapons.

The Fourth Doctor explains regeneration to both Leela and Charley, getting Charley to realise that this man is a past version of the Doctor she knew. The Fourth Doctor points out that the red flashing light on the TARDIS console is now brighter than before. The Fourth Doctor and Leela had headed for the same time and space coordinates the Eighth Doctor had aimed for and ended in the same place. He decides to go out and explore, but Charley filled them in on what she and the Eighth Doctor had seen. The Fourth Doctor activates the scanner, confirming what Charley said. The Doctor then moves to dematerialise the TARDIS, despite Charley's protests, when the TARDIS goes haywire. The Fourth Doctor was only planning to move a short distance away, but now realises that time is folding in on itself. The images of the other Doctors and their companions briefly appear again, along with a man saying, "This is impossible."

The Eighth Doctor notices the TARDIS is now in the same room as he is. The drone from before points out that the TARDIS has been there for some time. Charley, the Fourth Doctor, and Leela step out and inform the Eighth Doctor about what they discovered. The two Doctors decide to contact the Time Lords. Before they can enter the TARDIS, the Vess security drone covers it with slime, proclaiming the TARDIS will be impounded. The two Doctors and their companions have also been identified as intruders. The Vess decides to capture the four, but only succeeds in capturing Charley. The Eighth Doctor tries to free her, but is unable to do so. He then detects the presence of another TARDIS. With the Vess closing in on them, the two Doctors and Leela are forced to abandon Charley and find the other TARDIS.

Meanwhile, the Sixth Doctor and Peri are going through the same events the other two Doctors have gone through. The Sixth Doctor notes the coordinates that came with the red light, but decides not to go there, seeing it as a trap. He then notices there is a large energy source with incredible power at the mysterious coordinates, and that it's drawing energy from another place in time and space. The TARDIS then accidentally flies into the energy stream, getting pulled to where the power is being drawn from: the Big Bang.

Leela and the Fourth Doctor.

The Vess facility has gone into a security lockdown, but the two Doctors are still able to proceed, thanks to their sonic screwdrivers. They end up at another viewing gallery, filled with visiting aliens. They watched as the Vess demonstrate one of their weapons on living beings. The three are unaware that they are being watched by the Master. The Master turns his attention to the security drones that have brought Charley to him. He introduces himself to Charley and proclaims that soon, she will have never heard of the Doctor. A few seconds later, she disappears.

The Master and the Vess drones.

The two Doctors and Leela find themselves in a military museum, along with the mysterious TARDIS in the form of a Vess military tank. The security drones enter the museum and Leela tries to fight them off with a crossbow she picked up. The two Doctors touch their sonic screwdrivers together, releasing enough temporal energy to force the TARDIS doors open. The Master watches all this happen, complimenting the two Doctors on gaining entry to his TARDIS. However, he knows it will make no difference, and that nothing the Doctors could do would make a difference. Time is already running out for them.

The trio quickly get inside the Master's TARDIS and close the doors. They are only able to relax for a few moments, because a few seconds later, Leela vanishes. The scanner activates, showing the Master. He refuses to tell them what has happened to Leela and Charley, stating the same will happen to all the others as well. The Fourth Doctor shuts off the scanner, proclaiming that the Master is just trying to distract them from the fact they can summon one of their TARDISes using the Emergency Homing Beacon. The Fourth Doctor summons his TARDIS to them and they watch as the security slime falls off. The two then enter the TARDIS. Inside, they try to dematerialise, but something goes wrong. The Fourth Doctor notices that the Vess facility is located in a pocket dimension, one that can only be accessed by going to the specific space-time coordinates that the two Doctors had gone to, and now they are trapped inside the pocket dimension. The Eighth Doctor tries to give them the power to break through, but it fails. Space warps around them again, and the two Doctors find themselves in the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS.

The ghost-like images appear once again, with the Eighth Doctor taking notice of his immediate predecessor, who asks him if he knows anything about the power source of the pocket dimension before disappearing. He then sees the Sixth Doctor and Peri heading for the Big Bang, followed by the appearance of the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa, talking about November 23, 1963. The images disappear again, but the red light is still flashing. The two hear a strange noise, prompting the Eighth Doctor to check the console. He discovers the TARDIS is destroying herself inch by inch, second by second, but in no particular temporal order. The power goes out, trapping the two Doctors inside the TARDIS. The only thing left on is the mysterious, flashing, red light, the light at the end of the TARDIS. The image of the mysterious man saying, "This is impossible," appears again. A few seconds later, the TARDIS explodes, taking the Fourth and Eighth Doctors with it.

Meanwhile, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa go through the same experiences that the other Doctors went through. The Doctor takes note of the coordinates and decided to investigate. However, he takes a precaution. He sets the TARDIS to land at 17:02, one minute early. The two emerge from the TARDIS to find they have materialised inside a garden shed. They head back into the TARDIS to wait out the remaining seconds until 17:03. Once the time comes, nothing happens, except that the red light has vanished and there is no sign that there had ever been one. However, something strange has come up. The TARDIS has detected the energy of another TARDIS.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace have arrived in the pocket dimension, having gone through the same experiences as the other Doctors and deciding to go directly to the coordinates. The Doctor is wondering where the pocket dimension was getting the power to sustain it when the ghost-like images of the other Doctors appear, including one of the Fourth and Eighth Doctors trapped in the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS. The Seventh Doctor tries to ask his future self about the power source of the pocket dimension, but the images vanish, leaving the Doctor to explain to Ace about regeneration. The two decide to go out and investigate the pocket dimension.

The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa exit their TARDIS, only to realise that in a very short amount of time, it has suddenly become nighttime. The Doctor activates the scanner he has brought with him, and notices that some kind of temporal folding was occurring, and that it may be being caused by the other TARDIS. As they try to locate the mystery TARDIS, they are spotted by Bob Dovie, who mistakes them for the police. His wife and children have gone missing. Noticing that Bob takes no notice to their strange clothes, the Doctor and Nyssa decide to look into it. Bob gets tea for the two, who ask him about what has happened. Bob is oddly distracted throughout the conversation, unable to focus properly. Bob seems to recognise the Fifth Doctor from somewhere before, and then remembers that when his wife and kids vanished, someone was at the door. The Doctor then sends Bob to get some biscuits, so he can point out to Nyssa that the phone is disconnected. When Bob comes back, the Doctor has him call his friends to see if they have seen his wife and kids. Bob does so, apparently having a conversation with said friends. This is impossible, meaning that someone has tampered with Bob's mind. Bob goes into the children's room, where he starts up a music box, once more in a distracted state. He is surprised when the Doctor and Nyssa enter the room, having forgotten about them. The two bring up the man who was at Bob's door when his family disappeared, and Bob is able to recall that the man had a burned appearance.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace arrive.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace are investigating the area their TARDIS has landed in, but wherever it is, it's pitch dark. The two end up at a wall, and decide to head in another direction. The two start hearing strange noises. They end up at another wall. The strange noises persist, so the two decide to head back to the TARDIS. They notice that something that looks like a wall of mud filled with junk and corpses is moving, and it is heading for them.

Nyssa and the Doctor discover Bob Dovie's family.

Nyssa takes a look inside the dollhouse and finds the corpses of Bob's family. A Tissue Compression Eliminator had been used on them, meaning that the Master is the culprit and the other TARDIS is his, but that it is the Master as he was before he took the body of Tremas, meaning he crossed his own timeline. On Dovie's television, the Master's face appears. The Doctor confronts him on why he has crossed his own timeline, but the Master proclaims that his timeline in regard to the Doctor's doesn't have any significance anymore.

"This is impossible!"

Bob confronts the Doctor, having overheard the truth that his family was killed. The Doctor promises to get the man responsible, and both he and Nyssa rush out of the house in time to see the Master's TARDIS dematerialise. They try to go back to their TARDIS, but Bob is in their way again, somehow recognising the TARDIS and the Fifth Doctor, but not being able to properly remember. They decide to take him into the TARDIS with them. Once inside, Bob is shocked at what he sees and only has one thing to say, "This is impossible." The TARDIS explodes, taking the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, and Bob with it.

Part two

The Sixth Doctor manages to put the TARDIS in reverse, sending it in the opposite direction in the energy stream. This makes it land at the coordinates which came with the red light. The Doctor realises they are now trapped. Meanwhile, the Seventh Doctor and Ace have temporarily outrun the mud, only to find that more is approaching. The mud walls are living creatures with telepathic abilities and they try to use those abilities to stop the Doctor and Ace from escaping. The Doctor manages to get Ace to focus and throw her Nitro-9 at the mud creatures. However, it's too late for the TARDIS, as the mud creatures have consumed it. The Sixth Doctor activates the scanner to look outside and notices a force field break open. He and Peri watch as the Seventh Doctor and Ace come out of the opening. The two notice the Sixth Doctor's TARDIS and head for it, using their key to enter. Ace notices the red light on the TARDIS console, and both groups realise they have gone through the same strange events. The TARDIS doors start opening and closing. The Sixth Doctor tries to figure out what's wrong, while the Seventh Doctor notices that it is being caused by the TARDIS Emergency Systems: the TARDIS is trying to tell them something.

The doors finally stay shut. The ghost-like images appear again, including the Fourth and Eighth Doctor's conversation in the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS and the subsequent explosion. Ace is confused how the Sixth and Seventh Doctors could be there if the Fourth Doctor had already died, but the Sixth Doctor points out that the destruction is happening in no particular temporal order, and the Seventh Doctor points out that whatever is happening is contained within the TARDIS. The four decide to go investigate the Vess facility.

The first three Doctors try to plan their way out of the Master's trap.

Meanwhile, in the First Doctor's TARDIS, the First Doctor, along with the Second Doctor, and the Third Doctor, are doing everything in their power to give their other selves as much time as possible.

The Sixth Doctor and Peri on their elevator.

The two Doctors, Peri, and Ace enter the facility and find two glass elevators. They decide to split up, but can't decide who will go up and who will go down. Ace makes the decision, resulting in her and the Seventh Doctor heading down. The Sixth Doctor and Peri prepare to head up, but just as the doors start to close, the Doctor spots the first three Doctors. He tries to get back out of the elevator, but the doors close completely. He watches as his first three selves disappear, and wonders what they are up to. The Seventh Doctor and Ace exit their elevator only to find themselves amongst delegations from other worlds. A Vess drone gives them a device that produces a four-dimensional projection that welcomes them to the facility.

The Sixth Doctor and Peri exit their elevator, only to run into a couple of Time Lords. The Time Lords recognise the Doctor and capture both him and Peri. The Seventh Doctor and Ace notice that they have been spotted, for the security cameras are focused solely on them. The person watching them is the Master, who sends security drones after them. The Time Lords take the Sixth Doctor and Peri into a room in which they have disrupted the cameras so that they can't be watched. The Seventh Doctor and Ace notice the security drones coming for them, and their route back to the TARDIS is blocked. They run for an unguarded door. The Master notices that some of the cameras have been disrupted in the corridors leading to where the Time Lord delegation is staying. He wonders what they are up to.

The Sixth Doctor confronts the two Time Lords about why they are in a weapons factory, when the Time Lords are supposed to be a peaceful, non-interfering race. One of the Time Lords introduces himself as Straxus and that he is working for the Celestial Intervention Agency. The Doctor points out that they were expecting him, so he demands to know how many other Doctors they have captured. The answer is zero. Straxus has only been able to spot other Doctors. The Doctor then asked why all of his selves are here.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace end up in the room where the Master is. Since they have found their way to him, the Master calls off the security drones. The Doctor confronts the Master about what he's up to, but the Master calmly points out that time is running out for the Doctor. A few seconds later, Ace vanishes. The Master laughs, proclaiming that it was the last time Ace will ever see the Doctor, and soon, she will have never known the Doctor at all. The Master tells the Doctor to head back to the TARDIS, to see that his time is running out.

The Sixth Doctor accuses the Time Lords of what has been happening. Straxus reveals that the one responsible is the Master. Right after that, Peri vanishes. Straxus says that Peri's disappearance was also caused by the Master. Straxus is hesitant to explain what is going on, and the Doctor realises that the presence of Time Lords here is being kept secret from the High Council.

The Celestial Intervention Agency was worried about the possible threats that the universe could bring down on the Time Lords, so they aimed to obtain some of the worst weapons available in order to protect the Time Lords and the entirety of space and time. They learned of the Vess, and sent a delegation. The Master somehow found out that they were there and made a deal with the delegation. If they would allow him to take only one weapon from the Vess, he wouldn't reveal their presence here to the High Council. However, they don't know what weapon he chose.

The Seventh Doctor reaches the Sixth Doctor's TARDIS, and tries to find a way to reach Gallifrey. However, the images appear again, while the doors open and close. He then watches what happened to the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa.

Straxus admits to knowing that the Master planned to use his weapon against the Doctor. The Sixth Doctor is disgusted at them, accusing them of being glad that the Master wanted to kill him, Straxus admits that they believed the sacrifice of the Doctor was worth insuring that their operation was a success. However, they weren't expecting the Master to do something that was causing time to fold in on the Doctor, erasing him from the timeline, which is why Peri and the other companions have all vanished. They never met the Doctor, so they couldn't have been in the pocket dimension at all.

Straxus then reveals that his covert operatives on Gallifrey had informed him that history is shifting. The timeline is becoming as though the Doctor never left Gallifrey. Everything he has done since he went rogue, was being undone.

The Seventh Doctor is now beginning to understand. The images of the first three Doctors appear, as they began to explain to him what was going on. The red light was the explosion, reduced to the single moment when it happened. The first three Doctors have used the TARDIS Emergency Systems to achieve this, and they also used it as a warning so that the Doctors would not go to those coordinates. They didn't have enough power to send a clearer message, the result having the opposite effect, drawing all the Doctors to those coordinates.

The Sixth Doctor expresses his disgust at Straxus for what he has done, but decides that there is no point in standing around and being indignant and disapproving. He needs to find a way to put everything right again. The weapon that the Master used needs to be found out, if any hope of countering it is to be discovered. The Doctor knows he would need the help of his other selves, so he sets out for the Time Lord delegation's TARDIS, planning to expand the dimensional stabilisation field of that TARDIS to encompass the entire pocket dimension, thus allowing all the Doctors to materialise at the same point in time.

The Seventh Doctor realises that the ghost-like images and the doors opening and closing were the TARDIS trying to warn him of the danger. For some reason, time is folding in on the TARDIS, destroying it second by second, wiping it from the timelines. But, the first three Doctors have been constantly shifting that destruction randomly through time, to buy more time. The four Doctors then notice the dimensional stabilisation field. The Sixth Doctor's efforts are successful. However, there is some slight phasing at the edge of the field, meaning the first three Doctors will not fully materialise. However, the Fourth through Eighth Doctors will successfully materialise in the Sixth Doctor's TARDIS. The Doctor departs to go meet up with his other selves.

In the TARDIS, the Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Doctors appear, having each come directly from the explosions they were caught in. The First, Second, and Third Doctors also appear, but with ghost-like appearances. The Seventh Doctor welcomes them all to the TARDIS, and the Sixth Doctor joins them a few moments later, proclaiming that it is time for them to fight back.

The Master manages to restore the cameras and starts to watch the footage of the Time Lord delegation with the Sixth Doctor and Peri. However, an alert comes to him from his TARDIS, thus forcing the Master to go find out what it's about. He has the security drones with him also come.

The eight Doctors make telepathic contact with each other and share their experiences. They note that due to the size of the pocket dimension, they will be able to maintain telepathic contact with each other. They come up with a plan.

The Master has arrived in his TARDIS and discovers the dimensional stabilisation field. He deduces it's being produced from Straxus' TARDIS and that it would allow the eight Doctors to materialise in the pocket dimension. He orders the drones to assassinate the Time Lord delegation, but the Fourth and Eighth Doctors have arrived, using the same sonic screwdriver trick to open the door. The Master has the two Doctors restrained and wonders why they have come here. He also wonders where the other Doctors are. The other Doctors are still in the TARDIS. They are planning to try to break out of the pocket dimension. The First Doctor reminds them time is collapsing in the TARDIS at an accelerating rate. The first three Doctors will do their best to repair the TARDIS Emergency Systems. The Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors begin their attempt.

The Master realises the Fourth and Eighth Doctors have come here to distract him and turns his attention back to the other Doctors in time to see the TARDIS dematerialise. He sends an energy pulse into the Vortex, aimed for the Doctor's TARDIS. The pulse strikes the TARDIS, sending it into the energy stream on a direct course for the Big Bang. The Sixth Doctor has already been in this situation before, and he repeats what he did. The Fifth Doctor is suddenly struck by inspiration and shares it with the other Doctors. The Fourth and Eighth Doctors learn the plan, but the Fourth's sudden exclamation on its brilliance attracts the attention of the Master. Feeding the Master's ego, the Fourth and Eighth Doctors do what they really came to do, trick the Master into revealing the weapon he used. He had used a conceptual bomb to take the thought Bob Dovie had when he first entered the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS, and make it a reality, the thought being on how impossible the TARDIS was. The result was the TARDIS being erased from existence, which means it wasn't there when the Doctor decided to leave Gallifrey. No TARDIS meant no departure. The Doctor never left Gallifrey. The Fourth and Eighth Doctors mentally send the conversation to their other selves.

The other Doctors set the TARDIS to land at 59A, Barnsfield Crescent on November 23, 1962, resulting in them first crashing into the garden shed, and then into the chimney. The first three Doctors contact the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors. The First Doctor was the first one to hear the emergency signal from the TARDIS, because his TARDIS was already in 1963 when the explosion occurred. But, it was the TARDIS Emergency Systems that drew the other Doctors in, allowing the Master to plant the bomb. If the first three Doctors could shut off the Emergency Systems, then the Doctors would never have been drawn there. But, before they can do so, the destruction of the TARDIS catches up with them, destroying the First Doctor's TARDIS and killing the First, Second, and Third Doctors. The Fifth Doctor decides that he should be the one to carry out the plan, as he was the one who first brought Bob Dovie into the TARDIS. He steps outside the TARDIS and talked with Bob, convincing him to come up to the roof. Back inside, the Sixth and Seventh Doctors leave the control room. Bob steps into the TARDIS and can't believe his eyes, proclaiming the TARDIS to be impossible. This is what the Fifth Doctor intended, so that when Bob steps into the TARDIS the next year, he won't find it so impossible.

The plan succeeds and the conceptual bomb never went off, restoring all the Doctors, their companions, and their TARDISes. The Master is enraged, and orders the drones to kill the Fourth and Eighth Doctors, but the drones disappear. Since the bomb never went off, all the events that occurred afterward never happened, so the drones were never there. This means that the Fourth and Eighth Doctors were never in the Master's TARDIS either. The Master then discovers that all eight TARDISes are aimed for the exact place in time and space that his TARDIS is. The Doctors are planning to time ram him, and there is nothing he could do to escape. The eight Doctors discuss whether they should really time ram the Master, when the First Doctor brings up that the Fifth Doctor's part only fixed half the problem. As long as all the Doctors were drawn to November 23, 1963 by the TARDIS Emergency Systems that was activated on the First Doctor's TARDIS, the Master will be able to plant the bomb. All the First Doctor has to do is switch the system off, and he does so.

Each Doctor finds himself back in his TARDIS with his companions, with no memory of what had happened. The Eighth Doctor finds himself setting course for the 23rd of November 1963 at 59A Barnsfield Crescent. He and Charley go and ring the doorbell of Bob Dovie's house. Bob is irritated by their presence, as he has already been visited by the other seven Doctors and their companions, all of whom had asked if everything was okay, and none of them could explain why they had done so. The same is true for the Eighth Doctor. Bob is also still cross about the Fifth Doctor's crash-landing into his chimney the year before. After getting the door slammed in their face, the Eighth Doctor and Charley depart, heading off for their next adventure, just as the other seven Doctors had done.

Cast

• The Doctor - William Russell
• The Doctor - Frazer Hines
• The Doctor - Tim Treloar
• The Doctor - Tom Baker
• The Doctor - Peter Davison
• The Doctor - Colin Baker
• The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
• The Doctor - Paul McGann
• Leela - Louise Jameson
• Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
• Peri - Nicola Bryant
• Ace - Sophie Aldred
• Charley Pollard - India Fisher
• Ian Chesterton - William Russell
• Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford
• Vicki Pallister - Maureen O'Brien
• Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
• Sara Kingdom - Jean Marsh
• Polly Wright - Anneke Wills
• Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines
• Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury
• Jo Grant - Katy Manning
• Tegan - Janet Fielding
• Turlough - Mark Strickson
• The Master - Geoffrey Beevers
• Bob Dovie - John Dorney
• Straxus - Oliver Hume
• The Vess - Nicholas Briggs
• Kevin Dovie - Benedict Briggs

Crew

• Cover Art - Alex Mallinson
• Writer & Director - Nicholas Briggs
• Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
• Music and Sound Design - Jamie Robertson
• Producer - David Richardson
• Script Editor - Alan Barnes

Worldbuilding

• The Vess are a robotic species who sell arms to the Sontarans, Cybermen and the Daleks.
• Kevin Dovie wonders if the Doctor's police box belongs to Father Christmas.
• At this point in their personal timelines, the Fourth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors have not told their respective companions Leela, Ace and Charley about regeneration.
• The Eighth Doctor notes that his console room design was "inherited", to which the Fourth Doctor sarcastically asks if it came from Jules Verne.
• The Sixth Doctor physically expands the dimensional stabilisation field of Straxus' TARDIS to the entire pocket dimension, to allow his fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth incarnations to fully materialise their own TARDISes in the dimension itself.
• Over the course of two hours on 23 November 1963, Bob Dovie was visited by the First Doctor, Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe Heriot, the Third Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, the Fourth Doctor, Leela, the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, the Sixth Doctor, Peri Brown, the Seventh Doctor, Ace, the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard in rapid succession.
• Bob says that Leela looked like a "female Tarzan".
• The Fifth Doctor describes the Master's theft of Tremas's body as a regeneration.

Notes

• Originally announced for release nearer the actual 23rd November 2013 anniversary date, the Special Edition CD and the digital versions of all editions were released by Big Finish one month early on 23 October, in order to pre-empt an imminent leak. Due to slight manufacturing delays, the Standard CD and Limited Vinyl editions were scheduled for release slightly later, on 25 October and 1 November respectively. Listeners who purchased physical copies of any edition directly from Big Finish were granted access to their digital copies on the early release date.
• The Deluxe CD Edition also featured two 70-minute documentaries, The Making of the Light at the End and This is Big Finish, looking at the production of the story and the history of Big Finish, respectively.
• This was the official audio debuts for William Russell as the First Doctor, Frazer Hines as the Second Doctor, and Tim Treloar as the Third Doctor.
• With the exception of the Children in Need special Dimensions in Time, this is the second story in performed Doctor Who to feature both Peri and Ace. They had previously both appeared in the audio story The Veiled Leopard but did not meet or interact with one another.
• This marks the first time that Katy Manning has played Jo Grant for Big Finish Productions outside of The Companion Chronicles.
• This story was originally released on standard double CD, five-disc limited edition CD box set (which also contains the two documentaries and bonus story The Revenants) and limited edition vinyl. The vinyl version has since sold out.
• Although they have no dialogue, Ben Jackson, Barbara Wright and Sarah Jane Smith do appear via 'silent' cameos.
• Nicholas Briggs mentioned in an episode of The Benji and Nick Show podcast that 59A Barnsfield Crescent, Totton, Hampshire was a direct reference to where he actually lived as a child.
• The Eighth Doctor's sonic screwdriver is depicted as being his second model, which first debuted in the first Dark Eyes boxset released the year prior, making this story the first chronological appearance of this screwdriver, and retroactively suggesting its use in Eighth Doctor audio stories prior to Dark Eyes.
• This story implies that the First Doctor did succeed in landing the TARDIS in 1963, despite the TV episodes featuring him, Susan, Barbara and Ian suggesting otherwise.

Continuity

• Bob Dovie listens to the Common Men on the radio. (TV: An Unearthly Child; AUDIO: 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men)
• Sara Kingdom tells the apparition of Charley aboard the First Doctor's TARDIS that she is a member of the Space Security Service. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
• When Charley is seeing apparitions of the past Doctors and companions, one of them is of the Second Doctor, Ben Jackson and Polly Wright. The Doctor is playing his recorder while Polly is trying to get reassurance from him that they will not see the Daleks again. She even comments on how they do not seem to be able to get any straight answers out of this new body of the Doctor's. (TV: The Power of the Daleks)
• Straxus mentions that in the alternative timeline in which the Doctor never left Gallifrey, the 2150s Dalek invasion of Earth was never defeated and the War Lords' armies spread across the galaxy. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The War Games)
• The Fourth Doctor introduces himself to Charley as "the definite article, you might say," echoing his introduction to Harry Sullivan just after his regeneration. (TV: Robot)
• The Fourth Doctor is still using the secondary control room, meaning that these events take place prior to it being damaged by fire. (TV: The Invisible Enemy; AUDIO: Empathy Games)
• The Eighth Doctor mentions the parrot in the TARDIS. (AUDIO: The Sands of Life / War Against the Laan)
• Nyssa refers to meeting the Decayed Master on Logopolis in 1981. This encounter has not happened yet in the Master's personal timeline. (TV: Logopolis)
• The Eighth Doctor tells the Fourth Doctor that the future incarnation dressed in cricketing gear is his immediate successor. (TV: Logopolis, Castrovalva)
• Turlough mistakes the apparition of Charley aboard the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS for an agent of the Black Guardian. (TV: Mawdryn Undead, Terminus, Enlightenment)
• After seeing the Sixth Doctor's coat, the Fourth Doctor wonders how he could ever end up with such a terrible sense of fashion. (TV: The Twin Dilemma)
• The Fourth Doctor describes the idea of his future self repairing the TARDIS's chameleon circuit as "vulgar." However, shortly before his regeneration into his fifth incarnation, he travelled to Logopolis in the hope of having it repaired using Block Transfer Computation. (TV: Logopolis) During his sixth incarnation, he was temporarily able to repair it. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
• Peri is aware of the Master's identity, having previously met his future self on Sarn in circa 1984 (TV: Planet of Fire) and Killingworth in the 19th century. (TV: The Mark of the Rani) She also recognises the Second Doctor because of "the business with Dastari." (TV: The Two Doctors)
• The Sixth Doctor muses that the hairs standing up on the back of his neck mean that the first law of time is being broken; he would later tell Melanie Bush that his hair stands on end when he is in the proximity of another version of himself. (AUDIO: The One Doctor)
• The Seventh Doctor once again asks Ace for the Nitro-9 which she is not carrying. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks, Silver Nemesis)
• Ace has never previously met the Master, indicating that these events take place prior to her encounter with him on the Cheetah World in 1989. (TV: Survival)
• The Fourth Doctor notes that the Eighth Doctor is wearing a Wild Bill Hickok outfit. (TV: Doctor Who)
• Charley mentions stowing away aboard the British airship R101 prior to its launch on 4 October 1930. (AUDIO: Storm Warning)
• Leela and Charley would meet once again on Gallifrey in the proper timeline. As they lost all memory of these events after the proper timeline was restored, both of them believed that their encounter on Gallifrey was the first time that they had met. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
• The Vess' clientele composed of the deadliest races in the universe are the same as that of the Inforarium. (HOMEVID: The Inforarium)
• Changes to the history of Earth so that the Doctor had never saved the universe had previously been attempted by the Black Guardian (COMIC: Time & Time Again) and would later be attempted by the Great Intelligence. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
• The Gallifreyans seek out the most dangerous weapons in the universe. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
• When the Fourth and the Eighth Doctors enter the former's TARDIS, the desktop theme changes to that of the Eighth Doctor. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

Cover gallery

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  Standard Edition cover.

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  Limited Edition cover.

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  Vinyl cover.

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  Textless Standard Edition cover.

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  Textless Limited Edition cover.

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  Textless Vinyl cover.

External links

• Official The Light at the End page at bigfinish.com
• Official The Light at the End page at serialbox.com