Bloodtide (audio story): Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox Story
{{Infobox Story SMW
|image=Bloodtide cover.jpg  
|image           = Bloodtide cover.jpg  
|series=[[Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories|Big Finish ''Doctor Who'' audio stories]]
|range          = Main Range
|number= 22  
|number in range = 22
|doctor=Sixth Doctor  
|series         = ''[[Main Range]]''
|companions= [[Evelyn Smythe|Evelyn]]
|number         = 22  
|enemy= [[Tulok]]
|doctor         = Sixth Doctor
|setting= [[Baquerizo Moreno]] on the [[Galápagos Islands]], [[19 September]] [[1835]]
|companions     = [[Evelyn Smythe|Evelyn]]
|writer= [[Jonathan Morris]]
|featuring      = [[Charles Darwin]]
|director= [[Gary Russell]]
|enemy           = [[Tulok]], [[Myrka]]
|music= [[Alistair Lock]]  
|setting         = [[Baquerizo Moreno]], [[19 September]] [[1835]]
|sound= [[Alistair Lock]]
|writer         = Jonathan Morris
|cover=[[Clayton Hickman]]
|director       = [[Gary Russell]]
|publisher= Big Finish Productions  
|producer        = [[Jason Haigh-Ellery]] and Gary Russell
|release date= [[July (releases)|July]] [[2001 (releases)|2001]]
|music           = [[Alistair Lock]]
|format= 4 Episodes on 2 CDs  
|sound           = Alistair Lock
|production code= [[List of production codes|7C/D]]  
|cover           = [[Clayton Hickman]]
|isbn= ISBN 1-903654-32-7
|publisher       = Big Finish Productions
|prev= Dust Breeding (audio story)  
|release date   = 23 July 2001
|next= Project Twilight (audio story)}}
|format         = 2 CDs<br/>Download
'''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was an audio drama released by [[Big Finish Productions]] featuring the [[Sixth Doctor]] and [[Evelyn Smythe]]. A [[pseudo-historical]] story, it dramatised a portion of the studies made by [[Charles Darwin]] on the [[Galápagos Islands]]. It also marked the first appearance of the [[Silurian]]s on audio.
|production code = [[List of production codes|7C/D]]
|isbn           = ISBN 978-1-90365-432-3 (physical); ISBN 978-1-84435-716-1 (digital)
|prev           = Dust Breeding (audio story)
|next           = Project Twilight (audio story){{!}}Project: Twilight
|made prev      = Neverland (audio story)
|made next      = Dust Breeding (audio story)
|epcount = 4
}}{{spotify|album=6ICcOxGvU5Cpysfnt6y341|height=350}}
{{audio stub}}
{{you may|Bloodtide|n1=the Carrionite of the same name}}
'''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was the twenty-second story in [[Big Finish Productions|Big Finish]]'s [[Main Range|monthly range]]. It was written by [[Jonathan Morris]] and featured [[Colin Baker]] as the [[Sixth Doctor]] and [[Maggie Stables]] as [[Evelyn Smythe]].
 
A [[pseudo-historical]] story, it dramatised a portion of the studies made by [[Charles Darwin]] on the [[Galápagos Islands]]. It also marked the first appearance of the [[Silurian]]s on audio.


== Publisher's summary ==
== Publisher's summary ==
Line 30: Line 42:
[[The Doctor's TARDIS|The TARDIS]] has landed on the [[Galápagos Islands]], a desolate outcrop of rocks shrouded in mist and fear.
[[The Doctor's TARDIS|The TARDIS]] has landed on the [[Galápagos Islands]], a desolate outcrop of rocks shrouded in mist and fear.


In the settlement of [[Baquerizo Moreno]], there are rumours that prisoners have been mysteriously disappearing from the gaolhouse. A fisherman has been driven insane by something he saw in the caves. And the [[Sixth Doctor]] and [[Evelyn Smythe|Eveyln]] are not the only new arrivals; there is also a young natural philosopher by the name of [[Charles Darwin]]...
In the settlement of [[Baquerizo Moreno]], there are rumours that prisoners have been mysteriously disappearing from the gaolhouse. A fisherman has been driven insane by something he saw in the caves. And the [[Sixth Doctor]] and [[Evelyn Smythe|Evelyn]] are not the only new arrivals; there is also a young natural philosopher by the name of [[Charles Darwin]]...


== Plot ==
== Plot ==
=== Part 1 ===
=== Part One ===
[[Distant past|Millions of years ago]], a [[Silurian]] scientist named [[Tulok]] is on trial for experimenting on [[Human|apes]]; his sentence is banishment to the [[Earth|planet]]'s surface. On his way there, he encounters a female Silurian named [[Sh'vak]], who offers to sneak him into a [[stasis pod]]. He refuses and goes out onto the surface. His creatures will also be banished.


A Silurian named Tulok stands accused of creating monsters.  He is found guilty, and is sentenced to death, but his past achievements merit banishment to Earth’s surface, where nothing can survive—no sunlight has reached the surface in ten years. A friend, Sh’vak, urges him to confess and repent, and be allowed into stasis with all the others; but he refuses.  Sh’vak escorts him to the surface.  The Silurians then go into hibernation.
In [[1835]], the Doctor and Evelyn are unsure of where they are until they encounter a giant tortoise, which tells them that they are on the [[Galápagos Islands]]. A little later, they meet up with [[Charles Darwin]], who seems to know the Doctor already, though it soons turns out that he believes his name is [[Albert Einstein]].


Millions of years later, the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn Smythe land in the Galápagos Islands, on 19 September 1835.  He insists their purpose here is a surprise, and leads her on a walk of a few miles, dodging a giant tortoise along the way, leading Evelyn to realise their location. They divert to follow the tortoise.  They encounter a young man, collecting animal specimens; and to Evelyn’s shock and delight, she learns that it is Charles Darwin.  The Doctor gives him a manufactured story and an assumed name (“Doctor Albert Einstein”), and arranges to join Darwin on the ship that brought him here, Captain Fitzroy’s ''Beagle''. Over the next few days, Darwin will formulate his theory of evolution.  In a nearby courtroom, a prisoner, Emilio Rodriguez, is on trial for conspiracy; but the trial is interrupted by his sister, Greta.  Greta pleads for mercy based on Emilio’s possible mental illness, but is denied; Rodriguez is sentenced to hang tomorrow at dawn, and returned to the gaol.  The entire time, he raves about having seen “them”.  Governor Lawson, the judge in the trial, contacts his own mysterious masters and tells them they have a new subject available, one who previously disturbed them at a local lake.  As Emilio grows more mad, the masters—unknown creatures—arrive to take him away.
The Doctor, Evelyn and Charles visit the prison on the island. A man named [[Emilio Rodrigues|Emilio]] is on trial because he claims to have seen devils in a cave by the river; his sister, [[Greta Rodrigues|Greta]], pleads with the Judge that Emilio is a good man and is just unwell, but the judge refuses to listen to her and gives Emilio the death sentence.


Darwin leads them instead to the town of Baquerizo Moreno, with its enormous jailhouse, and explains to Evelyn that the town is a penal colony.  As Darwin discusses his observations, the Doctor prevents Evelyn from helping him along, for the sake of the timeline.  Darwin introduces them to Lawson and Fitzroy, and the group gathers for a meal (consisting of tortoise dishes, to Evelyn’s dismay). Greta serves at the table, until Lawson taunts her and drives her away; furious, the Doctor follows to talk with her, leaving Evelyn behind.  Evelyn listens to the others discussing the fossil record and how it relates to the accepted, biblical view of history; and then, with the Doctor not yet returned, she agrees to go with Darwin to the ''Beagle'' for the night. On the water as they approach the ship, she sees lights under the water. Meanwhile, the Doctor is intrigued by Greta’s story; she says that Emilio saw demonic creatures in the water a few days earlier, and has been made since.  She also has observed that people rarely leave the gaolhouse, and may be vanishing. After her curfew, she leads the Doctor to the gaol, and finds that there are no guards, and Emilio is missing.  They find themselves locked in Emilio’s empty cell; elsewhere, Lawson reports two new captives to his master.  Soon they are accosted by a three-eyed Silurian, which stuns them both.
The Doctor, Evelyn and Charles have dinner. Later, the Doctor meets up with Greta and they go to the cell block. They discover that all the cells are empty. They go into one of the cells and the door closes and locks behind them. After a few minutes, a wall opens and Silurians come to take them away.


=== Part 2 ===
=== Part Two ===
The Doctor and Greta find themselves in a new cell, far below the surface of the Earth. Emilio, still insane, is also present; the Doctor hypnotises him and allows him to sleep.  The Doctor explains to Greta about the Silurians, and reflects that one of their clans has apparently awoken after millions of years.  However the Silurian Primary Scientist Sh’vak has monitored their conversation, and is intrigued that a captive knows of them. Tulok is present, and wants to kill the Doctor, but Sh’vak holds off to allow him to be questioned; Tulok thinks they are the only clan to survive, but Sh’vak is not sure.  The Doctor works with Emilio again, and ultimately is able to push back the man’s fear, which stems from instincts passed down from ancient ancestors.  Sh’vak arrives and takes the Doctor to her lab, where he notes that she has been working with bacteria. She interrogates him, and the Doctor is dismayed to learn she is trying to assess humanity’s threat potential; he tries to push her toward peace, but unsuccessfully.  Tulok arrives and joins the interrogation, inquiring about human technology. His questions lead the Doctor to realise that Lawson is informing the Silurians; angered by this, Tulok tortures him, causing him to admit the primitive level of human technology.  Tulok trades places with Sh’vak so that he can contact Lawson; Sh’vak ends the torture, but asks the Doctor about other Silurian clans.  The Doctor discovers that Tulok has told her that no other clans surprised.  However, Tulok orders an attack on the ''Beagle'', and the Doctor is returned to his cell; Sh’vak refuses to intervene. Meanwhile, another Silurian has removed Emilio from the cell.
Evelyn talks with Darwin, who has come to the conclusion that evolution is not due to divinity. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Greta are in a Silurian prison under sea level, where they find Emilio. The Doctor puts him into a hypnotic trance to relax, and explains who the Silurians are, which the Silurians overhear. They discuss whether the Doctor is a threat and should be killed, or should be studied. Emilio has reverted to an ancestral fear of the Silurians, [[Race memory|remembered]] from a time when "mankind was essentially a species of apes", and the Doctor tries to revert this process hypnotically. He succeeds.


At night, Evelyn sees Darwin writing in his journal, and talks with him about the conflict between his observations and his beliefs. In the morning, they return to the island to find the Doctor.  Along the way, Darwin discusses his burgeoning theory of natural selection; Evelyn slips and refers to it as “survival of the fittest”, catching his attention. Lawson reports that his guards have not seen the Doctor; but Evelyn realises that Lawson left before the Doctor disappeared, so how did he know to send his guards?  A search of the gaol (secretly monitored by Lawson) leads them to a hidden tunnel, and they pursue it…they pass through a large hibernation chamber, in which the various Silurians are long dead and rotted.  This further contributes to Darwin’s theory.
A Silurian - Sh'Vak - takes the Doctor away while Evelyn and Darwin explore the islands and look for the Doctor, while Darwin further develops his theories. The Doctor is taken to a laboratory, spotting a modified bacterial culture, and is strapped to a chair. Sh'Vak believes Tulok and herself are the only survivors of the Silurian race, and are trying to get rid of humans because the Silurians were "here first". The Doctor reveals other Silurians exist, and tries to convince Sh'Vak not to start a war. Evelyn and Darwin meet with the governor, who says that the Doctor hasn't been found, and they leave him.


The Doctor’s cell unexpectedly opens, and he and Greta escape.  Unknown to them, Tulok ordered fellow Silurian Lokan to allow the escape, which confuses Sh’vak.  Tulok discovers Evelyn and Darwin’s presence in the tunnels, and sends troops to capture them; he determines to eliminate Lawson, who is now unreliable. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Greta escape to the surface, and make their way to the Beagle to warn the crew; but it is too late, as something in the water attacks the ship.
The Doctor realises that the governor of the island, Lawson, is being hypnotically controlled by the Silurians, and they try their hypnotic interrogation on the Doctor, who implores them to make peace with the humans. Meanwhile, Evelyn pieces together that the governor has something to do with the Doctor's disappearance, and the governor tells the Silurians about Evelyn and Darwin posing a threat to their mission because of their connection with the Doctor. Greta and Emilio are attacked.


=== Part 3 ===
Evelyn and Darwin reach the prison, and realise it's entirely empty. The governor tries to remotely lock them in like he did to the Doctor, but fails, as the pair get put of the way before the door closes. The Silurians plan an attack on the HMS Beagle, and Evelyn and Darwin are locked into the prison. They find a secret passage and go down the stairs inside. Greta wakes up next to the Doctor, but Emilio has been taken away, and the pair find their cell door open, allowing them to escape. Evelyn and Darwin find the passage leads to what looks like a mausoleum, and see dead Silurians inside the few open coffins.
The Doctor recognises the creature in the water as a Myrka, a creature genetically modified by the Silurians as a weapon.  As Myrka prefer the cold and darkness of the deep waters, the Doctor gets Fitzroy to pour lamp oil on the water and light it to drive the creature away; but they are unsuccessful, and it continues to attack. Its persistence indicates there is a homing beacon on the ship. As the ship is damaged, the Doctor discovers the beacon is in Greta, implanted while she was unconscious in the cell.  She sacrifices herself in the creature’s maw, to save the ship and the others.  The Myrka then retreats.  Elsewhere, Sh’vak is appalled at this turn of events, as the Silurians long ago outlawed implant use in Myrka hunts.  Tulok is undeterred, however; and he intends to wipe out humanity. To this end, Sh’vak has developed a bacterial weapon which will kill all humans except the newborn; and Tulok intends to test it on Darwin and Evelyn, who are now locked in the cells.  Darwin, meanwhile, is coming to grips with the religious implications of his theories, now supplemented by the reality of the Silurians and their parallel development. He is having mood swings which worry Evelyn; but most of all, he has realised the Silurians are superior to humanity—which doesn’t bode well for humans…


The Doctor and Fitzroy go in search of Evelyn and Darwin.  They confront Lawson, and the Doctor hypnotises him; he confesses to turning many people over to the Silurians, including Evelyn and Darwin. The Doctor destroys the prison control console and Lawson’s video link to the Silurians; but Lawson refuses to be freed from his compulsion, as he can’t face his actions.  Unknown to anyone, prior to the destruction of the link, Tulok and Sh’vak overheard the interrogation; therefore Tulok intends to use the bacterial weapon on Lawson instead of Evelyn and Darwin. The Doctor and Fitzroy infiltrate the ruined hibernation chamber, where the Doctor learns that the chamber was sabotaged in the past, which is why the Silurians never revived until now. They notice Silurians heading for the surface, and then find a meat locker of sorts, containing the slaughtered corpses of the missing prisoners—the Doctor concludes that the Silurians eat people, much to Fitzroy’s horror.  Sh’vak captures them there, and stuns Fitzroy, then places them in the cell. Meanwhile, Tulok and a team of Silurians arrive at Lawson’s quarters, and test the weapon on him, killing him and stripping his flesh in minutes.
Greta and the Doctor find a lift, and use it to escape into the cave Emilio originally saw the Silurians in, while Tulok allows them to escape, ordering them not to be captured. Evelyn and Darwin have been spotted by the Silurians, and are captured. The captain of the Beagle, Fitzroy, helps the Doctor and Greta into the ship, and something big is seen in the water.
=== Part Three ===
The Doctor shepherds everyone below decks, and tells them that the creature is electrically charged, so touching it would mean death. The Doctor uses oil to set fire to the ocean, but this fails to drive the creature- the [[Myrka]]- away. Greta is told that the Myrka is tracking her because the Silurians implanted a tracking device in her while she was unconscious. Greta chooses to sacrifice herself to save everyone on the ship.


Sh’vak puts the Doctor and Fitzroy in the cell with Evelyn and Darwin, then returns to her lab, where she monitors their conversation.  She learns little, and reflects on allowing Tulok to survive and return from his banishment in the past. She recalls that his crime was not in genetically improving the Silurians’ prey animals, but in giving them intelligence…and though he survived, his work was destroyed, which led him to swear revenge. Meanwhile, Tulok returns; the bacteria has spread throughout the entire town, killing all humans except the infants. He plans to cultivate and release an atmospheric batch which will kill everyone on the planet; the surviving infants will be raised to be a source of food and slave labor.  He goes to the cells, where Darwin is raving about evolution and the idea that God did not create humanity.  Tulok claims that humanity WAS created…by him.
Tulok explains that he let the humans (well, human and Doctor) go so they could be destroyed on their home turf of the Beagle, and believe the ship to have been destroyed as they see the Myrka moving away from the ship. They have prepared a bacterial culture that is carried by an airborne microbe. It will wipe out all humans except the newborn, with the infected dying in minutes. Fitzroy and the Doctor set out to rescue Evelyn and Darwin. Evelyn looks at the seaweed they've been given to eat while Darwin has a crisis of faith, and the Doctor talks to the governor. Governor Lawson is hypnotised by the Doctor to tell him where Evelyn and Charles Darwin are.


=== Part 4 ===
Lawson has been imprisoning innocent people and provide the Silurians with specimens (humans) for their 'collection', and the Doctor smashes up the governors equipment so that the Silurians can't contact him. The Silurians take the hypnosis as a betrayal, and infect Lawson with the disease. The Doctor arrives at the Silurian hibernation chamber, finding that the Silurians never woke up because someone sabotaged the controls, so they all died instead. The Doctor finds a walk-in freezer full of meat, he deduces that the Silurians have been eating the prisoners, and Sh'Vak captures him and Fitzroy.
Tulok mesmorises Darwin and Fitzroy, and takes them to load the bacterial warheads onto a submersible for delivery.  Left behind, the Doctor speaks for the benefit of the listening Sh’vak, and tells Evelyn about the sabotaged hibernation chamber.  Sh’vak confirms it, and confronts them, but concludes that Tulok sabotaged the chamber, out of a drive for revenge against the ruling Triad which condemned his work. Therefore she is indirectly responsible for the deaths of the Silurians.  She finally admits that Earth, for better or worse, belongs to the humans now, and she commits to stopping Tulok—but she refuses to let the Doctor help.  When Darwin and Fitzroy return, the Doctor frees them from compulsion.  Darwin is disturbed by Tulok’s words, and nearly abandons his theory of natural selection, as there are no Silurian fossils; the Doctor reassures him, and explains that intelligent species rarely leave fossils.  Tulok finds Sh’vak to accompany him on the submersible, but she confronts him on his betrayal; he confesses his grandiose desire to reshape the world in his own image.  She battles him with her third eye, but he is stronger, and strikes her down. As he leaves, he overhears the Doctor, Fitzroy, and Darwin discussing their situation; Fitzroy posits that modern humans are more advanced than those which Tulok once created, and therefore are less susceptible to Silurian control, which may be what causes Tulok to fear them.  Tulok is enraged at the suggestion, has Lokan send a guard to kill the humans.  He contacts them over the communication system, and tells them that Sh’vak is dead, and they will soon die.  However, Sh’vak is not dead; she intercepts the guard, and frees the prisoners, then escorts them to the control room.  The Doctor contacts Tulok and repeats Fitzroy’s claim about resistance; he says he has set the facility’s reactors to explode in fifteen minutes.  Lokan confirms the power surge in  the reactors, and Tulok leaves to deal with the Doctor.


The Doctor prepares the humans and Sh’vak to battle Tulok. He tells Darwin and Fitzroy to find something they believe in and concentrate on it, so that they can resist Tulok’s mind control; and he sends Evelyn to plant a device on the submersible. When Tulok arrives, he is unable to use his third eye as an energy resonator against the Doctor, for fear of destroying the control panel; therefore he tries to take control of Fitzroy and Darwin, and orders them to kill the Doctor.  Fitzroy resists through the power of his religious faith; Darwin is unable to do so with his current doubts, but he finds strength in his belief in his theory, insisting that it holds true even if Tulok is correct about humanity’s origins—after all, humanity has developed on its own. Tulok fails to control them; and when the timer reaches two minutes, he flees back to the submersible.  Sh’vak, meanwhile, worked from hiding, using her own mind to bolster those of the humans; but the strain has overwhelmed her, and she dies. She asks the Doctor to tell the other clans what happened.  Meanwhile, Evelyn bluffs her way past Lokan and plants the device, then escapes back to the control chamber. The Doctor activates the device, and flees with the others just ahead of the explosion.  Tulok boards the submersible; but seconds later, a Myrka attacks, and he realises the Doctor planted a homing beacon on the submersible.  The Myrka destroys the sub.
The Silurians infect Lawson with the bacteria, and he dies. The Doctor and the humans are reunited in the same cell, and Tulok overhears Charles telling them his theory of evolution. Tulok reminisces that his generically modified creatures became what are now humans, and how Tulok was joined by Sh'Vak, and he declared revenge on his former people. In the present, the settlement has been destroyed, except for the infants, who they plan to make into their slaves. The Doctor declares life's persistence to be the real miracle while Darwin declared that a god who did not create humans, or the earth, just be no god at all. At this, Tulok enters the room and tells them that human evolution was the result of his genetic engineering, and that he is their god.


With the settlement now depopulated, the bacteria has run its course. Fitzroy and Darwin return to the ''Beagle'', and the Doctor begs them never to mention himself, Evelyn, or the Silurians.  He advises Darwin to watch out for rival naturalist Alfred Wallace, and then departs with Evelyn in the TARDIS.
=== Part Four ===
Tulok hypnotizes Darwin and Fitzroy to follow him; The Doctor explains that the Silurians plan to destroy humanity to take their world back. Tulok is making the hypnotised humans load vials of the bacteria into submersibles, ready to be released on each continent of Earth. Sh'Vak overhears the Doctor explain to Evelyn that someone has purposefully killed the sleeping Silurians, and knows that Tulok must have done it. The Doctor whispers to Evelyn that he told her this to make sure Sh'Vak overheard. She returned to their cell after confirming their story by checking the hibernation chamber and seeing the sabotage, and explains that she had saved Tulok, long ago, and that she is turning against Tulok and wants to allow humanity to develop.
 
Sh'Vak tells the Doctor about Tulok's plan. All the canisters of bacteria have been loaded onto the submersible, but Tulok realises something is wrong, even as Sh'Vak declares she will kill him. Fitzroy and Charles are returned to the cell, and the Doctor snaps them out of the hypnosis. Sh'Vak confronts Tulok, who admits his crime. He uses his psychic powers to kill her. Darwin and the Doctor figure out that humanity may be able to resist the Silurian hypnosis under the right circumstances. Tulok overhears this through the bug planted in the cell, and orders the humans killed. Sh'Vak managed to survive, and returns to rescue the Doctor's party, explaining that she killed the soldier sent to kill them.
 
The Doctor contacts Tulok over a radio from the Silurian control bunker cheerily, not telling him that Sh'Vak survived. He overloads their hydrogen fusion reactors (giving them 15 minutes until they burst) and commands Tulok to meet up with him. Evelyn goes down to the submersible with a device, given to her by the Doctor, to hide on the ship. Sh'Vak hides, and Tulok arrives. Charles and Fitzroy resist Tulok attempting to mind control them by focusing on something they believe in- Fitzroy has religion, but Charles has lost his, so he focuses on his theory of evolution instead.
 
Evelyn hides the device on the submersible, but is discovered by a Silurian. Evelyn pretends to be under mind control, escaping successfully, while the Doctor tells Tulok that he has failed, because humanity is free and powerful in itself. Tulok leaves, declaring that he will have his revenge. The Doctor tells them that Sh'Vak helped them to resist the telepathy, as mankind hasn't changed all that much, but she is now weak from this effort. The psychic strain was too much for her, and she tells the Doctor to tell her story to other Silurians in other areas.
 
Tulok and another Silurian escape in the submersible, but the Doctor and team- now reunited with Evelyn- use the homing device that Evelyn hid in the submersible to call the Myrka to the submersible. The Doctor and humans escape from the bunker, now blown up from the overloaded hydrogen fusion reactors, in the lift, whilst the Myrka destroys the submersible. With the bunker, the jailhouse was also destroyed, and the Doctor hints that the Silurians may return, but not for another century. The settlement will be left in peace, now that everyone there is dead and the disease has burnt itself out. The Doctor asks the captain and Charles not to mention them or the Silurians, and tells Charles to keep an eye out for Alfred Wallace. Evelyn and the Doctor depart for the TARDIS.


== Cast ==
== Cast ==
* [[Sixth Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Colin Baker]]
* [[Sixth Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Colin Baker]]
* [[Evelyn Smythe]] - [[Maggie Stables]]
* [[Evelyn Smythe]] - [[Maggie Stables]]
* [[Charles Darwin]] - [[Miles Richardson]]
* Captain [[Fitzroy (Bloodtide)|Fitzroy]] - [[George Telfer]]
* [[Tulok]] - [[Daniel Hogarth]]
* [[Tulok]] - [[Daniel Hogarth]]
* Governor [[Lawson (Bloodtide)|Lawson]] - [[Julian Harries]]
* [[Sh'vak]] - [[Helen Goldwyn]]
* [[Sh'vak]] - [[Helen Goldwyn]]
* Governor [[Lawson (Bloodtide)|Lawson]] - [[Julian Harries]]
* [[Emilio]] - [[Jez Fielder]]
* [[Greta Rodrigues]] - [[Jane Goddard]]
* [[Greta Rodrigues]] - [[Jane Goddard]]
* [[Charles Darwin]] - [[Miles Richardson]]
* [[Emilio Rodrigues|Emilio]] / [[Lokan]] - [[Jez Fielder]]
* Captain [[Fitzroy (Bloodtide)|Fitzroy]] - [[George Telfer]]
* [[Myrka (Bloodtide)|The Myrka]] - [[Rob Shearman]] & [[William Johnson]]
* [[Lokan]] - [[Jez Fielder]]


== References ==
== Worldbuilding ==
=== Scientists ===
=== Scientists ===
[[File:Lee Sullivan BF 6 3 Bloodtide.JPG|thumb|Illustration by [[Lee Sullivan]] from [[DWM 305]].]]
* The Doctor goes by the pseudonym "[[Albert Einstein]]".
* The Doctor goes by the pseudonym "[[Albert Einstein]]".
* The Doctor and Evelyn meet a young [[Charles Darwin]], who the pair prompt into developing his theory of evolution.
* The Doctor tells Darwin to keep an eye out for "a chap called [[Alfred Russel Wallace|Alfred Wallace]]", suggesting that he could go and give Wallace some moral support, a notion of which Evelyn dissuades him.
=== Authors ===
* The Doctor reads from a book by [[Herman Melville]], declaring Melville to be his favourite author. Evelyn calls Melville pompous and arrogant.


=== Ships ===
=== Ships ===
* The Doctor and Evelyn meet Darwin while he is on the [[HMS Beagle|HMS ''Beagle'']].
* The Doctor and Evelyn meet Darwin while he is on the [[HMS Beagle|HMS ''Beagle'']].
=== Species ===
* The Silurians have a [[Myrka]].


=== Theories and concepts ===
=== Theories and concepts ===
* [[Monkton's Theorem]] states that no intelligent species is likely to leave behind fossils.
* [[Monkton's Theorem]] states that no intelligent species is likely to leave behind fossils.
== Gallery ==
<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true" widths="250">
Bloodtide cover.jpg|Original CD cover
Lee Sullivan BF 6 3 Bloodtide.JPG|Illustration by [[Lee Sullivan]] from [[DWM 305]]
Bloodtide DWM preview clean.jpg|Textless version of the DWM preview art
Bloodtide (DWM 308).jpg|Review illustration by [[Roger Langridge]] in [[DWM 308]]
</gallery>


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
* This story marks the first appearance of the Silurians and the Myrka in an audio drama.
* This story marks the first appearance of the Silurians and the Myrka in an audio drama.
* Clayton Hickman's CD cover won the ''Doctor Who Magazine'' Best Cover Poll in 2001.
* Clayton Hickman's CD cover won the ''Doctor Who Magazine'' Best Cover Poll in 2001.
* This audio drama was recorded on [[31 March (production)|31 March]] and [[1 April (production)|1 April]] 2001.
* This audio drama was recorded on [[31 March (production)|31 March]] and [[1 April (production)|1 April]] [[2001 (production)|2001]] at [[the Moat Studios]].
* An illustrated preview featured in [[DWM 305]] illustrated by [[Lee Sullivan]].
* An illustrated preview featured in [[DWM 305]] illustrated by [[Lee Sullivan]].
* [[Alistair Lock]]'s score to this story and ''[[Project Twilight (audio story)|Project: Twilight]], ''alongside the score to ''[[The One Doctor (audio story)|The One Doctor]], ''was released on the CD ''[[Music from the Sixth Doctor Audio Adventures (soundtrack)|Music from the Sixth Doctor Audio Adventures]].''
* [[Alistair Lock]]'s score to this story and ''[[Project Twilight (audio story)|Project: Twilight]], ''alongside the score to ''[[The One Doctor (audio story)|The One Doctor]], ''was released on the CD ''[[Music from the Sixth Doctor Audio Adventures (soundtrack)|Music from the Sixth Doctor Audio Adventures]]''.
* This story is set between ''[[Season 23 (Doctor Who 1963)|The Trial of a Time Lord]]'' and ''[[Time and the Rani (TV story)|Time and the Rani]]''.
* This story was originally released on CD and download. It is now available as a download only.


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
* The Silurians first appeared on screen in [[TV]]: ''[[Doctor Who and the Silurians (TV story)|Doctor Who and the Silurians]]''.
* The Silurians appear. ([[TV]]: ''[[Doctor Who and the Silurians (TV story)|Doctor Who and the Silurians]]'', et al.)
* The Myrka previously appeared in [[TV]]: ''[[Warriors of the Deep (TV story)|Warriors of the Deep]]'' and [[PROSE]]: ''[[The Scales of Injustice (novel)|The Scales of Injustice]]''.
* The Myrka previously appeared in [[TV]]: ''[[Warriors of the Deep (TV story)|Warriors of the Deep]]'' and [[PROSE]]: ''[[The Scales of Injustice (novel)|The Scales of Injustice]]''. The Doctor describes this one as being an 'adult', perhaps implying that the one encountered in ''[[Warriors of the Deep (TV story)|Warriors of the Deep]]'' was young and not fully grown.
* The [[Third Doctor]] previously claimed to have met Darwin. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Island of Death (novel)|Island of Death]]'')
* The [[Third Doctor]] previously claimed to have met Darwin. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Island of Death (novel)|Island of Death]]'')
* Many years later, the [[Seventh Doctor]] and Evelyn would reminisce about meeting Darwin. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[A Death in the Family (audio story)|A Death in the Family]]'')
* Many years later, the [[Seventh Doctor]] and Evelyn would reminisce about meeting Darwin. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[A Death in the Family (audio story)|A Death in the Family]]'')
* The [[Eighth Doctor]] later told his companion [[Charlotte Pollard|Charley Pollard]] that this experience "put [Darwin] off reptiles for life. Well, almost." ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Creed of the Kromon (audio story)|The Creed of the Kromon]]'')
* The [[Eighth Doctor]] later told his companion [[Charlotte Pollard|Charley Pollard]] that this experience "put [Darwin] off reptiles for life. Well, almost." ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Creed of the Kromon (audio story)|The Creed of the Kromon]]'')
* In a [[parallel universe]] in which [[The Valeyard (He Jests at Scars...)|the Valeyard]] killed the Sixth Doctor and acquired his seven remaining [[regeneration]]s, the Valeyard and his companion [[Ellie Martin (He Jests at Scars...)|Ellie Martin]] visited a Silurian bunker in the Galápagos Islands. This incident was observed by the [[Time Lord]] [[Vansell (He Jests at Scars...)|Vansell]], [[Coordinator]] of the [[Celestial Intervention Agency|CIA]].([[AUDIO]]: ''[[He Jests at Scars... (audio story)|He Jests at Scars...]]'')
* In a [[parallel universe]] in which [[The Valeyard (He Jests at Scars...)|the Valeyard]] killed the Sixth Doctor and acquired his seven remaining [[regeneration]]s, the Valeyard and his companion [[Ellie Martin (He Jests at Scars...)|Ellie Martin]] visited a Silurian bunker in the Galápagos Islands. This incident was observed by the [[Time Lord]] [[Vansell (He Jests at Scars...)|Vansell]], [[Coordinator]] of the [[Celestial Intervention Agency|CIA]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[He Jests at Scars... (audio story)|He Jests at Scars...]]'')


== External links ==
== External links ==
* {{bigfinish|releases/v/bloodtide-647|Bloodtide}}
{{bigfinish|releases/v/bloodtide-647|Bloodtide}}
{{dwrefguide|who_bf22.htm|Bloodtide}}
{{dwrefguide|who_bf22.htm|Bloodtide}}
* {{tetrap|6/tide.html|Bloodtide}}
* {{tetrap|6/tide.html|Bloodtide}}
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{{Homo Reptilian stories}}
{{Homo Reptilian stories}}
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{{TitleSort}}
[[fr:Bloodtide]]


[[Category:Sixth Doctor audio stories]]
[[Category:Doctor Who monthly audio stories]]
[[Category:2001 audio stories]]
[[Category:Silurian and Sea Devil audio stories]]
[[Category:Silurian and Sea Devil audio stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in 1835]]
[[Category:Stories set in 1835]]
[[Category:Stories set in the distant past]]
[[Category:Stories set in the distant past]]
[[Category:Pseudo-historical stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in South America]]
[[Category:Stories set in South America]]
[[Category:Audio stories that use Delia Derbyshire's 2nd theme]]
[[Category:Audio stories that use Delia Derbyshire's 2nd theme]]
 
[[Category:Sixth Doctor Main Range audio stories]]
[[fr:Bloodtide]]
[[Category:2001 Main Range audio stories]]

Latest revision as of 18:23, 3 November 2024

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Bloodtide was the twenty-second story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Jonathan Morris and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Maggie Stables as Evelyn Smythe.

A pseudo-historical story, it dramatised a portion of the studies made by Charles Darwin on the Galápagos Islands. It also marked the first appearance of the Silurians on audio.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

The prehistoric Earth is dying. Thunderclouds roll across the skies, cloaking the land in darkness. The seas crash and boil as the rain turns to acid. The remnants of the Silurian race place themselves in suspended animation, deep below the surface.

One day they will awaken and reclaim their world...

The TARDIS has landed on the Galápagos Islands, a desolate outcrop of rocks shrouded in mist and fear.

In the settlement of Baquerizo Moreno, there are rumours that prisoners have been mysteriously disappearing from the gaolhouse. A fisherman has been driven insane by something he saw in the caves. And the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn are not the only new arrivals; there is also a young natural philosopher by the name of Charles Darwin...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part One[[edit] | [edit source]]

Millions of years ago, a Silurian scientist named Tulok is on trial for experimenting on apes; his sentence is banishment to the planet's surface. On his way there, he encounters a female Silurian named Sh'vak, who offers to sneak him into a stasis pod. He refuses and goes out onto the surface. His creatures will also be banished.

In 1835, the Doctor and Evelyn are unsure of where they are until they encounter a giant tortoise, which tells them that they are on the Galápagos Islands. A little later, they meet up with Charles Darwin, who seems to know the Doctor already, though it soons turns out that he believes his name is Albert Einstein.

The Doctor, Evelyn and Charles visit the prison on the island. A man named Emilio is on trial because he claims to have seen devils in a cave by the river; his sister, Greta, pleads with the Judge that Emilio is a good man and is just unwell, but the judge refuses to listen to her and gives Emilio the death sentence.

The Doctor, Evelyn and Charles have dinner. Later, the Doctor meets up with Greta and they go to the cell block. They discover that all the cells are empty. They go into one of the cells and the door closes and locks behind them. After a few minutes, a wall opens and Silurians come to take them away.

Part Two[[edit] | [edit source]]

Evelyn talks with Darwin, who has come to the conclusion that evolution is not due to divinity. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Greta are in a Silurian prison under sea level, where they find Emilio. The Doctor puts him into a hypnotic trance to relax, and explains who the Silurians are, which the Silurians overhear. They discuss whether the Doctor is a threat and should be killed, or should be studied. Emilio has reverted to an ancestral fear of the Silurians, remembered from a time when "mankind was essentially a species of apes", and the Doctor tries to revert this process hypnotically. He succeeds.

A Silurian - Sh'Vak - takes the Doctor away while Evelyn and Darwin explore the islands and look for the Doctor, while Darwin further develops his theories. The Doctor is taken to a laboratory, spotting a modified bacterial culture, and is strapped to a chair. Sh'Vak believes Tulok and herself are the only survivors of the Silurian race, and are trying to get rid of humans because the Silurians were "here first". The Doctor reveals other Silurians exist, and tries to convince Sh'Vak not to start a war. Evelyn and Darwin meet with the governor, who says that the Doctor hasn't been found, and they leave him.

The Doctor realises that the governor of the island, Lawson, is being hypnotically controlled by the Silurians, and they try their hypnotic interrogation on the Doctor, who implores them to make peace with the humans. Meanwhile, Evelyn pieces together that the governor has something to do with the Doctor's disappearance, and the governor tells the Silurians about Evelyn and Darwin posing a threat to their mission because of their connection with the Doctor. Greta and Emilio are attacked.

Evelyn and Darwin reach the prison, and realise it's entirely empty. The governor tries to remotely lock them in like he did to the Doctor, but fails, as the pair get put of the way before the door closes. The Silurians plan an attack on the HMS Beagle, and Evelyn and Darwin are locked into the prison. They find a secret passage and go down the stairs inside. Greta wakes up next to the Doctor, but Emilio has been taken away, and the pair find their cell door open, allowing them to escape. Evelyn and Darwin find the passage leads to what looks like a mausoleum, and see dead Silurians inside the few open coffins.

Greta and the Doctor find a lift, and use it to escape into the cave Emilio originally saw the Silurians in, while Tulok allows them to escape, ordering them not to be captured. Evelyn and Darwin have been spotted by the Silurians, and are captured. The captain of the Beagle, Fitzroy, helps the Doctor and Greta into the ship, and something big is seen in the water.

Part Three[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor shepherds everyone below decks, and tells them that the creature is electrically charged, so touching it would mean death. The Doctor uses oil to set fire to the ocean, but this fails to drive the creature- the Myrka- away. Greta is told that the Myrka is tracking her because the Silurians implanted a tracking device in her while she was unconscious. Greta chooses to sacrifice herself to save everyone on the ship.

Tulok explains that he let the humans (well, human and Doctor) go so they could be destroyed on their home turf of the Beagle, and believe the ship to have been destroyed as they see the Myrka moving away from the ship. They have prepared a bacterial culture that is carried by an airborne microbe. It will wipe out all humans except the newborn, with the infected dying in minutes. Fitzroy and the Doctor set out to rescue Evelyn and Darwin. Evelyn looks at the seaweed they've been given to eat while Darwin has a crisis of faith, and the Doctor talks to the governor. Governor Lawson is hypnotised by the Doctor to tell him where Evelyn and Charles Darwin are.

Lawson has been imprisoning innocent people and provide the Silurians with specimens (humans) for their 'collection', and the Doctor smashes up the governors equipment so that the Silurians can't contact him. The Silurians take the hypnosis as a betrayal, and infect Lawson with the disease. The Doctor arrives at the Silurian hibernation chamber, finding that the Silurians never woke up because someone sabotaged the controls, so they all died instead. The Doctor finds a walk-in freezer full of meat, he deduces that the Silurians have been eating the prisoners, and Sh'Vak captures him and Fitzroy.

The Silurians infect Lawson with the bacteria, and he dies. The Doctor and the humans are reunited in the same cell, and Tulok overhears Charles telling them his theory of evolution. Tulok reminisces that his generically modified creatures became what are now humans, and how Tulok was joined by Sh'Vak, and he declared revenge on his former people. In the present, the settlement has been destroyed, except for the infants, who they plan to make into their slaves. The Doctor declares life's persistence to be the real miracle while Darwin declared that a god who did not create humans, or the earth, just be no god at all. At this, Tulok enters the room and tells them that human evolution was the result of his genetic engineering, and that he is their god.

Part Four[[edit] | [edit source]]

Tulok hypnotizes Darwin and Fitzroy to follow him; The Doctor explains that the Silurians plan to destroy humanity to take their world back. Tulok is making the hypnotised humans load vials of the bacteria into submersibles, ready to be released on each continent of Earth. Sh'Vak overhears the Doctor explain to Evelyn that someone has purposefully killed the sleeping Silurians, and knows that Tulok must have done it. The Doctor whispers to Evelyn that he told her this to make sure Sh'Vak overheard. She returned to their cell after confirming their story by checking the hibernation chamber and seeing the sabotage, and explains that she had saved Tulok, long ago, and that she is turning against Tulok and wants to allow humanity to develop.

Sh'Vak tells the Doctor about Tulok's plan. All the canisters of bacteria have been loaded onto the submersible, but Tulok realises something is wrong, even as Sh'Vak declares she will kill him. Fitzroy and Charles are returned to the cell, and the Doctor snaps them out of the hypnosis. Sh'Vak confronts Tulok, who admits his crime. He uses his psychic powers to kill her. Darwin and the Doctor figure out that humanity may be able to resist the Silurian hypnosis under the right circumstances. Tulok overhears this through the bug planted in the cell, and orders the humans killed. Sh'Vak managed to survive, and returns to rescue the Doctor's party, explaining that she killed the soldier sent to kill them.

The Doctor contacts Tulok over a radio from the Silurian control bunker cheerily, not telling him that Sh'Vak survived. He overloads their hydrogen fusion reactors (giving them 15 minutes until they burst) and commands Tulok to meet up with him. Evelyn goes down to the submersible with a device, given to her by the Doctor, to hide on the ship. Sh'Vak hides, and Tulok arrives. Charles and Fitzroy resist Tulok attempting to mind control them by focusing on something they believe in- Fitzroy has religion, but Charles has lost his, so he focuses on his theory of evolution instead.

Evelyn hides the device on the submersible, but is discovered by a Silurian. Evelyn pretends to be under mind control, escaping successfully, while the Doctor tells Tulok that he has failed, because humanity is free and powerful in itself. Tulok leaves, declaring that he will have his revenge. The Doctor tells them that Sh'Vak helped them to resist the telepathy, as mankind hasn't changed all that much, but she is now weak from this effort. The psychic strain was too much for her, and she tells the Doctor to tell her story to other Silurians in other areas.

Tulok and another Silurian escape in the submersible, but the Doctor and team- now reunited with Evelyn- use the homing device that Evelyn hid in the submersible to call the Myrka to the submersible. The Doctor and humans escape from the bunker, now blown up from the overloaded hydrogen fusion reactors, in the lift, whilst the Myrka destroys the submersible. With the bunker, the jailhouse was also destroyed, and the Doctor hints that the Silurians may return, but not for another century. The settlement will be left in peace, now that everyone there is dead and the disease has burnt itself out. The Doctor asks the captain and Charles not to mention them or the Silurians, and tells Charles to keep an eye out for Alfred Wallace. Evelyn and the Doctor depart for the TARDIS.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Scientists[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor goes by the pseudonym "Albert Einstein".
  • The Doctor and Evelyn meet a young Charles Darwin, who the pair prompt into developing his theory of evolution.
  • The Doctor tells Darwin to keep an eye out for "a chap called Alfred Wallace", suggesting that he could go and give Wallace some moral support, a notion of which Evelyn dissuades him.

Authors[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor reads from a book by Herman Melville, declaring Melville to be his favourite author. Evelyn calls Melville pompous and arrogant.

Ships[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor and Evelyn meet Darwin while he is on the HMS Beagle.

Theories and concepts[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Monkton's Theorem states that no intelligent species is likely to leave behind fossils.

Gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

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