Walking to Babylon (audio story): Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 22:03, 18 January 2024

Walking to Babylon

Key crew

Publisher:

Big Finish Productions

Writers:

Based on a novel by Kate Orman;
adapted for audio by Jacqueline Rayner

Writer:

Director:

Gary Russell

Producer:

Gary Russell

Music:

Harvey Summers

Sound:

Harvey Summers

Cover by:

Colin Howard

Release details

Story number:

3

Number of parts:

2

Release date:

January 1999

Format:

2 CDs
Download

Production code:

BFPCD3

ISBN:

ISBN 978-1-90365-419-4 (physical); ISBN 978-1-83868-476-1 (digital)

*Bernice Summerfield*
← Previous	Next →
Beyond the Sun	Birthright

Walking to Babylon was the third Bernice Summerfield audio drama produced by Big Finish Productions. It was the first in a trilogy of stories known as the "Time Ring Trilogy" whose arc element was the use of Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane's wedding time rings, given to them when they were married in Happy Endings. Like the previous audio story, this story also features a former Doctor Who television actor, with Elisabeth Sladen playing Ninan-ashtammu.

This story was the first to show photos of the actors on the front cover, with Lisa Bowerman and Elisabeth Sladen both pictured.

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

The Time Ring Trilogy: Part 1

"I'm scared of letting all these people down. At least if I get blown up as well, they can say I died heroically. Assuming I ever existed at all."

The People are one of the most technologically advanced races in the Universe - except in the area of time travel. Professor Bernice Summerfield has a time ring. So does her ex-husband Jason Kane. Trouble is, they're their wedding rings, and they won't work unless they're together.

Benny is surprised when Jason turns up to visit her at St Oscar's, especially when she discovers that he has brought one of the People with him. She should have guessed that her good-for-nothing ex wasn't just interested in her company...

Using the time rings, two People create a Time Path and travel back to ancient Babylon, taking an unwilling Jason with them. Benny has just 48 hours to find them and rescue her errant husband, before the People back in the 26th century send a singularity bomb to destroy the Path - and Babylon.

But someone else has discovered the Path and walked to Babylon - Edwardian time sensitive John Lafayette. And Benny discovers her mission has a complication that she never dreamed of - romance.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]

Jason arrives on Dellah with People WiRgo!xue and !Ci!ci-tel, as well as their drone. He takes WiRgo!xue to St Oscar's and introduces him to Benny as a fan of hers, using him to distract her whilst he steals her Time Ring. She goes after him with her chronokinetiscope and finds that he has been used by two People to create a Time Path to Babylon circa 570 BC and been dragged there with them. Oran!ci-zing tells Benny that they intend to send a singularity bomb down the Path to destroy it and maintain their peace with their rivals, but Benny persuades them to let her travel down the Path and shut it down. She has forty-eight hours.

Benny follows John Lafayette, a time sensitive linguist who entered the Path on 12 December 1901, to Ninan-ashtammu's temple and gives him a spare translator so that he too can understand the Babylonians. Ninan agrees to talk to her friends in the local police about Jason, WiRgo!xue and !Ci!ci-tel and Benny and Lafayette look around the city for them without success. In the evening, Ninan hosts a party and tells Benny that Itti-Marduk-balatu, around whom Lafayette can see evidence of time travel, has seen the strange men; they were looking to find good farming land near the city. In the crowd of the new year celebrations, Benny kisses Lafayette to ease his panic and they later have sex.

WiRgo!xue and !Ci!ci-tel learn that Benny has followed them down the Path, which Jason, who is upset at hearing that Benny has kissed another man, told them was a possibility. Jason claims that he is dying of heartbreak and tricks WiRgo!xue into releasing him from his smart rope, allowing him to escape. He finds Benny and Lafayette cornered by locals and is knocked out. Lafayette shoots a man with his pistol and is scanned by the drone, which takes a tissue sample from him. Benny has disappeared.

Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]

Lafayette tells Ninan of Benny's abduction and goes after one of the kidnappers, but not before Ninan gives him the chronokinetiscope which was passed on to Miriam by guards transporting the unconscious Jason. He rescues Benny and is badly wounded, but he insists that Benny put him out of her mind until her mission is complete. The People's drone arrives and uses a suspension field to put Lafayette to sleep to speed up the healing process and, in the morning, Benny tells him the true extent of her mission in Babylon.

Benny and Lafayette visit Itti-Marduk-balatu and track down WiRgo!xue and !Ci!ci-tel, who reveal that their plan is to teach the People hardship by bringing them from their home to Babylon and do not initially believe that the People will send a singularity bomb down the Path. Benny realises that their plan is actually to spark a war between the People and their rivals to warn the People against complacency and the drone finds that Lafayette has stored temporal energy, resulting in its components being aged and degraded when it took a tissue sample from him and !Ci-!ci-tel being aged to death when he touches him.

WiRgo!xue plans to go ahead with the scheme and promises to allow Lafayette to return home in return for Benny's help. She hopes that Lafayette entering the Path will cause it to short-circuit due to his temporal energy, but this is not so and she does not realise that he has the chronokinetiscope. Ninan leaves her temple, which she is forbidden to do, and offers to protect WiRgo!xue in return for him and the drone accompanying her in her exploration of the world. The drone gives Benny and Jason their Time Rings and, after Jason purchases Miriam's freedom, they enter the Path and are thrown through time by the bomb's explosion.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Benny wakes up with Wolsey. Jason pets him as he leaves.
Benny has a chronokinetiscope.
Lafayette is a linguist.
Wolsey broke Benny's watch.
Benny has a translator and gives a spare to Lafayette.
Lafayette was part of Robert Koldewey's expedition.
Jason is tied up with smart rope.
Jason mentions Blackpool, saying it would be cooler there than in Babylon.
Lafayette has a pistol.
Lafayette eats locusts for breakfast.
Miriam is a slave.
Benny mentions her vegetarianism.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

This is the first audio in the "Time Ring Trilogy", comprised of Walking to Babylon, Birthright and Just War. To emphasise this fact, their covers feature a ring motif.
Unlike all other releases of the first season, the cover of the audio does not reuse the cover art for the novel it has been adapted from. Instead it reproduces the novel cover, which was a wrong shape, from a different angle.^[1]
Kate Orman does not have any rights to the audio adaptation aside from those attached to her original work, as these were signed away in her contract.^[2]
Gary Russell announced the adaptation of the novel without making sure that Orman, its author, had been notified, which caused certain awkwardness. Part of the reason was that Big Finish Productions had a contract with Virgin, who owned the rights to the story, rather than with the author.^[1]
One of the fans invited to the recording of the story, Paul Ebbs,^[1] went on to write the story The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy, which was released as part of the third season of the range.
This audio drama was recorded on 5 and 6 November 1998 at Crosstown Studios, London.
The Big Finish Companion: Volume 1 states the release date as January 1999, which corresponds to the 1999 copyright year on the CD. It appears that the November 1998 release date on the website of Big Finish Productions is erroneous.
Jason references Fawlty Towers when he says, "Don't mention the War. I nearly did once, but I think I got away with it."

Cover gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]

Cover with actors' photos and the release number, additionally mentioning the author Kate Orman
Cover with Paul Vyse's series logo
Cover of the original novel

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

The People were introduced in PROSE: The Also People.
Benny mentions that the last time she saw Jason was during the business on Ursu. (AUDIO: Beyond the Sun)
Benny's expedition to Fields of Aggrazar is mentioned. (AUDIO: Making Myths)

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

Official Walking to Babylon page at bigfinish.com
Walking to Babylon at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
Database entry of Walking to Babylon in MusicBrainz

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

[BFC-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 The Big Finish Companion: Volume 1

[2] Ask Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum - The Doctor Who Forum at Outpost Gallifrey (ezyboard membership required)

[1]

[2]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{title dab away}}
 {{real world}}
-{{audio stub}}
+{{Infobox Story SMW
-{{Infobox Story
+|image                  = Walking to Babylon audio cover.jpg
-|image           = Walking to Babylon audio cover.jpg
+|range                  = BSSR
-|range           = BSSR
+|series in range        = Series 1 (BFBS)
-|series in range = Series 1 (BFBS)
 |series number in range = 1
-|number in series = 3
+|number in series       = 3
-|series          = ''[[Bernice Summerfield (series)|Bernice Summerfield]]''
+|series                 = ''[[Bernice Summerfield (series)|Bernice Summerfield]]''
-|story number    = 3
+|story number           = 3
-|audio series    = ''[[Bernice Summerfield (series)|Bernice Summerfield]]''<br />Single Releases
+|audio series           = ''[[Bernice Summerfield (series)|Bernice Summerfield]]''<br />Single Releases
-|audio series number   = [[Series 1 (BFBS)|1]]
+|audio series number    = [[Series 1 (BFBS)|1]]
-|series release number          = 3
+|series release number  = 3
-|adapted from    = Walking to Babylon (novel)
+|adapted from           = Walking to Babylon (novel)
-|main character  = [[Bernice Summerfield]]
+|main character         = [[Bernice Summerfield|Benny]]
-|featuring       = [[Jason Kane]]
+|featuring              = [[Jason Kane|Jason]], [[John Lafayette|Lafayette]], [[Wolsey]]
-|enemy           = [[The People]]
+|enemy                  = [[WiRgo!xue]], [[!Ci!ci-tel]]
-|setting         = {{il|[[St Oscar's University]], [[2594]]|[[Babylon]], [[BC#6th century BC|570 B.C.]]}}
+|setting                = {{il|[[Babylon]], [[BC#6th century BC|570 B.C.]]}}
-|writer          = {{il|Based on a novel by [[Kate Orman]];|adapted for Audio by [[Jacqueline Rayner]]}}
+|writer                 = Jacqueline Rayner
-|director        = [[Gary Russell]]
+|contributors           = {{il|Based on a novel by [[Kate Orman]];|adapted for audio by [[Jacqueline Rayner]]}}
-|producer        = [[Gary Russell]]
+|director               = [[Gary Russell]]
-|sound           = [[Harvey Summers]]
+|producer               = Gary Russell
-|music           = {{il|[[Harvey Summers]]|[[Chinook Lodge]]}}
+|music                  = [[Harvey Summers]]
-|publisher       = Big Finish Productions
+|sound                  = Harvey Summers
-|cover           = [[Colin Howard]]
+|publisher              = Big Finish Productions
-|release date    = [[January (releases)|January]] [[1999 (releases)|1999]]
+|cover                  = [[Colin Howard]]
-|format          = {{il|2 episodes on 2 CDs:|Episode 1 (55:53)|Episode 2 (36:17)}}
+|release date           = January 1999
-|production code = BFPCD3
+|format                 = 2 CDs<br/>Download
-|isbn            = ISBN  1-903654-19X
+|production code        = BFPCD3
-|prev            = Beyond the Sun (audio story)
+|isbn                   = ISBN 978-1-90365-419-4 (physical); ISBN 978-1-83868-476-1 (digital)
-|next            = Birthright (audio story)
+|prev                   = Beyond the Sun (audio story)
+|next                   = Birthright (audio story)
+|epcount                = 2
 }}
 '''''Walking to Babylon''''' was the third ''[[Bernice Summerfield (series)|Bernice Summerfield]]'' audio drama produced by [[Big Finish Productions]]. It was the first in a trilogy of stories known as the "Time Ring Trilogy" whose arc element was the use of [[Bernice Summerfield]] and [[Jason Kane]]'s wedding [[time ring]]s, given to them when they were married in ''[[Happy Endings (novel)|Happy Endings]]''. Like the previous audio story, this story also features a former ''[[Doctor Who]]'' television actor, with [[Elisabeth Sladen]] playing [[Ninan-ashtammu]].
@@ Line 41: / Line 42: @@
 "I'm scared of letting all these people down. At least if I get blown up as well, they can say I died heroically. Assuming I ever existed at all."
-[[The People]] are one of the most technologically advanced races in the Universe - except in the area of time travel. Professor [[Bernice Summerfield]] has a [[time ring]]. So does her ex-husband [[Jason Kane]]. Trouble is, they're their wedding rings, and they won't work unless they're together.
+[[The People]] are one of the most technologically advanced races in the Universe - except in the area of [[time travel]]. [[Bernice Summerfield|Professor Bernice Summerfield]] has a [[time ring]]. So does her ex-husband [[Jason Kane]]. Trouble is, they're their [[wedding ring]]s, and they won't work unless they're together.
 Benny is surprised when Jason turns up to visit her at [[St Oscar's University|St Oscar's]], especially when she discovers that he has brought one of the People with him. She should have guessed that her good-for-nothing ex wasn't just interested in her company...
@@ Line 47: / Line 48: @@
 Using the time rings, two People create a [[Time Path]] and travel back to ancient [[Babylon]], taking an unwilling Jason with them. Benny has just 48 hours to find them and rescue her errant husband, before the People back in the [[26th century]] send a singularity bomb to destroy the Path - and Babylon.
-But someone else has discovered the Path and walked to Babylon - [[Edwardian era|Edwardian]] [[Time sensitivity|time sensitive]] [[John Lafayette]]. And Benny discovers her mission has a complication that she never dreamed of - romance.
+But someone else has discovered the Path and walked to Babylon - [[Edwardian era|Edwardian]] [[Time sensitivity|time sensitive]] [[John Lafayette]]. And Benny discovers her mission has a complication that she never dreamed of - [[romance]].
 == Plot ==
-''to be added''
+=== Part one ===
+[[Jason Kane|Jason]] arrives on [[Dellah]] with [[the People|People]] [[WiRgo!xue]] and [[!Ci!ci-tel]], as well as [[!qu-!qu-tala|their drone]]. He takes WiRgo!xue to [[St Oscar's University|St Oscar's]] and introduces him to [[Bernice Summerfield|Benny]] as a fan of hers, using him to distract her whilst he steals [[Bernice Summerfield's Time Ring|her Time Ring]]. She goes after him with her [[chronokinetiscope]] and finds that he has been used by two People to create a [[Time Path]] to [[Babylon]] circa [[BC|570 BC]] and been dragged there with them. [[Oran!ci-zing]] tells Benny that they intend to send a [[singularity bomb]] down the Path to destroy it and maintain their [[peace]] with [[Time Lord|their rivals]], but Benny persuades them to let her travel down the Path and shut it down. She has forty-eight hours.
+Benny follows [[John Lafayette]], a [[Time sensitivity|time sensitive]] [[linguist]] who entered the Path on [[12 December]] [[1901]], to [[Ninan-ashtammu]]'s [[temple]] and gives him a spare [[translator]] so that he too can understand the Babylonians. Ninan agrees to talk to her friends in the local [[police]] about Jason, WiRgo!xue and !Ci!ci-tel and Benny and Lafayette look around the city for them without success. In the evening, Ninan hosts a [[party]] and tells Benny that [[Itti-Marduk-balatu]], around whom Lafayette can see evidence of time travel, has seen the strange men; they were looking to find good [[farming]] land near the city. In the crowd of the new year celebrations, Benny [[kiss]]es Lafayette to ease his [[panic]] and they later have [[sex]].
+WiRgo!xue and !Ci!ci-tel learn that Benny has followed them down the Path, which Jason, who is upset at hearing that Benny has kissed another man, told them was a possibility. Jason claims that he is dying of [[heartbreak]] and tricks WiRgo!xue into releasing him from his [[smart rope]], allowing him to escape. He finds Benny and Lafayette cornered by locals and is knocked out. Lafayette shoots a man with his [[pistol]] and is scanned by the drone, which takes a tissue sample from him. Benny has disappeared.
+=== Part two ===
+Lafayette tells Ninan of Benny's abduction and goes after one of the kidnappers, but not before Ninan gives him the chronokinetiscope which was passed on to [[Miriam (Walking to Babylon)|Miriam]] by guards transporting the unconscious Jason. He rescues Benny and is badly wounded, but he insists that Benny put him out of her mind until her mission is complete. The People's drone arrives and uses a [[suspension field]] to put Lafayette to [[sleep]] to speed up the [[healing]] process and, in the morning, Benny tells him the true extent of her mission in Babylon.
+Benny and Lafayette visit Itti-Marduk-balatu and track down WiRgo!xue and !Ci!ci-tel, who reveal that their plan is to teach the People hardship by bringing them from [[Worldsphere|their home]] to Babylon and do not initially believe that the People will send a singularity bomb down the Path. Benny realises that their plan is actually to spark a war between the People and their rivals to warn the People against complacency and the drone finds that Lafayette has stored [[temporal energy]], resulting in its components being aged and degraded when it took a tissue sample from him and !Ci-!ci-tel being aged to death when he touches him.
+WiRgo!xue plans to go ahead with the scheme and promises to allow Lafayette to return home in return for Benny's help. She hopes that Lafayette entering the Path will cause it to short-circuit due to his temporal energy, but this is not so and she does not realise that he has the chronokinetiscope. Ninan leaves her temple, which she is forbidden to do, and offers to protect WiRgo!xue in return for him and the drone accompanying her in her exploration of the world. The drone gives Benny and Jason their Time Rings and, after Jason purchases Miriam's freedom, they enter the Path and are thrown through [[time]] by the bomb's explosion.
 == Cast ==
@@ Line 56: / Line 69: @@
 * [[Ninan-ashtammu]] - [[Elisabeth Sladen]]
 * [[Jason Kane]] - [[Stephen Fewell]]
-* [[John Lafayette]] - [[Barnaby Edwards (actor)|Barnaby Edwards]]
+* [[John Lafayette]] - [[Barnaby Edwards]]
-* [[WiRgo!xu]] - [[Nigel Fairs]]
+* [[WiRgo!xue]] - [[Nigel Fairs]]
 * [[!Ci!ci-tel]] - [[Anthony Keetch]]
 * [[!qu-!qu-tala|The Drone]] - [[Steven Wickham]]
 * [[Miriam (Walking to Babylon)|Miriam]] - [[Louise Morell]]
-* Babylonian Child - [[Alex Canini]]
+* [[Child (Walking to Babylon)|Babylonian Child]] - [[Alex Canini]]
-== References ==
+== Worldbuilding ==
-=== Species ===
+* Benny wakes up with [[Wolsey]]. Jason pets him as he leaves.
-* [[The People]] make their first audio appearance.
+* Benny has a [[chronokinetiscope]].
-* Jason and Bernice's [[Time Ring]]s make their first audio appearance.
+* Lafayette is a [[linguist]].
+* Wolsey broke Benny's [[watch]].
+* Benny has a [[translator]] and gives a spare to Lafayette.
+* Lafayette was part of [[Robert Koldewey]]'s expedition.
+* Jason is tied up with [[smart rope]].
+* Jason mentions [[Blackpool]], saying it would be cooler there than in Babylon.
+* Lafayette has a [[pistol]].
+* Lafayette eats [[locust]]s for [[breakfast]].
+* [[Miriam (Walking to Babylon)|Miriam]] is a [[slave]].
+* Benny mentions her [[vegetarianism]].
 == Notes ==
@@ Line 76: / Line 98: @@
 * This audio drama was recorded on [[5 November (production)|5]] and [[6 November (production)|6 November]] [[1998 (production)|1998]] at [[Crosstown Studios]], [[London]].
 * ''[[The Big Finish Companion: Volume 1]]'' states the release date as [[January (releases)|January]] [[1999 (releases)|1999]], which corresponds to the 1999 copyright year on the CD. It appears that the November 1998 release date on the website of [[Big Finish Productions]] is erroneous.
+* Jason references ''[[wikipedia:Fawlty Towers|Fawlty Towers]]'' when he says, "''Don't mention the War. I nearly did once, but I think I got away with it.''"
 === Cover gallery ===
@@ Line 85: / Line 108: @@
 == Continuity ==
-* The People were introduced in [[PROSE]]: ''[[The Also People]]''.
+* The People were introduced in [[PROSE]]: ''[[The Also People (novel)|The Also People]]''.
 * Benny mentions that the last time she saw Jason was during the business on [[Ursu]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Beyond the Sun (audio story)|Beyond the Sun]]'')
 * Benny's expedition to Fields of Aggrazar is mentioned. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Making Myths (audio story)|Making Myths]]'')
 == External links ==
-* {{bigfinish|releases/v/walking-to-babylon-43|Walking to Babylon}}
+{{bigfinish|releases/v/walking-to-babylon-43|Walking to Babylon}}
 {{dwrefguide|benny03.htm|Walking to Babylon}}
+{{MusicBrainz|release-group/770050a7-3f61-4d45-8a3c-044201589382}}
 == Footnotes ==
@@ Line 98: / Line 122: @@
 {{BFBS}}
 {{TitleSort}}
 [[Category:Series 1 (BFBS) audio stories]]
-[[Category:Stories set in the distant past]]
+[[Category:Stories set in 570 BC]]
 [[Category:Stories set in Babylon]]
 [[Category:Stories set on Dellah]]
 [[Category:Stories set in 2594]]
-[[Category:Adaptations]]
 [[Category:Stories set in 1901]]
 [[Category:1999 audio stories]]
-[[Category:Bernice Summerfield stories]]
+[[Category:Bernice Summerfield sources]]
 [[Category:Stories that use Alistair Lock's Bernice Summerfield theme]]
+[[Category:Two part audio stories]]

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