The Union (audio story)

The Union
Doctor:	Eighth Doctor
Featuring:	Fourth Doctor, Susan, River, First Doctor, Second Doctor, Third Doctor, Fifth Doctor, Sixth Doctor, Seventh Doctor, War Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor, Twelfth Doctor, the Two
Main enemy:	The Union
Main setting:	Diamond Array
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Matt Fitton
Director:	Ken Bentley
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Howard Carter
Sound:	Howard Carter
Cover by:	Lee Johnson
Release details
Number of parts:	1
Release number:	7
Release date:	25 October 2023
Format:	1 CD Download 7th of 8 stories
Production code:	BFPDW60OAFCD07
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-80240-088-5 (physical) ISBN 978-1-80240-089-2 (digital)
Official trailer
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Once and Future
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The Union was the seventh story in the Once and Future audio series, produced by Big Finish Productions in celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who.

It was written by Matt Fitton and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Carole Ann Ford as Susan and Alex Kingston as River Song.

Publisher's summary

The Time War. The Doctor has been injured and brought to a Time Lord field hospital. His body glows with energy, but this is no regeneration into a future form – instead, the Doctor's past faces begin to appear as he flits haphazardly between incarnations...

Staggering to his TARDIS, the Doctor sets out to solve the mystery of his 'degeneration'. Who has done this to him? How? And why? From the Earth to the stars, across an array of familiar times and places, he follows clues to retrace his steps, encountering old friends and enemies along the way. Tumbling through his lives, the Doctor must stop his degeneration before he loses himself completely...

The Doctor responds to a distress call from his granddaughter, Susan, taking him to the Diamond Array: a huge multidimensional space station. Once there, his instability increases, as the Fourth and Eighth Doctors discover the Array’s terrible purpose.

Meanwhile, River Song has made a deadly alliance to try to save her husband. And the truth about the Doctor's degeneration will finally be revealed.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Eighth Doctor - Paul McGann
• The Fourth Doctor - Tom Baker
• River Song - Alex Kingston
• Susan - Carole Ann Ford
• The Union - Maureen O'Brien
• Operator Zero / The Two - Michael Maloney
• The Monk - Rufus Hound
• The War Doctor - Jonathon Carley
• The First Doctor - Stephen Noonan
• The Second Doctor - Michael Troughton
• The Third Doctor - Tim Treloar
• The Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
• The Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker
• The Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
• The Tenth Doctor - David Tennant
• The Eleventh Doctor / The Twelfth Doctor - Jacob Dudman

Crew

• Senior Producer - John Ainsworth
• Cover Art - Lee Johnson
• Director - Ken Bentley
• Executive Producers - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
• Music and Sound Design - Howard Carter
• Producer - David Richardson
• Script Editor - Robert Valentine
• Writer - Matt Fitton

Worldbuilding

• River Song and Susan Foreman are both immune to degeneration energies; River attributes her case as to her not being a Time Lord, but doesn't elaborate on why Susan might be.
  • Her immunity doesn't extend to side effects of others' degenerations, as she is able to glimpse future memories with the Twelfth Doctor upon his degeneration.
• The Raxas Alliance is made up of a twin system with two suns.

Notes

• This story was recorded on 16 November 2021 at the Soundhouse.

Continuity

• The Union mentions the Chumblies. (TV: Galaxy 4)
• Susan recognises River from when she taught her at Coal Hill School. (AUDIO: An Unearthly Woman)
• River sees a future memory of Darillium. (TV: The Husbands of River Song)
• River leaves for a date with Jim the Fish. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)
• The Fourth Doctor remembers recently meeting the Two, and how he was wearing the Sixth Doctor's coat at the time. (AUDIO: Two's Company)
• The Eighth Doctor recalls painful memories from his previous meeting with Susan. (AUDIO: To the Death)
• The Tenth Doctor doesn't know what happened to Susan after the Time War. (TV: Gridlock)
• The Eighth Doctor accepts that he has to regenerate into the War Doctor, (TV: The Night of the Doctor) and the War Doctor says that he still has the Doctor inside him, despite rejecting it for the war effort, just as the Moment will tell him during last day of the Time War. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
• The Eighth Doctor feels that he has more regenerations beyond the Twelfth Doctor. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)
• The Eighth Doctor notices that the Union has traces of the Nine's kleptomania. (AUDIO: Relative Time)
• The Monk manipulates the War Doctor to help out in one of his previous schemes. (AUDIO: Past Lives)
• The Union is capturing renegades to use her degeneration gun on, such as the Master (AUDIO: The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50) and the Corsair. (TV: The Doctor's Wife)
• The Union trusts River because she reportedly murdered the Doctor, (TV: The Impossible Astronaut, Let's Kill Hitler) though the Doctor tells her that River lies. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
• River sent the message from Susan that the Ninth Doctor received after restoring the Sands of Time. (AUDIO: Time Lord Immemorial)
• The First Doctor tells Susan that he is proud of her, and that she has proved that he was not mistaken in his beliefs. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
• The Monk was so scared of the Time War that he removed it from the memory of his other selves - this is why the Nun, the successor of the "Hound" Monk, doesn't know what the Time War is. (AUDIO: Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated, The Wrong Woman)

Cover gallery

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  Standard Edition cover

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  Standard Edition alternate cover

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  Standard Edition textless cover

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  Limited Edition cover

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  Limited Edition textless cover

External links

• Official The Union page at bigfinish.com