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{{Infobox CD|
{{title dab away}}
image=[[Image:03Leviathan.png|250px]] Cover Art - [[Alex Mallinson]] |
{{real world}}
cd name= Leviathan|
{{Infobox Story SMW
series=[[Doctor Who]] -<br/>[[Big Finish - Doctor Who Audio Dramas | Big Finish Audio Dramas]] ([[The Lost Stories]]) |
|image                 = Leviathan cover.jpg
number= 1.03 |
|range                  = The Lost Stories
doctor=[[Sixth Doctor]] |
|series in range        = Series 1 (TLS)
companions= [[Peri Brown]] |
|series number in range = 1
enemy= |
|number in series      = 3
year= |
|series                 = [[The Lost Stories]]  
writer= [[Brian Finch]] (Adapted by [[Paul Finch]]) |
|number                 = 1.03  
director= |
|doctor                 = Sixth Doctor  
producer= |
|companions             = [[Peri Brown|Peri]]  
publisher= [[Big Finish]] |
|enemy                 = [[Chandris]]
release date= [[January]] [[2010]] |
|setting                = ''[[Leviathan (Earth spacecraft)|Leviathan]]'', [[25th century]]
format= 2 Episodes on 2 CDs |
|writer                 = Paul Finch
previous story= [[Mission to Magnus (audio)|Mission to Magnus]] |
|contributors          = adapted by [[Paul Finch]] from a script by [[Brian Finch]]
next story= [[The Hollows of Time]]
|director               = [[Ken Bentley]]
}}{{Audio stub}}
|producer               = [[David Richardson]]
'''Leviathan''' is a audio story that was originally written by [[Brian Finch]] to be included in the televised Season 23. When the original season plans were replaced by ''[[The Trial of a Time Lord]]'', this serial was dropped. The TV script was adapted for audio by [[Paul Finch]], Brian Finch's son.
|music                  = [[Simon Robinson]]
|sound                  = Simon Robinson
|cover                  = [[Alex Mallinson]]
|publisher              = Big Finish Productions
|release date          = 21 January 2010
|format                 = 2 CDs<br/>Download
|production code        = 6Y/AC
|isbn                  = ISBN 978-1-84435-446-7 (physical)<br/>ISBN 978-1-78178-181-4 (digital)
|prev                  = Mission to Magnus (audio story)  
|next                   = The Hollows of Time (audio story)
|soundcloudtrailer      = https://soundcloud.com/big-finish/doctor-who-the-lost-stories-leviathan-trailer
|epcount                = 2
}}
{{spotify|album=2l6Ey8vCLPKy7DZVfRYRYg|height=350}}
'''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was the third story of the [[Series 1 (TLS)|first series]] of ''[[The Lost Stories]]'', produced by [[Big Finish Productions]]. It was adapted by [[Paul Finch]], from the original script by his father [[Brian Finch]], and featured [[Colin Baker]] as the [[Sixth Doctor]] and [[Nicola Bryant]] as [[Peri Brown]].


==Publisher's summary==
== Publisher's summary ==
No one lives to old age in the village. When their Time is come, they are taken and never seen again. That is The Way. And, should anyone try to break with the established order of things, then the fury of Herne the Hunter is unleashed...
No one lives to old age in [[New Haven|the village]]. When their [[Time]] is come, they are taken and never seen again. That is The Way. And, should anyone try to break with the established order of things, then the fury of [[Herne the Hunter]] is unleashed...


When the TARDIS materializes near a castle in this mediaeval society, the Doctor and Peri befriend Gurth, a terrified youth who is attempting to flee his fate. And Herne is closing in...
When [[the TARDIS]] materialises near a castle in this mediaeval society, [[Sixth Doctor|the Doctor]] and [[Peri Brown|Peri]] befriend [[Gurth]], a terrified youth who is attempting to flee his fate. And Herne is closing in...
 
Why does the local baron impose the culling? What is the secret of [[Zeron (Leviathan)|Zeron]]? And who are the [[Sentinels of the New Dawn]]?


Why does the local baron impose the culling? What is the secret of Zeron? And who are the Sentinels of the New Dawn?
The answers lie within a cave...
The answers lie within a cave...


==Cast==
== Plot ==
*[[Sixth Doctor|The Doctor]] – [[Colin Baker]]
=== Part one ===
*[[Peri]] – [[Nicola Bryant]]
Experiencing technical issues, [[the TARDIS]] lands in a [[forest]] near a [[castle]] and [[Peri Brown|Peri]] sees [[Gurth]] being chased by the [[antler]]ed and [[skull]]-faced [[Herne the Hunter|Herne]] on [[TARDIS scanner|the scanner]]. She learns from [[TARDIS information system|the databanks]] that Herne is a [[22nd century]] [[biomechanoid]] used as an [[assassin]] by the [[Sentinels of the New Dawn]], a fact that makes [[Sixth Doctor|the Doctor]] change his mind about not helping Gurth, whose uncle [[Osbert (Leviathan)|Father Osbert]] has refused to let him into his home. They help him flee from the Herne and his [[dog]]s to a [[cave]] from which they see a group led by [[Wulfric (Leviathan)|Wulfric]] launch a failed attack on the hunter. [[Edgar (Leviathan)|Edgar]] and [[Thurstan]] are apparently killed and the survivors flee, leaving a destroyed dog which the Doctor finds is an [[android]].
*[[Gurth]] - [[Howard Gossington]]
 
*[[Herne the Hunter|Herne]] - [[John Banks]]
Wulfric and [[Eada]] capture and interrogate Peri and Gurth and are soon joined by Thurstan, who explains that he was separated from the group and managed to escape the Herne. He hands over a [[laser crossbow]] which Wulfric considers using on Peri until [[Siward (Leviathan)|Siward]] persuades him otherwise, although Eada is suspicious of Peri's knowledge of [[laser]]s and believes it to be evidence that she is with [[Baron (Leviathan)|the Baron]]. The group, known to the villagers of [[New Haven]] as the [[Pariah (Leviathan)|Pariah]], plan to infiltrate the Baron's [[armoury]] to steal more laser crossbows and leave Gurth behind to guard Peri in her [[cage]]. Peri manages to persuade him to let her go, however, and they go to get the Doctor's help.
*[[Althya]] - [[Beth Chalmers]]
 
*[[Wulfric (Leviathan)|Wulfric]]- [[Jamie Parker]]
Avoiding being seen by the Baron and his men at the cave, the Doctor meets Osbert, his [[housekeeper]], [[Maude (Leviathan)|Maude]], and the young girl [[Althya]]. He realises that the people are too advanced for it to be the [[Middle Ages]] as he initially believed it to be and is [[arrest]]ed by the [[Master-Sergeant]] and his men, whom Osbert sent for and who take him to the castle [[dungeon]]s. When Wulfric, Eada, Siward and Thurstan use a laser crossbow to blow their way into the castle, the Doctor claims responsibility in return for their help, only to be taken before the Baron by the Master-Sergeant. He learns that the Baron serves the voice of the [[Zeron (Leviathan)|Zeron]], which orders the Baron to interrogate him with a [[sensory manipulator]].
*[[Siward]] - [[Derek Carlyle]]
 
The alarm sounds when the Pariah try to infiltrate the armoury and the Baron sends his guards and the Herne to kill them. The Doctor defeats him in a [[sword]]fight and confronts the Zeron about the symbols of the Sentinels of the Rising Sun that he has seen since landing, but he soon has to flee and [[saddle]]s some [[horse]]s in a [[stable]]. Peri and Gurth, who has been denounced by the villagers as a Pariah and replaced with an identical boy proclaimed the new Gurth, hide in the stable with the villagers chasing them and join him in riding away to the Pariah's cave. The Doctor shares his assessment that the world seems to be for show rather than genuinely mediaeval and finds a hidden room with a [[porthole]] through which he, Peri and Gurth see that they are on [[Leviathan (Earth spacecraft)|a spaceship]].
 
=== Part two ===
The Doctor, Peri and Gurth see [[Icarus (spaceship)|another spaceship]] on a parallel course and are almost trapped by containment doors, but they escape through a rusty one and the Doctor explains that they are on a [[Leviathan (Earth spacecraft)|Leviathan]], a 22nd century [[colony ship]] made obsolete by the [[interstellar drive]] and run by the Zeron [[computer program]]. They free the Pariah from the castle dungeons, destroying the android Master-Sergeant, and the Doctor saves Wulfric from being [[torture]]d with the sensory manipulator whilst Peri and Gurth act as a rearguard. To save himself and Eada, the Doctor inverts the power feed of a laser crossbow and creates a reverse detonation that destroys the dungeon and badly damages the android Baron.
 
The Zeron receives orders to have the Baron "recycle" the entire generation of people aboard the Leviathan and the Doctor and Eada follow the Baron as he melts Siward's body in a machine beneath the [[throne room]]. They discover that those who reach the age at which they begin questioning society aboard the Leviathan are recycled into younger versions of themselves in tanks and the Baron reveals that the Zeron and the ship were damaged in a [[meteor storm]] less than fifty [[light year]]s from its destination: [[Phlegethon]]. The Doctor and Eada escape to the village when they hear a bell being rung and witness Osbert rounding up the youth to be taken to the castle for recycling; the Doctor tries to persuade Althya that what is happening is not right, but instead resorts to having her tell Osbert that the Pariah are in the [[undercroft]].
 
When Osbert goes into the undercroft to investigate, the Doctor traps him inside and puts on a [[habit]] to take his place on the [[cart]] and take the youth away from the village. Eada makes Althya send some of the Baron's androids ahead to keep an eye out for the Pariah, giving the Doctor the opportunity to run them down and Peri, Wulfric and Gurth to launch an ambush in which the escaped Osbert is destroyed. The youth join the Pariah and head to the castle whilst the Doctor and Peri return to the TARDIS, finding no record of what happened to the Sentinels in the databanks and meeting [[Soltan|Crewman (First Class) Soltan]] of the ''Icarus'', the nearby freighter, when he knocks on the door. He tells them that [[Chandris|Captain Chandris]] has hacked into the Zeron to wipe out the people aboard the Leviathan so that he can sell it as salvage.
 
The Doctor and Peri get Soltan into the TARDIS when he is shot by a sniper and leave him there, unconscious, to join the Pariah at the castle. Passing the destroyed Baron, they lock themselves in the recycling chamber to keep out the Herne and find hundreds of dead Sentinels of the New Dawn in faulty [[cryosleep cubicle]]s still being fed by the recycling plant, having long since [[suffocation|suffocated]] following the meteor storm. The Doctor gets Wulfric's help to destroy the throne with the sensory manipulator, revealing the Leviathan's [[command chair]] which he uses to get control of the Zeron; he immobilises the Herne, deactivates the other androids and uses Soltan's [[teleport belt]] to travel to the ''Icarus'' and confront Captain Chandris and [[Gregorian|First Mate Gregorian]] with the Herne.
 
The Doctor orders Captain Chandris to transfer everybody, including the foetuses, from the Leviathan to the ''Icarus'' and threatens him with the Herne when he refuses. Captain Chandris and Gregorian are locked in the brig with the Herne standing guard whilst Soltan calls for a [[rescue shuttle]], the forest of the Leviathan being left behind to be tended to by the Zeron. The Doctor and Peri dematerialise in the TARDIS, but they are plagued once more with technical problems.
 
== Cast ==
* [[Sixth Doctor|The Doctor]] – [[Colin Baker]]
* [[Peri Brown|Peri]] – [[Nicola Bryant]]
* [[Gurth]] / [[Thurstan]] / [[Soltan]] - [[Howard Gossington]]
* [[Herne the Hunter|Herne]] / [[Baron (Leviathan)|Baron]] / [[Osbert (Leviathan)|Osbert]] / [[Chandris]] - [[John Banks]]
* [[Althya]] / [[Maude (Leviathan)|Maude]] / [[Eada]] / [[Zeron (Leviathan)|Zeron]] - [[Beth Chalmers]]
* [[Wulfric (Leviathan)|Wulfric]] / [[Edgar (Leviathan)|Edgar]] - [[Jamie Parker]]
* [[Siward (Leviathan)|Siward]] / [[Master-Sergeant]] / [[Gregorian]] - [[Derek Carlyle]]


==References==
== Worldbuilding ==
''to be added''
* The Doctor believes that the [[Middle Ages]] is "an interesting period in its way, but in increasingly small doses."
* [[Faster-than-light travel]] was invented in the mid-22nd century, rendering the [[Leviathan (Earth spacecraft)|Leviathans]] obsolete before they could be used.
* Peri recognises the robotic hounds as a form of [[android]].
* Maude gives the Doctor [[bread]] and [[cheese]].
* The Zeron originally ran automated [[prison craft]].
* [[Phlegethon]] is in the [[Naiad system]].
* The crew of the ''[[Icarus (spacecraft)|Icarus]]'' use [[teleport belt]]s.
* The Doctor suspects that the Herne's [[axe]] is made from [[tungsten carbide]] and capable of cutting through anything.


==Notes==
== Notes ==
''to be added''
[[File:Leviation_Big_Finish_Story_Art.jpg.jpg|thumb|CD sleeve illustration, showing a scene from the story.]]
* Unlike the other Lost Stories in the series, ''Leviathan'' was not written for [[Season 23 (Doctor Who 1963)|Season 23]]. It was dropped at the last minute, having rehearsal scripts set up; the reasons for its cancellation are unknown, although [[David Richardson]] has suggested it was most likely for budgetary reasons.
* The script for this serial was sent in after Paul Finch read about the Lost Stories series in ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]''. Recording for the series was already nearing completion. After reading the script, Richardson arranged to extend the originally planned seven stories, which were already at the tail end of production, to include it as an eighth.
* This audio drama was recorded on [[28 April (production)|28]] and [[29 April (production)|29 April]] [[2009 (production)|2009]] at [[The Moat Studios]].
* It was released on CD and download on [[21 January (releases)|21 January]] [[2010 (releases)|2010]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100127025738/http://www.bigfinish.com:80/news THE LATEST BIG FINISH NEWS - Archived on 27-01-2010]</ref> It is also available to stream on [[Spotify]].
* Due to the large number of characters featured, each of the secondary cast had to perform several roles.
* This story is set between ''[[Revelation of the Daleks (TV story)|Revelation of the Daleks]]'' and ''[[Season 23 (Doctor Who 1963)|The Trial of a Time Lord]]''.


==Continuity==
== Continuity ==
''to be added''
* [[Peri Brown|Peri]] mentions the possibility of [[Sil]] and [[Rana Zandusia]] sabotaging the TARDIS. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Mission to Magnus (audio story)|Mission to Magnus]]'')
* The [[Third Doctor]] and [[Liz Shaw]] previously encountered the [[Sentinels of the New Dawn]] in [[2014]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Sentinels of the New Dawn (audio story)|The Sentinels of the New Dawn]]'') The Doctor reveals the Sentinels were driven off Earth in the [[22nd century]].
* Peri refers to being tortured. ([[TV]]: ''[[Vengeance on Varos (TV story)|Vengeance on Varos]]'')
* Peri is not surprised by the appearance of androids. She previously met them both on [[Androzani Minor]] ([[TV]]: ''[[The Caves of Androzani (TV story)|The Caves of Androzani]]'') and in [[Blackpool]] in [[1986]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Nightmare Fair (audio story)|The Nightmare Fair]]'')
* The [[Seventh Doctor]] would later visit another artificial environment where the inhabitants were broken down. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Doomsday Quatrain (audio story)|The Doomsday Quatrain]]'')
* The [[Sixth Doctor]] states that he learned to use the [[Broadsword (weapon)|broadsword]] from [[Richard I of England|Richard the Lionheart]] ([[TV]]: ''[[The Crusade (TV story)|The Crusade]]'') and [[Hereward the Wake]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Real Hereward (short story)|The Real Hereward]]'')


==Timeline==
== External links ==
* The story takes place immediately after [[BFA]]: ''[[Mission to Magnus (audio)|Mission to Magnus]]''
{{bigfinish|releases/v/leviathan-423|Leviathan}}
* The story takes place before [[BFA]]: ''[[The Hollows of Time]]''
{{dwrefguide|loststories03.htm|Leviathan}}
* {{tetrap|6/leviathan.html|Leviathan}}
{{BFA LostStories}}
{{TitleSort}}


==External Links==
[[Category:Series 1 (TLS) audio stories]]
''to be added''
[[Category:2010 audio stories]]
[[Category:Sixth Doctor audio plays]]
[[Category:Stories set in the 25th century]]
[[Category:2010 audio plays]]
[[Category:Lost Stories]]

Latest revision as of 20:11, 22 April 2024

RealWorld.png

Leviathan was the third story of the first series of The Lost Stories, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was adapted by Paul Finch, from the original script by his father Brian Finch, and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown.

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

No one lives to old age in the village. When their Time is come, they are taken and never seen again. That is The Way. And, should anyone try to break with the established order of things, then the fury of Herne the Hunter is unleashed...

When the TARDIS materialises near a castle in this mediaeval society, the Doctor and Peri befriend Gurth, a terrified youth who is attempting to flee his fate. And Herne is closing in...

Why does the local baron impose the culling? What is the secret of Zeron? And who are the Sentinels of the New Dawn?

The answers lie within a cave...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

Experiencing technical issues, the TARDIS lands in a forest near a castle and Peri sees Gurth being chased by the antlered and skull-faced Herne on the scanner. She learns from the databanks that Herne is a 22nd century biomechanoid used as an assassin by the Sentinels of the New Dawn, a fact that makes the Doctor change his mind about not helping Gurth, whose uncle Father Osbert has refused to let him into his home. They help him flee from the Herne and his dogs to a cave from which they see a group led by Wulfric launch a failed attack on the hunter. Edgar and Thurstan are apparently killed and the survivors flee, leaving a destroyed dog which the Doctor finds is an android.

Wulfric and Eada capture and interrogate Peri and Gurth and are soon joined by Thurstan, who explains that he was separated from the group and managed to escape the Herne. He hands over a laser crossbow which Wulfric considers using on Peri until Siward persuades him otherwise, although Eada is suspicious of Peri's knowledge of lasers and believes it to be evidence that she is with the Baron. The group, known to the villagers of New Haven as the Pariah, plan to infiltrate the Baron's armoury to steal more laser crossbows and leave Gurth behind to guard Peri in her cage. Peri manages to persuade him to let her go, however, and they go to get the Doctor's help.

Avoiding being seen by the Baron and his men at the cave, the Doctor meets Osbert, his housekeeper, Maude, and the young girl Althya. He realises that the people are too advanced for it to be the Middle Ages as he initially believed it to be and is arrested by the Master-Sergeant and his men, whom Osbert sent for and who take him to the castle dungeons. When Wulfric, Eada, Siward and Thurstan use a laser crossbow to blow their way into the castle, the Doctor claims responsibility in return for their help, only to be taken before the Baron by the Master-Sergeant. He learns that the Baron serves the voice of the Zeron, which orders the Baron to interrogate him with a sensory manipulator.

The alarm sounds when the Pariah try to infiltrate the armoury and the Baron sends his guards and the Herne to kill them. The Doctor defeats him in a swordfight and confronts the Zeron about the symbols of the Sentinels of the Rising Sun that he has seen since landing, but he soon has to flee and saddles some horses in a stable. Peri and Gurth, who has been denounced by the villagers as a Pariah and replaced with an identical boy proclaimed the new Gurth, hide in the stable with the villagers chasing them and join him in riding away to the Pariah's cave. The Doctor shares his assessment that the world seems to be for show rather than genuinely mediaeval and finds a hidden room with a porthole through which he, Peri and Gurth see that they are on a spaceship.

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

The Doctor, Peri and Gurth see another spaceship on a parallel course and are almost trapped by containment doors, but they escape through a rusty one and the Doctor explains that they are on a Leviathan, a 22nd century colony ship made obsolete by the interstellar drive and run by the Zeron computer program. They free the Pariah from the castle dungeons, destroying the android Master-Sergeant, and the Doctor saves Wulfric from being tortured with the sensory manipulator whilst Peri and Gurth act as a rearguard. To save himself and Eada, the Doctor inverts the power feed of a laser crossbow and creates a reverse detonation that destroys the dungeon and badly damages the android Baron.

The Zeron receives orders to have the Baron "recycle" the entire generation of people aboard the Leviathan and the Doctor and Eada follow the Baron as he melts Siward's body in a machine beneath the throne room. They discover that those who reach the age at which they begin questioning society aboard the Leviathan are recycled into younger versions of themselves in tanks and the Baron reveals that the Zeron and the ship were damaged in a meteor storm less than fifty light years from its destination: Phlegethon. The Doctor and Eada escape to the village when they hear a bell being rung and witness Osbert rounding up the youth to be taken to the castle for recycling; the Doctor tries to persuade Althya that what is happening is not right, but instead resorts to having her tell Osbert that the Pariah are in the undercroft.

When Osbert goes into the undercroft to investigate, the Doctor traps him inside and puts on a habit to take his place on the cart and take the youth away from the village. Eada makes Althya send some of the Baron's androids ahead to keep an eye out for the Pariah, giving the Doctor the opportunity to run them down and Peri, Wulfric and Gurth to launch an ambush in which the escaped Osbert is destroyed. The youth join the Pariah and head to the castle whilst the Doctor and Peri return to the TARDIS, finding no record of what happened to the Sentinels in the databanks and meeting Crewman (First Class) Soltan of the Icarus, the nearby freighter, when he knocks on the door. He tells them that Captain Chandris has hacked into the Zeron to wipe out the people aboard the Leviathan so that he can sell it as salvage.

The Doctor and Peri get Soltan into the TARDIS when he is shot by a sniper and leave him there, unconscious, to join the Pariah at the castle. Passing the destroyed Baron, they lock themselves in the recycling chamber to keep out the Herne and find hundreds of dead Sentinels of the New Dawn in faulty cryosleep cubicles still being fed by the recycling plant, having long since suffocated following the meteor storm. The Doctor gets Wulfric's help to destroy the throne with the sensory manipulator, revealing the Leviathan's command chair which he uses to get control of the Zeron; he immobilises the Herne, deactivates the other androids and uses Soltan's teleport belt to travel to the Icarus and confront Captain Chandris and First Mate Gregorian with the Herne.

The Doctor orders Captain Chandris to transfer everybody, including the foetuses, from the Leviathan to the Icarus and threatens him with the Herne when he refuses. Captain Chandris and Gregorian are locked in the brig with the Herne standing guard whilst Soltan calls for a rescue shuttle, the forest of the Leviathan being left behind to be tended to by the Zeron. The Doctor and Peri dematerialise in the TARDIS, but they are plagued once more with technical problems.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

CD sleeve illustration, showing a scene from the story.
  • Unlike the other Lost Stories in the series, Leviathan was not written for Season 23. It was dropped at the last minute, having rehearsal scripts set up; the reasons for its cancellation are unknown, although David Richardson has suggested it was most likely for budgetary reasons.
  • The script for this serial was sent in after Paul Finch read about the Lost Stories series in Doctor Who Magazine. Recording for the series was already nearing completion. After reading the script, Richardson arranged to extend the originally planned seven stories, which were already at the tail end of production, to include it as an eighth.
  • This audio drama was recorded on 28 and 29 April 2009 at The Moat Studios.
  • It was released on CD and download on 21 January 2010.[1] It is also available to stream on Spotify.
  • Due to the large number of characters featured, each of the secondary cast had to perform several roles.
  • This story is set between Revelation of the Daleks and The Trial of a Time Lord.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

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