The Great War (audio story)

The Great War
Doctor:	Eighth Doctor
Companion(s):	Molly O'Sullivan
Main enemy:	Kotris, The Daleks
Main setting:	Gallifrey France, World War I
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Nicholas Briggs
Director:	Nicholas Briggs
Music:	Andy Hardwick
Sound:	Andy Hardwick
Cover by:	Alex Mallinson
Release details
Release number:	1
Part of:	Dark Eyes
Release date:	November 2012
Format:	1 X 1 hour
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-977-6
Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories
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The Great War was the first full cast audio story in the Dark Eyes audio anthology released in 2012 by Big Finish Productions. It featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Ruth Bradley as Molly O'Sullivan. This was the first story to advance the Eighth Doctor's tale forwards following 2011's To the Death. The cover and that of the box set feature a new look for the Eighth Doctor whose appearance on the covers of audios and in their in-universe description had not majorly diverted from his appearance in the 1996 television movie.

Publisher's summary

Voluntary Aid Detachment nursing assistant Molly O'Sullivan spends her days facing the horrors of the Great War. Little does she know that a man from another world has arrived, looking for her.

But what are the strange sounds coming from the battlefield at night? Where is the glowing gas coming from? And is everyone who they claim to be?

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Paul McGann
• Molly O'Sullivan - Ruth Bradley
• Straxus - Peter Egan
• Lord President - Tim Treloar
• Isabel Stanford - Laura Molyneaux
• Dr Sturgis - Jonathan Forbes
• Matron/Kitty Donaldson/Nurse Harriet - Beth Chalmers
• Kotris - Toby Jones
• Private Tucker - Alex Mallinson
• Private Hodgeson - John Banks
• The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

References

Earth nations

• The United States has not yet entered the war.

Individuals

• Molly is a Voluntary Aid Detachment nursing assistant. Prior to the outbreak of the war, she served as Kitty Donaldson's chambermaid in her parents' house in London.
• The Doctor refers to Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Isabel thinks that Americans are strange because of the strange behavior of the camp's doctor.

Music

• After the TARDIS materialises in No Man's Land, the Doctor begins to sing the British music hall song "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" to himself. He is almost immediately the victim of a mustard gas attack, which he claims can be fatal even to a Gallifreyan.

Time travel

• The supposed glowing gases are in actuality time winds which are leaking through to World War I-era France from the Time Vortex.

Notes

• This story features a complete new look for the Eighth Doctor, being the first Big Finish adventure to change the Doctor's style from the TV series. There are elements of the Ninth Doctor in the Eighth Doctor's new look, notably the leather jacket and the revamped sonic screwdriver.
• Although the Doctor is described as having his characteristic long hair throughout the story, he is depicted as having short hair on the CD cover.
• This audio drama was recorded on 1, 18, 19 and 20 June 2012 at The Moat Studios.

Continuity

• The Doctor mentions that Straxus has a new face, referring to the fact that he has regenerated since their last encounter. The Doctor comments that he has still as the same supercilious expression irrespective of his incarnation. (AUDIO: The Vengeance of Morbius)
• Straxus reminds the Doctor that he stole the TARDIS. (TV: Logopolis, The Big Bang, The Doctor's Wife, AUDIO: The Beginning)
• The Doctor refers to his granddaughter Susan Campbell, whom he initially believes has betrayed him to the Time Lords, and the death of Lucie Miller. (AUDIO: To the Death)
• The Laws of Time forbid the Time Lords from witnessing the end of the universe. (TV: Utopia)
• Molly sarcastically refers to Isabel Stanford as "Florence Nightingale." The Seventh Doctor's companion Hex once met her in Scutari in the Ottoman Empire in October 1854 during the Crimean War. (AUDIO: The Angel of Scutari)
• During his seventh incarnation, the Doctor, Ace and Hex visited another World War I era French military hospital, namely Charnage Hospital, in 1917. (AUDIO: No Man's Land)
• Due to the fact that Kotris was erased from history, these events never happened. The Doctor, Molly and the Dalek time controller are the only individuals who remember the original timeline. (AUDIO: X and the Daleks)
• The Eighth Doctor also sung It's a Long Way to Tipperary in PROSE: EarthWorld.

External links

• Official Dark Eyes page at bigfinish.com