Matryoshka (audio story)

Matryoshka
Doctor:	Fourth Doctor
Companion(s):	Harry, Naomi
Main enemy:	The Toymaker
Main setting:	Pearson's manor, 20th century
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Aurora Fearnley
Director:	Helen Goldwyn
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Jamie Robertson
Sound:	Iain Meadows
Release details
Number of parts:	2
Release number:	13.3
Part of:	Metamorphosis
Release date:	11 June 2024
Format:	Download 1st of 3 stories
Production code:	BFPTOMCD094
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-83868-459-4 (physical) ISBN 978-1-83868-460-0 (digital)
The Fourth Doctor Adventures
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Matryoshka was the third story of the thirteenth series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Aurora Fearnley and featured Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Christopher Naylor as Harry Sullivan and Eleanor Crooks as Naomi Cross.

Publisher's summary

When a strange force drags the TARDIS to Earth, it's clear that the Doctor, Harry and Naomi are up against an incredibly powerful being. And when they encounter Lord Pearson, inventor of games and toys, searching for his vanished daughter... it becomes clear exactly who that being might be. Hide and seek is one of the simplest games devised by man... but in the hands of The Toymaker... it may also become the deadliest.

Plot

Part one

Too busy to play hide and seek with his daughter, Etta, board game manufacturer Lord Pearson gives her a ouija board to occupy herself with and she hears a voice which agrees to play with her. The TARDIS arrives near the manor a year later, brought by an unknown force, and the Doctor, Harry and Naomi join spiritualist Madame Bisset in visiting the Pearsons' house to find out what happened to Etta, who vanished whilst playing hide and seek with the voice. Whilst Harry is sceptical of mediums, the Doctor knows that a small percentage have genuine abilities and is not willing to immediately assume that Madame Bisset is a con artist. The group use the ouija board, which spells out a riddle, and Madame Bisset passes out.

Believing that the riddle is directing them to Etta's favourite toy, Lord Pearson leads Harry and Naomi to the attic to find her matryoshka and Madame Bisset gives the Doctor permission to hypnotise her to find out what force made contact with her. She is taken over by the Toymaker, who brought the TARDIS here and wants revenge for a future defeat at the Doctor's hands, just as he expected. In the attic, Naomi realises that they are playing Losers Weepers, a board game in which the players have to find items in each room of the house. A fire suddenly starts, forcing her to climb out of the window using the curtains and into Etta's bedroom on the floor below, and Naomi finds the matryoshka on Etta's bed. She feels compelled to open it, after which the fire disappears.

The Doctor refuses to play the Toymaker's games or surrender himself to save his friends and have Etta freed, not trusting that the Toymaker would do so, and demonstrates that he is able to control Madame Bisset's movements thanks to his hypnosis. As a result of the game continuing, Harry, Naomi and Lord Pearson receive another riddle apparently referring to a ship in a bottle in the wine cellar. Harry and Lord Pearson start smashing bottles in order to find it, which is complicated when the wine from the smashed bottles starts to rise inexplicably. Meanwhile, the Doctor takes the Toymaker into a secret passage in search of Etta, only for the Toymaker to leave Madame Bisset's body as marbles rain down and a spiked ball rolls towards them.

Part two

The Doctor and Madame Bisset climb out of the secret passage into a disused well and Harry finds the ship in a bottle, which is sucked into the doll. The wine then vanishes and Harry, Naomi and Lord Pearson return to the ouija board for the third riddle, hearing what sounds like Etta crying inside the walls as they do so. Harry falls unconscious and Naomi becomes possessed by the Toymaker upon touching the ouija board, so Lord Pearson finds the Doctor and Madame Bisset outside and refuses to wait outside with the latter whilst the Doctor confronts the Toymaker indoors. Lord Pearson and Madame Bisset burst in as the Doctor is clarifying the rules of the game and attempt to open the matryoshka.

Realising that he is the only one who can open it, the Doctor does so and Madame Bisset ages to death. The Doctor and Lord Pearson are then able to pull Etta out from inside of her and the Doctor commands the reunited father and daughter to leave the manor and never return. Harry and Naomi wake back up and the Toymaker reanimates Madame Bisset's corpse using a Probability Crystal from inside the matryoshka, activated by the Doctor's touch and now draining away his life. The Doctor sends Harry and Naomi away with a riddle and deduces that the Toymaker has been taking over human bodies as practice to take over his and become a part of the universe outside of his own; he intends to do this at the point of the Doctor's imminent regeneration with the help of the Probability Crystal's powers.

Harry and Naomi return to the TARDIS with the Probability Crystal and throw it into the console per the Doctor's riddle, causing the TARDIS to dematerialise. The Doctor and the Toymaker play pass the parcel and the Toymaker wins, which allows the Doctor to trap part of him inside the matryoshka whilst the rest of his psyche remains in the time loop in which he has been caught. When the TARDIS arrives with Harry and Naomi inside, the Doctor explains that the TARDIS has looped his life force from the Probability Crystal back into him. The three of them leave, the Doctor suggesting a trip to Las Vegas.

Cast

• The Doctor - Tom Baker
• Naomi Cross - Eleanor Crooks
• Harry Sullivan - Christopher Naylor
• Madame Bisset / The Toymaker - Annette Badland
• Etta Pearson - Venice Van Someren
• Lord Charles Pearson - Robbie Stevens

Crew

to be added

Worldbuilding

• Lord Pearson told Etta that they would play hide and seek.
• Lord Pearson received a ouija board from France.
• Approximately 0.713% of mediums are signal translators capable of picking up alien signals, according to the Doctor.
• Naomi does not know what Wi-Fi is.
• Pearsons manufacture games.
• Harry does not like poems.
• Pestorians are closely related to aphids.
• Madame Bisset has synaesthesia.
• Elizabeth Pearson died in childbirth.
• Naomi references being ankle-deep in merlot.
• Harry felt "rough" one New Year's Day in Portsmouth.
• The Doctor references Alice Through the Looking-Glass.
• Gantus was a "chap" who could drain life energy.
• Naptilus is a planet which can drain life energy.
• The Doctor saves Victoria sponge for Harry.

Notes

• Matryoshka was recorded remotely. (BFX: Matryoshka)

Continuity

• The Toymaker is still stuck in the time loop in which the Sixth Doctor trapped him in PROSE: The Nightmare Fair ^[+]Loading...["The Nightmare Fair (novelisation)"].

External links

• Official Matryoshka page at bigfinish.com