Sanctuary (audio story)

Sanctuary
Main character(s):	Benny
Featuring:	Pym, 312, Altazar, Geren, Grizella, Starll, the Nurse, the Oldest
Main enemy:	Liturgy of Death
Main setting:	Eternity Club
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Tim Foley
Director:	David O'Mahony
Producer:	James Goss
Music:	Rob Harvey
Sound:	Shane O'Byrne
Release details
Number of parts:	1
Release number:	8.7
Part of:	The Eternity Club 4
Release date:	12 December 2024
Format:	1 CD Download 2nd of 2 stories
Production code:	BFPDWNABOX00804
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-80240-399-2 (physical); 978-1-80240-400-5 (digital)
The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield
← Previous	Mr Pym Has an Adventure
Next →	Liturgy of Death

Sanctuary was the first story in The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield audio anthology The Eternity Club 4, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Tim Foley and featured Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield.

Publisher's summary

A battlefleet has breached the defences of the Eternity Club, demanding the surrender of The Death. Only Bernice Summerfield knows what this is - and even she cannot believe it.

Plot

Starll presents Grizella with a bouquet of grass and accepts her offer to sit on her lap in the observatory, where she has noticed a warfleet in the nearby Maxima system. Professor Altazar summons the pair to join him, 312 and Geren in the common room to listen to a message from the warfleet warning that they are on their way to the Eternity Club for somebody. The group argue about which of them could be the target whilst Benny tells Secretary Pym that they must be after the Oldest, whom she believes to be the Master and whom she insists they hand over because of the Master's numerous crimes. When Pym summons the Nurse, Benny realises that the Nurse has been using hypnosis whenever anybody has questioned the Oldest's identity and goes to speak with the Oldest, but she finds that Geren overheard her conversation with Pym and she and the other members have hidden the Oldest.

Worried about the Oldest being loose, the Nurse reveals to Benny that she is a Sentinel, a TARDIS shell incapable of travelling in space or time, and that Benny is now immune to her psychic chameleon circuit thanks to her synapses having recently been purged. She has been acting as the Oldest's jailor for the High Council, but the Time Lords do not know whether she is a version of the Master or the Doctor and the Nurse has not yet succeeded in getting the Oldest to remember her identity. The reason that the Nurse kept this information from Benny was due to Benny having been brought to the club by the Oldest, who has been responsible for acts of mischief such as the dark rhubarb and sending Benny to the cloakroom. The Nurse tracks the Oldest to one of the larders where she is being guarded by 312, who recognised the voice in the message as that of the people who saved him after the Scarlet Time and welcomed the arrival of the Oldest at the gateway he built. Believing that she is the Master and that she once tasked him with killing her to keep the Liturgy of Death from capturing her, he takes a knife.

312 drops the knife when Benny and the Nurse enter, coming to his senses, and the Nurse takes the Oldest to safety before the Liturgy's advance shuttle docks. One of the Liturgy disembarks the shuttle and takes control of the tannoy system to introduce themselves and demand that the Master is handed over to them to be worshipped, but Altazar and Starll, who receive them, refuse and Starll attempts to kill the visitor. The visitor seemingly kills Starll and Altazar orders the clockwork butlers to attack, but they are unable to hold the Liturgy back and they reach Benny, Pym, the Oldest, the Nurse and Geren. The Liturgy demands to know which of them is the Master and count down to the beginning of the Liturgy of Death when none of them speak up.

Cast

• Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
• Secretary Pym - Nickolas Grace
• The Oldest - Niamh Cusack
• Starll - Dan Starkey
• 312 - Simon Kane
• Grizella - Naana Agyei-Ampadu
• Professor Altazar - Shai Matheson
• The Suspension of Geren - Victoria Gee
• Nurse - Dianne Pilkington
• Butlers / The Liturgy - David O'Mahony

Worldbuilding

• 312 uses the phrase "a miniature Shansheeth told me".
• Starll gives Grizella a bouquet of grass.
• Grizella watches the nearby Maxima system.
• Geren claims that the Contessa told her something in confidence.
• The Nurse has been using her chameleon circuit.
• The Nurse is a TARDIS assigned by the High Council of Time Lords as a sentinel to guard the Oldest and deduce her identity. She claims to no longer be able to travel in time.
• Starll recalls a trip to a Balhoonian bowling alley.

Notes

• Sanctuary was recorded at the Soundhouse on 10 October 2023.

Continuity

• Altazar and Starl recall them calling upon their respective races’ militaries, as occurred in AUDIO: Rhubarb ^[+]Loading...["Rhubarb (audio story)"].
• The Nurse detects Benny’s synapses were recently purged, as occurred in AUDIO: The Terrible Shame of a Tree ^[+]Loading...["The Terrible Shame of a Tree (audio story)"].
• Benny realises the Oldest was responsible for the dark rhubarb, which infected Derek the Tree in AUDIO: Rhubarb ^[+]Loading...["Rhubarb (audio story)"], and sent her into the cloakroom, as occurred in AUDIO: Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom ^[+]Loading...["Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom (audio story)"].

External links

• Official Sanctuary page at bigfinish.com