No Man's Land (audio story)

No Man's Land
Doctor:	[[doctor::Seventh Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Ace Hex
Main enemy:	Lieutenant-Colonel Brook
Main setting:	Charnage Hospital, the Western Front, Northern France, 1917
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::Big Finish Productions]]
Writer:	Martin Day
Director:	John Ainsworth
Producer:	Simon Robinson
Release details
Release number:	89
Release date:	November 2006
Format:	4 Episodes on 2 CDs
Production code:	7W/E
ISBN:	ISBN 1-84435-178-5
Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories
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Next →	Year of the Pig

Publisher's summary

It is 1917 and the Doctor, Hex and Ace find themselves in a military hospital in northern France. But the terrifying, relentless brutality of the Great War that wages only a few miles away is the least of their concerns.

The travellers become metaphysical detectives when the Doctor receives orders to investigate a murder. A murder that has yet to be committed...

Who will be the victim? Who will be the murderer? What is the real purpose of the Hate Room? Can the Doctor solve the mystery before the simmering hate and anger at Charnage Hospital erupts in to a frenzy of violence?

Cast

• The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
• Ace - Sophie Aldred
• Hex - Philip Olivier
• Lieutenant-Colonel Brook - Michael Cochrane
• Sergeant Wood - Rob Dixon
• Captain Dudgeon - Rupert Wickham
• Private Taylor - Oliver Mellor
• Lance-Corporal Burridge - Ian Hayles
• Private Dixon - Michael Adams

References

• The Doctor mentions that he has six senses.
• Ace studied the war poets at school, specifically Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon.
• Hex tells Ace that his mother's full name was Cassandra Elizabeth Schofield. Unbeknownst to him, the Sixth Doctor and his former companion Evelyn Smythe had met her on two occasions, in 1999 and November 2004. They witnessed her death at the hands of Nimrod on the latter occasion. He left his only photograph of her in his flat in Shoreditch in 2021 before departing with the Doctor and Ace in the TARDIS.
• The Doctor refers the 1993 comedy film Groundhog Day in order to describe the effects of a time loop.
• The Forge is theorised to be the agency behind the experiments.

Notes

• Michael Cochrane (Lieutenant-Colonel Brook) previously played Charles Cranleigh in DW: Black Orchid and Redvers Fenn-Cooper in DW: Ghost Light and would later play Murgat in BFA: Brotherhood of the Daleks and Colonel Spindleton in BFA: Trail of the White Worm.
• Oliver Mellor (Private Taylor) previously played Matt Crane in DW: Army of Ghosts.
• Rupert Wickham (Captain Dudgeon) would later play Major Jonas Faber in BFA: Klein's Story.
• This audio drama was recorded on 29 and 30 July 2006.

Continuity

• During his sixth incarnation, the Doctor first learned of the existence of the Forge in London in 1999. (BFA: Project: Twilight) He and Evelyn later visited its alpha facility in Dartmoor in November 2004, as an older version of the Seventh Doctor would later do in 2008. (BFA: Project: Lazarus) The Doctor, Ace and Hex would later visit to its beta facility in London in 2025. (BFA: Project: Destiny)
• Ace and Hex mention their recent visit to Ireland in September 1649. (BFA: The Settling)
• Ace refers to seeing her mother Audrey as a baby in Maiden's Point in 1943 (DW: The Curse of Fenric) and meeting her younger brother Liam McShane on Ibiza on 14 May 1997 (BFA: The Rapture).
• Hex tells Ace that his mother's name was Cassandra Elizabeth Schofield. (BFA: Project: Twilight, BFA: Project: Lazarus)
• Hex's involvement in the Charnage Hospital incident would later be included in the Forge's files concerning him, which were contained in its beta facility in 2025. (BFA: Project: Destiny)

Timeline

• No Man's Land occurs after BFA: The Settling
• No Man's Land occurs before ST: Natalie's Diary

External links

• Official No Man's Land page at bigfinish.com
• No Man's Land at the Doctor Who Reference Guide