Mother Russia (audio story)

Mother Russia
Doctor:	First Doctor
Companion(s):	Steven, Dodo
Main enemy:	A "shape thief"
Main setting:	The Russian Empire, 1812
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Marc Platt
Director:	Nigel Fairs
Music:	David Darlington
Sound:	David Darlington
Read by:	Peter Purves, Tony Millan
Release details
Release number:	2.1
Release date:	October 2007
Format:	2 episodes on 1 CD
Production code:	BFPDWCC05
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-290-6
The Companion Chronicles
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Mother Russia was a 2007 audio-play from Big Finish Productions. It was the first Companion Chronicle to feature the talents of Peter Purves and to use the character of Dodo Chaplet. However, it was not Steven Taylor's debut in the range, since he had earlier appeared in the very first Companion Chronicle, Frostfire, read by Maureen O'Brien.

It depicts an incident which happened to the First Doctor, Steven and Dodo during the Napoleonic Wars in Russia.

Publisher's summary

It's 1812 and the Doctor, Steven and Dodo get ready to spend their winter in a Russian village. The French are on their way, but that's not the only invasion the travellers will have to deal with.

Plot

Part One

to be added

Part Two

to be added

Cast

• Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
• The Interrogator - Tony Millan

References

to be added

Notes

• Along with AUDIO: Tales from the Vault and AUDIO: Return of the Rocket Men, this is one of only three Big Finish audio dramas to feature Dodo Chaplet as a character.
• This audio drama was recorded on 6 June 2007.

Continuity

• Dodo Chaplet takes up a position as a piano teacher, on the condition that she not have to play, or hear Steven Taylor sing, "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon". Also, Steven is surprised that the Doctor wishes to holiday in Russia, since they have so recently holidayed in Tombstone, Arizona. Taken together, the two facts suggest that the events of Mother Russia occur relatively soon after those of TV: The Gunfighters.
• Though the word "isomorphic" never actually appears in the play, Steven's description of why the TARDIS didn't work for what he calls "the false Doctor" clearly indicates that the controls are supremely isomorphic — able to tell the difference between the real Doctor and an extremely good copy.
• The Doctor's interest in Napoléon Bonaparte was no doubt fueled by the fact that, as Susan Foreman once said, the French Revolution was her grandfather's favourite period of Earth history — and the fact that he narrowly missed meeting Bonaparte the last time that he was in the era. (TV: The Reign of Terror) The Second Doctor would later have an extended encounter with Bonaparte (PROSE: World Game) and the Third Doctor would claim to have advised the Emperor that "an army marches on its stomach." (TV: Day of the Daleks)
• The Eighth Doctor and his companions Fitz Kreiner and Trix MacMillan would later visit Russia during Napoléon's invasion in 1812. (PROSE: Emotional Chemistry) The renegade Time Lady Iris Wildthyme also met Napoleon on the Russian front. She told George Strangeways that, in spite of what the history books said, he was "anything but small." (AUDIO: The Panda Invasion)
• The Doctor previously visited Russia, specifically Siberia in 1903, in the company of his granddaughter Susan, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. On that occasion, they met Grigori Rasputin. (AUDIO: The Wanderer)
• The successful Russian defence against Napoléon's forces was later commemorated in the 1812 Overture by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. (AUDIO: A Thousand Tiny Wings)
• Steven comments that Homer's writings in The Iliad are "wrong", and contrasts the French Army with that of the Greeks. (TV: The Myth Makers)

External links

• Official Mother Russia page at bigfinish.com
• Mother Russia at the Doctor Who Reference Guide