The Silver Turk (audio story)

The Silver Turk
Doctor:	Eighth Doctor
Companion(s):	Mary Shelley
Main enemy:	Gramm, Johan Drossel
Main setting:	Vienna, 11 September 1873
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Marc Platt
Director:	Barnaby Edwards
Cover by:	Alex Mallinson
Release details
Release number:	153
Release date:	October 2011
Format:	2 CDs, 4 parts
Production code:	8A/AA
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-601-0
Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories
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The Silver Turk is the first story in the 2011 Eighth Doctor audio trilogy. The story marks the first appearance of the Eighth Doctor in the Big Finish monthly range since The Company of Friends in 2009. However, an alternative version of the Eighth Doctor appeared in Klein's Story in the interim.

Publisher's summary

Roll up! Roll up! To the great Viennese Exposition, where showman Stahlbaum will show you his most wonderful creation, the Silver Turk — a mechanical marvel that will not only play for you the fortepiano, the spinet and the flute, it will play you at the gaming table too!

But when the Doctor brings his new travelling companion Mary Shelley to nineteenth-century Vienna, he soon identifies the incredible Turk as one of his deadliest enemies — a part-machine Cyberman.

And that’s not even the worst of the horrors at large in the city…

Plot

Part One

In Vienna, scared Leopold Krauss hails a cab to Stephansplatz because he is being pursued. The driver of the cab introduces himself as Johan Drossel and mentions that they have a mutual acquaintance, Alfred Stahlbaum, who is a beneficiary to them both. Drossel then whistles to call a monster who savages and kills Krauss.

The TARDIS materialises. After several attempts, Mary Shelley guesses that they are in Vienna, Austria. The Eighth Doctor explains that he wanted to introduce her to traveling in the TARDIS gently and, thus, decided to travel only in space, not leaving the year 1816. In addition, he has to meet Samson and Gemma, who are waiting for him in Café Demel, where they proceed on foot.

Count Rolf Wittenmeier, another patron of Stahlbaum, is trying to retrieve his investments into the Silver Turk because he has lost everything in the Crash. The Silver Turk is an automaton exhibited by Stahlbaum at the Vienna Exposition. It is capable of playing musical instruments and games. But the returns are smaller than expected because of the Crash. Stahlbaum refuses to return any money but offers a bet instead: the loan will be repayed in full if Count Wittenmeier publicly beats the Silver Turk at the game of his choosing.

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Paul McGann
• Mary Shelley - Julie Cox
• Dr Johan Drossel - Gareth Armstrong
• Alfred Stahlbaum - Christian Brassington
• Ernst Bratfisch - David Schneider
• Count Rolf Wittenmeier - Gwilym Lee
• Countess Mitzi Wittenmeier - Claire Wyatt
• The Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs
• Policeman - Gareth Armstrong
• Hannalore - Claire Wyatt
• Empress - Claire Wyatt
• Heinz - Nicholas Briggs
• Krauss - Barnaby Edwards
• Waiter - Barnaby Edwards
• Punters - Gareth Armstrong, Claire Wyatt
• Barkers - Gareth Armstrong, Nicholas Briggs, Christian Brassington, Julie Cox, Gwilym Lee

References

The Doctor

• The Doctor tells Mary that her books "scared the pants off" him.
• Mary breaks the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. The Doctor is indifferent as the TARDIS has a room full of them.

History

• Both Bratfisch and Countess Wittenmeier mention the economic problems besetting Austria as a result of "the Crash." This refers to the Long Depression.
• The Doctor refers to travelling in the TARDIS as "the Grand Tour to end all Grand Tours." This a reference to the description of World War I as "the war to end all wars" attributed to H.G. Wells.

Individuals

• Once the fact that she is more than half a century in her personal future sinks in, Mary begins to consider how old she would be in September 1873 and the fates of her family and friends. She later notes that she would be seventy-six years old by this time.
• Mary's husband Percy Shelley invested in the Turk prior to 1816.
• The Doctor attempts to pick up Samson and Gemma Griffin in Vienna, having left them there in June 1816.
• The Doctor refers to Ludwig van Beethoven and the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and his wife Empress Elisabeth of Austria, commonly referred to by her nickname "Sisi."
• Mary has hazel eyes, flecked with green.
• Mary carries a knife for sharpening her pencil and smelling salts.
• Mary used to imbue so much laudanum that she could not trust her memory.
• Stahlbaum claims to have contacts at the Hofburg.
• Count Wittenmeier used to be a skilful gambler. He once beat Count Larisch at cards in a spectacular manner.
• Percy Shelley told Mary that she would never master German. While travelling with the Doctor, she is able to speak German and even read newspapers in this language.
• Stahlbaum and Mitzi use the Doctor puppet for their shows, calling him "the Silver Doctor".

Vienna landmarks

• Leopold Krauss orders a cab to Stephansplatz.
• The Doctor takes Mary to Café Demel where he was scheduled to meet with Samson and Gemma Griffin in June 1816.
• A newspaper picked up in Café Demel calls the murder of Leopold Krauss "the second eyeless murder on the Vienna Ringstrasse." Bratfisch proposes to take Mary and the Doctor once round the Ringstrasse to show them all the landmarks of Vienna. Later on, the cab with the Doctor and Stahlbaum driven by Bratfisch is pursued by Gramm and Mary in a mechanical cab along the Ringstrasse until it crashes trying to turn into the Hofburg.
• The Doctor and Mary visit the Rotunda and the Industrial Palace at the Vienna Exposition.
• Ernst Bratfisch proposes to take the Doctor and Mary to the Opera House and the Hofburg Palace.

Locations

• Mary has never been to Frankfurt.
• Before figuring out that they are in Vienna, Mary unsuccessfully guesses the city to be Stuttgart, then Prague, then Salzburg, then Innsbruck.
• Mary mentions Germany and Austria.
• The Doctor describes Vienna as the city of Kaffee, Kuchen and waltzes.
• Mary mentions that only an hour ago they were near Lake Geneva.
• The Doctor mentions that Mary's left her friends at the Villa Diodati.

Literature

• Mary is unfamiliar with the term "science fiction".

Music

• Mitzi sings a lullaby to the tune of Silent Night originally composed in Austria. In 2011, the year this story was released, UNESCO declared this song to be an intangible cultural heritage of Austria.
• The Doctor mentions that Viennese like waltzes almost as much as they like cake and that he has not gone waltzing for ages.
• The Silver Turk plays the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven on a piano.

Species

• The Doctor refers to the Cyberman as "one of the Mondas originals."

Planets

• Mondas is located 200 light-years from Earth.

Food

• The Doctor mentions that Sachertorte hasn't been invented yet in 1816 but should already exist in 1873.
• The Doctor orders gingerbread with hot chocolate at the Café Demel. Mary orders apple strudel and coffee.

Notes

• The Turk existed in the real world. It was a man masquerading as a robot and also served as inspiration for the Clockwork Droids from TV: The Girl in the Fireplace.
• This is the first full length Eighth Doctor story to be released in the main range since AUDIO: The Girl Who Never Was in December 2007 and the first such story not to feature Charley Pollard.
• This is the first Cyberman story to be released by Big Finish in any range since Legend of the Cybermen in June 2010. Their next Big Finish appearance was Last of the Cybermen in May 2015, over three years after this story's release.
• Some elements of this story, especially the second part, have many similarities with the novel Frankenstein.
• This audio drama was recorded on 5 and 11 April 2011.

Continuity

• This story begins only an hour after the events of Mary's Story from the Doctor and Mary's perspective. The Doctor recalls what he told Mary at the end of that story: that he promised her "the marvels of the universe", that he is "the Doctor" and "not the Monster" and that she called the TARDIS his "hut". The Doctor initially believes that they have not left June 1816 and wants to pick up Samson and Gemma Griffin, whom he left in Vienna. (AUDIO: Mary's Story)
• The Doctor tells Mary that he witnessed the creation of the Cybermen on Mondas. (AUDIO: Spare Parts)
• Mary is unfamiliar with the term "science fiction". The term was created by H. G. Wells, another 19th century author, who accompanied the Sixth Doctor on a trip from Scotland in 1885 to Karfel. (TV: Timelash)
• The Doctor refers to Draconian sazou. (AUDIO: Paper Cuts)
• The future Eighth Doctor previously told Mary that they had encountered the Cybermen during their travels together. (AUDIO: Mary's Story)
• Mary feels pity for the deteriorated condition of the Cybermen as she did for the Doctor in Mary's Story. This also resembles how Rose Tyler felt pity for the deteriorated Dalek in the Vault in 2012. (TV: Dalek)

External links

• Official The Silver Turk page at bigfinish.com
• The Silver Turk at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• DisContinuity for The Silver Turk at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide