The Conscript (audio story)

The Conscript
Doctor:	Eighth Doctor
Companion(s):	Bliss
Featuring:	Quarren, Rupa, Ollistra, Tamasan
Main enemy:	Daleks, Commandant Harlan
Main setting:	Gallifreyan Military Moon Base
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Matt Fitton
Director:	Ken Bentley
Music:	Jamie Robertson
Sound:	Benji Clifford
Cover by:	Tom Webster
Release details
Part of:	The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One
Release date:	26 October 2017
Format:	1 X 1 hour
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-78575-195-0
The Eighth Doctor: Time War
← Previous	Echoes of War
Next →	One Life

The Conscript was the third story in the audio anthology The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume One, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Matt Fitton and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Rakhee Thakrar as Bliss.

Publisher's summary

Cardinal Ollistra has a new tactic to persuade the Doctor to join his people’s fight. With his friends locked away, he has been conscripted alongside fellow Gallifreyans to train for the front lines of battle.

Commandant Harlan has a reputation – his camp’s regime is harsh. He believes the Time Lords must adapt to win this war, but the Doctor is not easily intimidated.

Can there be any place for dissent when the Time War looms so close?

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Paul McGann
• Cardinal Ollistra - Jacqueline Pearce
• Captain Tamasan - Karina Fernandez
• Commander Harlan - Nick Brimble
• Veeda - Katy Sobey
• Norvid - Okezie Morro
• Bliss - Rakhee Thakrar
• Rupa Maguire - Nimmy March
• Quarren Maguire - David Ganly
• Dalek drone/The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

References

• Ollistra views recent events via the Matrix, retrieved through the Doctor's TARDIS.
• Tamasan has recently experienced her third regeneration.
• Ollistra traces Bliss's entire timeline via her biodata, finding her ancestry is from the South Asia subcontinent.
• "Rassilon's blood" and "what in Arcadia?" are Gallifreyan exclamations.
• The Doctor's squad, "red seven," builds staser cannons.
• The Doctor shouts to the conscripts "You are not Sontarans!"
• A Dalek hunter drone infiltrates, scans, and broadcasts back. It's the new hunter-class, with gunsticks.
• The Doctor mentions the Moonlight Bloom, a sign of peace, now a sign of cowardice.
• The Doctor describes the Time War as an "arms race."
• There are outer transduction fields and sky trenches protecting Tenacity.
• Transmat bracelets are used.

Notes

• This story was notable for referencing House Mirraflex, constituting a rare example of an explicit, concrete reference from a Time War-focused series to the War in Heaven mythos of Faction Paradox.

Continuity

• This story follows on directly from Echoes of War.
• There are rumours that the Doctor drove Borusa mad. (TV: The Five Doctors)
• The Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to detonate explosives. (TV: The Sea Devils)
• The Doctor mentions the continent of Wild Endeavour and the mountains of Solace and Solitude. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
• The Doctor considered his sonic screwdriver to be a very old friend. (TV: The Visitation)
• The Doctor asks Veeda if she is from a noble family like Brightshore (PROSE: Divided Loyalties, AUDIO: Enemy Lines) or Mirraflex. (PROSE: The Book of the War, Of the City of the Saved..., Warlords of Utopia)
• Harlan mentions Arcadia and the sky trenches, as well as the War Council. (TV: Doomsday, The Last Day, The Day of the Doctor)
• The Doctor previously met a Time Lord who died from a regeneration inhibitor. (AUDIO: The Starship of Theseus)
• During a "sound off" by chapter as part of a marching chant the Gallifreyan soldiers reference the Prydonian Chapter, the Arcalian Chapter, the Scendeles Chapter and the Dromeian Chapter. (TV: The Deadly Assassin, PROSE: Lungbarrow, The Ancestor Cell)

External links

• Official The Conscript page at bigfinish.com