Medicinal Purposes (audio story)

Medicinal Purposes
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Evelyn
Main enemy:	Dr. Robert Knox
Main setting:	Edinburgh, December 1828 and 28 January 1829
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Robert Ross
Director:	Gary Russell
Producer:	Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery
Music:	David Darlington
Post production:	David Darlington
Cover by:	Lee Binding
Release details
Number of parts:	4
Release number:	60
Release date:	August 2004
Format:	2 CDs Download
Production code:	7C/L
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-098-8 (physical) ISBN 978-1-78178-758-8 (digital)
Main Range
← Previous	The Roof of the World
Next →	Faith Stealer
Production order
← Previous	Arrangements for War
Next →	The Harvest

Medicinal Purposes was the sixtieth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Robert Ross and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Maggie Stables as Evelyn Smythe.

This story marked the first appearance of Robert Knox played by Leslie Phillips. This is the second and final Big Finish audio drama in the main range in which David Tennant appears.

Publisher's summary

Edinburgh, 1827.

The infamous body snatchers William Burke and William Hare are at large. The local prostitutes dull their fear with cheap whisky. The graveyard owls are hooting. Business is good.

When accidental tourists the Doctor and Evelyn Smythe stumble upon one of Britain's most lurid, illuminating chapters in history, a simple case of interest in the work of dedicated man of science Doctor Robert Knox, quickly turns sour.

Just what is that time-bending Scots mist? Whatever it is may put the very fabric of the universe under threat...

As always.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Colin Baker
• Evelyn Smythe - Maggie Stables
• Doctor Robert Knox - Leslie Phillips
• Daft Jamie - David Tennant
• Mary Patterson - Glenna Morrison
• William Burke - Kevin O'Leary
• Billy Hare - Tom Farrelly
• Old Woman - Janie Booth

Crew

• Cover Art - Lee Binding
• Director - Gary Russell
• Executive Producer - Jacqueline Rayner
• Music and Sound Design - David Darlington
• Producers - Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery
• Writer - Robert Ross

Worldbuilding

• The Doctor and Evelyn visited Greyfriars Graveyard.

Individuals

• Daft Jamie's name and nationality causes the Doctor to recall his former companion Jamie McCrimmon.
• The Doctor refers to the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
• The Doctor mentions Dr Christiaan Barnard.
• Evelyn mentions Roger Bannister.
• Knox is contemptuous of the Time Lords and their 'dominion' over time, and says it doesn't exist.

TARDIS

• Knox bought his Type 70 TARDIS from a Nekkistani on Gryben.
• Knox's TARDIS has a working chameleon circuit.

Literature from the real world

• The Doctor superstitiously refers to Macbeth as "the Scottish Play."
• Dr. Knox refers to The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, who would not be born until the 1850s. The Doctor realised that he mentioned the novel as a test for Evelyn whom he correctly believed may be another time traveller.

Gallery

• 

  Original CD cover art

• 

  Textless cover art

• 

  Illustrated preview by Martin Geraghty from DWM 347

• 

  Illustrated review by Roger Langridge from DWM 351

Notes

• This story was featured in the preview section of DWM 347 with art by Martin Geraghty.
• Although it is not stated in the story itself, Daft Jamie's real name was James Wilson and he was 18 years at the time of his murder in October 1828. Mary Patterson was the same age when Burke and Hare killed her on 9 April 1828.
• This audio drama was recorded on 18 and 19 March 2004 at the Moat Studios.
• Although the back cover of the CD dates this story to 1827, it is actually set in 1828.
• Robert Louis Stevenson was apparently born in a different year in the Doctor Who timeline than in the real world. The Date is given as December 1828 and the Doctor says it is "a full 30 years" before his birth, which would put his birth in 1858 or early 1859. In real life, Stevenson was born 13 November 1850.

Continuity

• The Doctor and Evelyn would encounter Knox once again in Washington DC in April 1865. (AUDIO: Assassin in the Limelight)
• The Doctor would refer to Macbeth as "the Scottish Play" again during his eighth incarnation. (AUDIO: The Next Life, The Book of Kells)

External links

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