The Haunting of Thomas Brewster (audio story)

The Haunting of Thomas Brewster
Doctor:	Fifth Doctor
Companion(s):	Nyssa, McIntosh
Featuring:	Brewster
Main enemy:	Death Wraith
Main setting:	London, 1851, 1856, 1858, 1861, 1865, 14 November 1867 and alternate 2008
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Jonathan Morris
Director:	Barnaby Edwards
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Simon Robinson
Sound:	Simon Robinson
Cover by:	Alex Mallinson
Release details
Number of parts:	4
Release number:	107
Release date:	30 April 2008
Format:	2 CDs Download
Production code:	6C/K
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-316-3 (physical) ISBN 978-1-78575-654-2 (digital)
Official trailer
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Main Range
← Previous	The Dark Husband
Next →	Assassin in the Limelight
Production order
← Previous	The Condemned
Next →	The Dark Husband

The Haunting of Thomas Brewster was the one hundred and seventh story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Jonathan Morris and featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa and introduced John Pickard as new companion, Thomas Brewster.

Possessed of a plot laden with time paradoxes, its resolution depended on contradicting another Fifth Doctor story, Time Crash, as well as the Nyssa story Logopolis, and even The Claws of Axos. In those earlier televised stories, materialising one TARDIS around another caused massive problems. Here, the Doctor solved the central plot issue by spending much of the fourth episode liberally materialising his TARDIS inside of itself multiple times, much to Nyssa's confusion and fear.

Like another Fifth Doctor audio, The Kingmaker, it posited a significant period of separation between the Doctor and his companion. While the earlier story put years onto Peri and Erimem's lives, this one allowed the Doctor to spend about a year away from Nyssa, who experienced no period away from the Doctor at all. In that Victorian year, the Doctor lived on Baker Street in London with a male assistant called Robert McIntosh, grew a beard, and pursued a number of academic interests. Though few details of their adventures in this "missing year" were given, it was certainly possible to infer that their adventures were not unlike those of a more sociable Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.

In addition to the "timey-wimey-ness", the narrative structure was further complicated by unusual switches in perspective. The first episode came close to being told entirely in the first person, from Brewster's perspective, while the final three reverted to a more standard, Doctor-focused third person. Even so, however, they were peppered with occasional moments of Brewster's narration. Additionally, the soundtrack used both diegetic and extra-diegetic music to help reinforce the time setting of various scenes.

Publisher's summary

A new adventure in time and space for the Fifth Doctor and his companion Nyssa.

Thomas Brewster is haunted by the ghost of his drowned mother. But she is not the only apparition to disturb his dreams. Every few years, he is visited by a mysterious blue box...

Helped by his new assistant, the young Scottish scientist Robert McIntosh, the Fifth Doctor struggles to unravel the twisted knot of temporal implausibilities which bind the TARDIS to Thomas Brewster. Meanwhile, lost in the stews of Victorian London, Nyssa must face a host of spectral creatures, gathering in the fog.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Peter Davison
• Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
• Mother - Leslie Ash
• Robert McIntosh - Christian Coulson
• Thomas Brewster - John Pickard
• Creek - Barry McCarthy
• Pickens - Sid Mitchell
• Shanks - Trevor Cooper

Crew

• Cover Art - Alex Mallinson
• Director - Barnaby Edwards
• Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
• Music and Sound Designer - Simon Robinson
• Producer - David Richardson
• Script Editor - Alan Barnes
• Writer - Jonathan Morris

Worldbuilding

London locations

• The Doctor lives in a house at 107 Baker Street in Victorian London from November 1866 to November 1867.

Individuals

• Over the course of the year which he spent living in Victorian London, the Doctor becomes a well known and well respected figure in scientific circles under the name of Dr. Walters, in spite of his apparent youth. He grew a beard to make himself appear older than his youthful appearance suggested. Nyssa finds his new facial hair laughable. He has engaged Dr. Robert McIntosh as his new assistant. However, McIntosh remains ignorant of the Doctor's status as a Time Lord until after Nyssa's arrival in 1867.
• Brewster's first memory is of his mother's funeral in 1851.
• Brewster is able to access the TARDIS by stealing the key which Nyssa keeps in her left breast pocket.
• The TARDIS wine cellar contains a bottle of 1784 Madeira which belonged to Benjamin Franklin.

Science

• The Doctor has borrowed an electromagnetic field generator.

Popular Culture

• The being from the future uses the song Oranges and Lemons to make a psychic connection with Brewster.

Gallery

• 

  Original cover art

• 

  Preview by Brian Williamson appeared on DWM 394

Notes

• Given that the events of AUDIO: Assassin in the Limelight take place in April 1865, this is the first of two consecutive audio dramas based predominantly in the 1860s.
• This audio drama was recorded on 13 and 14 December 2007 at the Moat Studios.
• This story is set between Time-Flight and Arc of Infinity.

Continuity

• Nyssa mentions the deaths of her parents. They died when Traken was destroyed by the Entropy wave in TV: The Keeper of Traken ^[+]Loading...["The Keeper of Traken (TV story)"].
• The Daleks, Edward Waterfield and Theodore Maxtible similarly used mirrors and lenses for the purposes of time travel in 1866, as seen in TV: The Evil of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["The Evil of the Daleks (TV story)"].
• The Doctor mentions that the destiny of Earth is to end up as "ash and clinker". The Third Doctor referred to Earth's surface being covered in such materials in TV: The Mutants ^[+]Loading...["The Mutants (TV story)"], and the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler witnessed the Earth's ultimate destruction in TV: The End of the World ^[+]Loading...["The End of the World (TV story)"].
• The TARDIS creates a breeze as it materialises, as seen in stories such as TV: Doctor Who ^[+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"], Rose ^[+]Loading...["Rose (TV story)"], and The Unquiet Dead ^[+]Loading...["The Unquiet Dead (TV story)"].
• During his sixth incarnation, the Doctor would later return to the Great Portland Street Tube in the company of DI Patricia Menzies in 2010, where he was reunited with Brewster. This took place in AUDIO: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster ^[+]Loading...["The Crimes of Thomas Brewster (audio story)"].
• In an alternate timeline, 107 Baker Street was the site of the Ides Scientific Institute in 1972. This was depicted in AUDIO: Fugitives ^[+]Loading...["Fugitives (audio story)"].
• In 1866, George Litefoot received a letter with the yesterday box from a Doctor Walters, who subsequently vanished without a trace. This took place in AUDIO: The Year of the Bat ^[+]Loading...["The Year of the Bat (audio story)"].

External links

• Official The Haunting of Thomas Brewster page at bigfinish.com
• The Haunting of Thomas Brewster at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• DisContinuity for The Haunting of Thomas Brewster at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide