Previously, Next Time (audio story)

Previously, Next Time
Doctor:	Eighth Doctor
Companion(s):	Alex, Cass
Main enemy:	Bronze Daleks
Main setting:	Planet
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	James Moran
Director:	Ken Bentley
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Jamie Robertson, Howard Carter
Sound:	David Roocroft, Benji Clifford
Release details
Number of parts:	2
Release number:	5.3
Part of:	Cass
Release date:	18 January 2023
Format:	2 CD Download 3rd of 3 stories
Production code:	BFPDWWAR09
The Eighth Doctor: Time War
← Previous	Vespertine
Next →	Nowhere, Never

Previously, Next Time was the third audio story in the audio anthology Cass, the fifth series of The Eighth Doctor: Time War. It was written by James Moran and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, Emma Campbell-Jones as Cass Fermazzi and Sonny McGann as Alex Campbell.

Publisher's summary

Part one

The Doctor, Cass and Alex land to find out what's causing temporal anomalies with the TARDIS, and come across an uninhabited planet, a mysterious factory, and a weapon so dangerous, it could destroy the Universe. But things go catastrophically wrong…

Part two

The factory has vanished along with the TARDIS, and the formerly uninhabited planet is now fully populated by people who have been here for thousands of years, people who have never heard of the Time War OR Daleks. Something very strange is going on with time itself - and it's running out, fast.

Plot

Part one

After an explosion, the Doctor, Alex and Cass find that the planet that they are on has gone from being entirely uninhabited to resembling Ancient Egypt. They are arrested, learning that the people of the planet are somehow unaware of the Daleks and the Time War, and the Doctor is interrogated by Oshia and Kade, whom he asks to find the TARDIS. When it is Cass's turn to be interrogated, she explains what happened.

The Doctor crash-lands the TARDIS after it proves unable to lock onto any one timeline or materialise at any specific point and is confused by only being with Alex and Cass, believing that a fourth person had been with them. The planet is supposed to be uninhabited, but they find a factory converted from a Dalek ship where the Daleks are using a Battle TARDIS to power temporal interocitors and emergency time-distortion devices and build a retcon bomb; the bomb could create a massive time corridor to rewrite history, which the Doctor says they will have to prevent by imploding the factory. Whilst Alex and Cass distract the Daleks, the Doctor examines the Battle TARDIS and initiates a lockdown when he is caught.

Cass explains that the factory then blew up and that they were arrested, despite the fact that no city or monument had previously been there. Oshia and Kade report to the region's co-coordinator, Davon, who orders them to use torture to force a confession from the Doctor, Alex and Cass so that they can be executed. Davon threatens them into compliance when they show hesitation, but Oshia asks Kade to give her the afternoon to interrogate Alex and avoid having to resort to torture. After Alex's interrogation, he is taken to a room with the Doctor and Cass and Oshia goes to fetch some guards.

The Doctor senses from his key that the TARDIS is not on the planet and scans the area with his sonic screwdriver, determining that they have been thrown a year back in time. He tells Oshia that it was the Daleks who caused the Battle TARDIS to explode, wiping themselves from existence and changing the history of the planet, and that the Dalek ship must be on its way today; the Daleks will exterminate everybody on the planet, build their factory and cause the explosion, creating an endless loop.

Part two

Oshia does not believe the Doctor, but agrees to postpone the execution for an hour to see if the Daleks do arrive. Accompanied by Vellan, the Doctor, Alex and Cass look around the city to plan its defence and Alex realises that the people must be speaking English given that the TARDIS and its translation circuit are a year in the future. The trio also notice that the architecture of the city and the names of its people are "Daleky" and learn that they worship the god Kaledia, who supposedly created the planet out of fire and light. They deduce that life on the planet was created by the explosion of the factory.

The Daleks arrive earlier than expected and exterminate Davon. Oshia comes to accept that the Doctor has to thwart the Daleks, even though it will mean that she and her people will never exist nor be remembered, and helps him capture and hack into a Dalek. He grabs onto the Dalek and uses it to fly to the Dalek ship where he steals the Battle TARDIS. He joins Alex, Cass, Oshia and Kade and says goodbye to the latter two as he triggers the Battle TARDIS's shutdown, which causes Oshia and Kade to vanish partway through his speech.

The TARDIS is working fine and the Doctor and Alex are about to leave when the Doctor feels that they are missing somebody and that there used to be three of them in the ship. They remember Cass, who is nowhere to be found on the planet, in the TARDIS or even in the TARDIS logs. The Doctor promises that they will find her and get her back.

Cast

• The Doctor - Paul McGann
• Cass Fermazzi - Emma Campbell-Jones
• Alex Campbell - Sonny McGann
• Kade - Ian Cunningham
• Oshia - Nadia Albina
• Davon - Gareth Armstrong
• Vellan - Michael Chance
• Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

Worldbuilding

• The TARDIS has a Heisenberg focuser.
• The factory network used temporal interocitors.
• Cass has watched footage of the Daleks in the TARDIS databanks.
• Cass does not know about regeneration.
• The Doctor asks if Vellan's name is related to the word "Movellan".
• Oshia was bullied once at school, but she made them stop.
• The city has previously been invaded by the Razor Mountain Clan.
• The people worship Kaledia, a god who created the planet from light and fire.
• Elvis is the king of rock and roll.

Notes

• Previously, Next Time was recorded in September 2022.

Continuity

• After the Doctor says that he feels that somebody is missing from the TARDIS, Cass says that they will have to live in "blissful ignorance". When he told Hieronyma Friend that he was travelling with Alex, she said that it must be "blissful". (AUDIO: Meanwhile, Elsewhere)
• Alex remembers the Doctor giving him a temporal interocitor. The Doctor gave one to Lucie Miller and his version of Alex. (AUDIO: Lucie Miller)

External links

• Official Previously, Next Time page at bigfinish.com