The Five Companions (audio story)

The Five Companions (audio story)

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The Five Companions
Doctor:	[[doctor::Fifth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Ian Chesterton (guest) Steven Taylor (guest) Sara Kingdom (guest) Polly Wright (guest) Nyssa (guest)
Main enemy:	The Daleks The Sontarans
Main setting:	An alternative Death Zone, Gallifrey, the Rassilon Era
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::Big Finish]]
Writer:	Eddie Robson
Release details
Release number:	X
Release date:	December 2011

The Five Companions was Big Finish's subscriber-free release for 2011.

Publisher's summary

Inside a cluster of fused-together derelict spaceships, four of the Doctor's oldest friends - and one of his newest ones - are lost and confused. They don't know how they got there or what they're meant to be doing - but as the place is infested with Daleks, Sontarans and dinosaurs, their first priority is staying alive.

To their collective relief, the Doctor turns up and has a reasonable idea of what's going on. If the six of them work together, they can escape this place and get home. But, unexpectedly, others may be working together to ensure they all die here...

Cast

• Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
• Ian Chesterton - William Russell
• Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
• Sara Kingdom - Jean Marsh
• Polly Wright - Anneke Wills
• Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
• The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs
• Sontarans - Dan Starkey

References

• Steven encountered the Sontarans when one of their scout ships crashed on the Elders' planet several years earlier. This experience taught him that a Sontaran could be incapacitated by striking their probic vent in his personal timeline.
• A Tyrannosaurus rex is transported to the alternative Death Zone, where it proceeds to kill several Daleks before itself being exterminated.
• The Doctor tells Polly that he tended not to refer to himself as a Time Lord during his first and second incarnations as he was then on the run from his people.
• Of the eponymous five companions, Nyssa is the only one who never travelled with the First Doctor.
• When the Doctor mentions to Polly that he is attempting to get into contact with the Capitol, she mistakenly believes that he is referring to the record label of the same name. He informs her that it is, in actuality, the seat of the Time Lords' power on Gallifrey.
• Before being returned to their proper places in history, the five companions all accept that the Doctor will not be able to keep his promise to check up on them and that they will very likely never see him again.

Notes

• This is a special release given away to Big Finish subscribers who have BFA: Army of Death as part of their subscription.
• Dan Starkey previously played numerous other Sontarans in the revived series, namely Commander Skorr and Lieutenant Skree in DW: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky, Commander Jask in DW: The End of Time and Commander Strax in DW: A Good Man Goes to War.
• This marks the first time that Peter Purves and Anneke Wills have reprised their roles as Steven Taylor and Polly Wright respectively for Big Finish outside of the Companion Chronicles range. Similarly, it is the first time that William Russell has reprised his role as Ian Chesterton in a full cast Big Finish audio drama.
• The Fifth Doctor is the only character to appear in both this story and DW: The Five Doctors.

Continuity

• This audio takes place during the events of DW: The Five Doctors. The Fifth Doctor is diverted to an alternative Death Zone after using the Master's transmat recall device and discovers that some of his other companions have ended up there as well.
• Ian and Steven previously met in the Mechanoid City on Mechanus in the 23rd century. (DW: The Chase)
• Ian sets a trap for a Dalek by placing a sheet of metal on the floor in the hopes of disrupting the static electricity supply by which they are powered and subsequently disguises himself as a Dalek. He previously did both of these during his first encounter with them on Skaro. (DW: The Daleks)
• Ian, Steven, Sara, Polly and Nyssa have all previously encountered the Daleks. (DW: The Daleks, DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, DW: The Chase, DW: The Daleks' Master Plan, DW: The Power of the Daleks, BFA: The Mutant Phase, BFA: Renaissance of the Daleks, BFA: Plague of the Daleks, BFA: The Elite)
• The Sontarans have records of all the Doctor's incarnations. They recognise the Fifth Doctor from their encounter with him on Samur. (BFA: Heroes of Sontar)
• The Doctor initially believes that he and his former companions are trapped in an artificial construct which has been created by the Master. (DW: The Five Doctors)
• Nyssa would later encounter the Fifth Doctor in her mind shortly before his regeneration into the Sixth Doctor. (BFA: Winter) Later still in her personal timeline, she would meet the Fourth Doctor in 3488 (PDA: Asylum) and subsequently re-joined the Fifth Doctor as one of his companions (BFA: Cobwebs). From the Doctor's perspective, both of these events have already happened.
• This is the Doctor's first encounter with each of his companions since they left the TARDIS. (DW: The Chase, DW: The Daleks' Master Plan, DW: The Savages, DW: The Faceless Ones, DW: Terminus) With the exception of Nyssa, they do not know that the Doctor is a Time Lord nor are they familiar with the concept of regeneration. Even Polly, who witnessed the Doctor's regeneration into his second incarnation, remains uncertain of the process. (DW: The Tenth Planet)
• The Doctor tells Ian that he had intended to visit him several months earlier. This is a reference to the original plans for DW: Mawdryn Undead which had envisaged Ian taking the part ultimately allocated to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
• Ian has gone out of retirement to take up teaching again and is married to Barbara Wright. Polly is married to Ben Jackson. She comments that the Doctor never thought that they would last as a couple. This would appear to contradict ST: Mondas Passing, in which they are said to have both married other people, as well as CC: The Forbidden Time, in which Polly states that they saw each other only occasionally.
• Polly sarcastically claims that making coffee was usually her main contribution to the proceedings. (DW: The Tenth Planet, DW: The Moonbase)
• The Doctor refers to Polly challenging the Cyber-Leader Krail in the Snowcap in December 1986 (DW: The Tenth Planet) and destroying a squadron of Cybermen on the Moonbase in 2070 (DW: The Moonbase).
• Commander Skaal refers to the Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey. (DW: The Invasion of Time)
• The Doctor tells his former companions that, after being returned to their respective native eras by the Time Lords, their memories of their experiences in the alternative Death Zone may be hazy. This could account for the fact that Sarah Jane Smith did not remember the events of DW: The Five Doctors when she was reunited with the Doctor, then in his tenth incarnation, in DW: School Reunion.
• The fact that Ian is an elderly man would seem to disprove the rumour, as related by Sarah Jane to her friends Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra in 2010, that he and Barbara have not aged since the 1960s. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)

Timeline

• The Five Companions occurs during DW: The Five Doctors