Storm Warning (audio story)
Storm Warning was the sixteenth monthly Doctor Who audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. Released in January 2001, this was the first audio story to feature Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, his first time reprising the role in a full cast story since the 1996 television movie, which was his first on-screen appearance as the Doctor.
Publisher's summary
October, 1930. His Majesty's Airship, the R101, sets off on her maiden voyage to the farthest-flung reaches of the British Empire, carrying the brightest lights of the Imperial fleet. Carrying the hopes and dreams of a breathless nation.
Not to mention a ruthless spy with a top-secret mission, a mysterious passenger who appears nowhere on the crew list, a would-be adventuress destined for the Singapore Hilton... and a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.
There's a storm coming. There's something unspeakable — something with wings, crawling across the stern. Thousands of feet high in the blackening sky, the crew of the R101 brace themselves. When the storm breaks, their lives won't be all that's at stake...
The future of the galaxy will be hanging by a thread.
Plot
Part 1
In the TARDIS, the Doctor tries to find the TARDIS manual in the library, but comes across Frankenstein and a signed first edition of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. Suddenly, while in the time vortex, a time ship continually crashes. The Doctor watches and sees a flock of vortisaurs, but the Doctor pilots the TARDIS forward. He pilots the TARDIS out of the time loop, but the vortisaurs approach the TARDIS.
In October 1930, British airship R101 flies to Karachi. Onboard, Lieutenant-Colonel Frayling is worried about the designs from his design team by Lord Tamworth, Minister of the Air and that the speed of the R101 will compromise its worthiness. However, Tamworth refuses to explain the speed as well as the sealed compartments, including an unnamed passenger in cabin 43. Suspicious, Tamworth sends his valet, Rathbone, to check on the health of the passenger of cabin 43. As Rathbone heads for the deck, he runs into Chief Steward Weeks and orders a pot of coffee for later. Rathbone doesn’t notice that Weeks is escorting someone to the smoking room. It is then revealed that the person Weeks is escorting is a stowaway, who is impersonating Simon Murchford, who is still in Cardington. The stowaway is revealed to be Charlotte Pollard.
Frayling informs Tamworth that a storm is approaching, but Tamworth refuses to listen and continues the voyage and says that they will make their arrival in an hour. Suddenly, a sound is heard from the outside and the R101 shakes. Charley’s disguise is blown in the process and confesses to Frayling that she got Murchford drunk and decided to take his place on the R101 for the sake of adventure. Charley then breaks away and runs. Tamworth sends Weeks to kill her quietly to ensure the mission’s success just when Tamworth hears something outside of the airship.
The Doctor is onboard the R101 as well and hears breathing noises in cabin 43. He uses one of Conan Doyle’s stethoscopes to overhear Rathbone to shut his charge with an injection. Suddenly, Charley runs into the Doctor, who then helps her hide, delighted by the fact that he met a new friend. Weeks gives up looking for Charley and Charley decides to go with the Doctor, but is unsure about his eccentricity and the fact that he has met Lenin, Geronimo and Empres Alexandra. The Doctor then tells Charley that his time machine fell out of the airship and is trying to locate it, but Charley is skeptical. Charley then tells the Doctor that they are onboard the R101 and is now over northern France. Horrified, the Doctor remarks that if he remembers his history, the R101 will crash.
Meanwhile in cabin 43, Rathbone hears the scratching at the porthole and peeks through. Suddenly, something bursts through the door and grabs him.
Cast
- The Doctor - Paul McGann
- Charley Pollard - India Fisher
- Lord Tamworth - Gareth Thomas
- Lt-Col Frayling - Nicholas Pegg
- Rathbone - Barnaby Edwards
- Chief Steward Weeks - Hylton Collins
- Triskele - Helen Goldwyn
References
The Doctor
- The Doctor finds a signed first edition of the Agatha Christie novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd on board his TARDIS. He played Tiddlywinks with Tsarina Alexandra and later with Vladimir Lenin on an overnight train from Switzerland to Petrograd. He has also met Geronimo.
- The Doctor states that he learnt to ride Vortisaurs bareback at the Academy.
Notes
- The theme arrangement was composed by David Arnold, who has composed a wide range of impressive film scores, such as Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla, Hot Fuzz, Paul and Sherlock. (David Arnold's IMDB page)
- The 2001 Eighth Doctor audio drama covers carry the Doctor Who logo in copper. The BBC only noticed this halfway through the season, and were not happy. Gary Russell persuaded them to let Big Finish keep the logo for these four plays, if he promised never to use them again.[source needed]
- Although the events portrayed are based on an actual occurrence, all of the characters involved are fictional.
- The Doctor states several times that there were no survivors of the R101 crash. In actuality, eight people survived the crash itself. Two of these individuals later died from injuries sustained in the crash, bringing the total number of survivors to six.
- As the first Eighth Doctor audio drama, this was also the first Big Finish audio drama to take after the events of TV: Doctor Who, then the most recent televised appearance of the Doctor.
- This audio drama was recorded on 18 May 2000 at The Moat Studios.
- An illustrated preview of this story appeared in DWM 300 illustrated by Lee Sullivan.
Continuity
- According to AUDIO: Terror Firma, the Eighth Doctor had numerous adventures prior to this story. During this time, he travelled with siblings Samson and Gemma Griffin as well as Mary Shelley (AUDIO: Mary's Story, et al)
- Although this story depicts the Doctor's first supposed meeting with Charley, it is later revealed that, earlier in his personal timeline, she had not only met but became a companion of the Sixth Doctor (AUDIO: The Condemned to AUDIO: Blue Forgotten Planet). The fact that Doctor does not recognise her later in his timeline was due to his memories of travelling with Charley being supplanted by fabricated memories of travelling with Mila. (AUDIO: Blue Forgotten Planet) Still earlier, in an alternative timeline, the Fourth Doctor met both his eighth incarnation and Charley while he was travelling with Leela. On that occasion, he was very impressed by Charley, telling her that he considered her to be very clever. However, he lost all memory of this encounter when the proper timeline was restored. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
- The Vortisaur known as Ramsay stays in the TARDIS until AUDIO: Minuet in Hell.
- In the far future, radio broadcasts concerning the launch of the R101 could be accessed via the Gogglebox inside the Moon. (AUDIO: The Reaping, AUDIO: The Gathering)
- The Doctor recalls his encounter with Mary Shelley and Lord Byron near Lake Geneva in Switzerland in June 1816. (AUDIO: Mary's Story)
- The Doctor finds a copy of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd which is missing its last page. This would later be revealed to have been a birthday present from his former companion Samson Griffin. (AUDIO: Terror Firma)
- The Doctor mentions that he was onboard the RMS Lusitania when it sank on 7 May 1915. (AUDIO: The Sirens of Time)
- In an alternative timeline in which the Nazis won World War II, an alternative version of the Eighth Doctor likewise used the alias "Johann Schmidt." (AUDIO: Colditz, AUDIO: Klein's Story)
- The Doctor compares the R101 to the Sandminer Storm Mine 4 (TV: The Robots of Death) and the Hyperion III (TV: Terror of the Vervoids).
- The Doctor mentions that he was in South Africa during the Second Boer War and met several Afrikaans. (PROSE: Players)
- Charley would later tell the Doctor that she stowed away on the R101 in order to meet a young man named Alex Grayle in the Singapore Hilton on New Year's Eve 1930. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear)
- At the time that she boarded the R101, Charley was attending a finishing school run by Miss Lime. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
- The R101 was launched from the Cardington airbase. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
- Suffering from survivor's guilt after the crash of the R101, Simon Murchford later became an Anglican minister in the hopes of reconciling his guilt. (AUDIO: The Next Life) He succeeded Reverend Matthew Townsend as the Cardington airbase's chaplain following his death in 1951. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
- Charley would later be haunted by the expression on Rathbone's face as he fell from the R101 to his death. Although he was the first of many people who attempted to kill her, she was eventually unable to even remember his name. (AUDIO: The Next Life)
- The Pollards' cook Edith Thompson was the only person who knew that Charley intended to stowaway aboard the R101 and helped her to prepare for the adventure. (AUDIO: The Fall of the House of Pollard)
- Lord Richard Pollard spent years researching the R101 and can name everyone onboard from Lord Tamworth to "the lowliest cabin boy." Several letters mentioned a rendezvous with a foreign power but he was never able to get to the bottom of it. (AUDIO: The Fall of the House of Pollard)
External links
- Official Storm Warning page at bigfinish.com
- Storm Warning at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for Storm Warning at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
