Eldrad Must Die! (audio story)
Eldrad Must Die! was the first story in the 2013 Fifth Doctor audio trilogy. A sequel to the 1976 Doctor Who television story The Hand of Fear, it allowed Stephen Thorne to reprise his role of Eldrad.
Publisher's summary
"A Doctor, curse his name, threw me down among the dead… but I endure. I am Eldrad… and I must live!"
A nuclear icebreaker, foundering in Arctic waters. Seabirds washed up in the fishing resort of Ambermouth, their wings encrusted with crystals. A shining artefact of uncertain provenance, up for sale on an auction site.
All of these things are linked, as the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough are about to discover. Linked to the rebirth of a genocidal tyrant, presumed dead many years ago…
For the sake of the planets Earth and Kastria alike… Eldrad must die!
Plot
Part One
Aboard Icebreaker Alexander, the crew are evacuating. Charlie Gibbs has accessed the nuclear reactor, with some persuasion he emerges declaring that "Eldrad must die".
Kate Sherrin is about to head home when she spots a bevy of people on the shore of Ambermouth harbour - it is the Fifth Doctor, Tegan Jovanka, Nyssa and Vislor Turlough. The latter two go to look at rock pools while the Doctor and Tegan paddle. The Australian cuts her foot while doing so. Kate comes over and asks the Doctor and Tegan to leave the beach. When she sees the wound, she offers first aid. Turlough and Nyssa find a ganet, dead and covered in silicon quartz. Kate asks that they forget seeing it and secretes it in her car.
The Doctor and his companions go to the Pescadorian for a drink and some food. There, Turlough meets Gibbs, an old friend of his from Brendon Public School, who finds his friends failure to age remarkable. When he leaves, Turlough is quick to claim they were never friends. Gibbs is in contact with someone, who he tells he has secured the Watcher and that Turlough will carry it for them, owing him a favour.
In the bar, the Doctor approaches Bob Gell, to enquire about hiring a boat. He learns that all the fish have died, followed by the bird - gulls, ganets and puffins. Outside, Turlough meets Gibbs again, who claims he is from Trion. He tells Turlough a job is required of him and then attacks him. Turlough hears a voice saying his name, and when regains his senses is with the Doctor. Nyssa finds quartz growing inside her drink.
Together with Nyssa and Tegan, they head to the Ambermouth Seacology Centre, where Kate works. Jim and Kate are working when the Doctor arrives. Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough discover a beluga whale - called Skipper by Kate. It has quartz growing out of it and is being given morphine. Turlough runs away, still hearing voices in his head. Tegan follows him. He finds Gibbs outside. Suddenly the quartz in his watch starts "biting into [him]". Turlough dreams that he is at school, being told that the watch is part of his "new employer's manifestation". He is told not to fight it and, coming to, declares "Eldrad must die".
Part Two
Turlough leaves with Gibbs in his car. Tegan tricks Jim, taking the keys to his jeep as she does so. Nyssa gets in the water with Skipper, claiming the whale is trying to speak. It do so, saying "Eldrad must die". Skipper then dies.
Gibbs is talking to Turlough about school as they drive. He can only reply "Eldrad must die". Turlough is still dreaming about being at school. He meets a teacher who looks like Tegan who tells him to fetch the watcher.
In the Seacology Centre, Kate admits that uranium used to be dumped on the island in the harbour and radiation levels have increased of late. Tegan finds Turlough while he is alone, Gibbs having gone away a moment. She notices that the quartz has spread across his whole hand. He is still dreaming about fetching "dealer" and the "watcher". Turlough's eyes glow and Tegan is incapacitated.
Heading for the island, Nyssa explains to Kate that Kastrians have their "genetic matrix set in stone" allowing them to regenerate from a "tiny fragment", like a lizard. Jim, who is getting the dinghy ready for them to cross, asks Gell for assistance, but then notices his face is covered in crystals. Gell says that the sea will rise and "he will be here", "you will need your armour on". With this, he attacks Jim.
The Doctor and Kate find that several other villagers have their faces covered in crystal - as does Jim. They run back to the Doctor's TARDIS. Turlough and Gibs meet with Rocco, who invites them into his car to complete the deal.
Exiting his TARDIS, the Doctor presents an inflatable dinghy. Suddenly, the beach moves and forms a whirlpool. It swallows the TARDIS. The Doctor, Nyssa and Kate get into the dinghy.
Gibbs pays the money to Rocco and Turlough takes the watcher - an eye of quartz. Rocco says it has a blue glow sometimes. The voice in Turlough's head warns him not to look at the glow and to brink it to her so that Eldrad can die. However, having gazed upon it, Gibbs decides he has been wrong - Eldrad must live. Turlough runs as Gibbs attempts to take the watcher from him. He finds Tegan, whom he calls "dealer", and the two drive off.
In the dinghy, Kate notes that the water is crystallising. It becomes solid and the boat becomes still. The Doctor calls out to Eldrad asking him to converse. The solidified sea splits open and a "quartzberg", as the Doctor labels it, emerges from the ground, a hundred feet tall by the Time Lord's estimate. The Doctor inspects it and believes there is something within. Captain O'Brien calls out. His ship, the Alexander is within the quartzberg. The captain and crew have their faces covered in crystal. The Doctor, Nyssa and Kate go aboard.
An interstellar shuttle is onboard the craft. A woman steps out and tells the Doctor "Eldrad must die, and so must his slaves", with which she attacks him.
Part Three
The woman releases the Doctor, finding him immune to Kastrian mind control. She declares herself to be Mulkris, the executioner. Tegan is driving Turlough back to the Doctor. The crystal is up to his neck now. He is still hearing the voice, that of Mulkris, ordering him to bring the watcher to her. Gibbs catches up with them and rams them off the road.
Mulkris tells the Doctor that King Rokon had her search thousands of worlds for remnants of Eldrad, leading her to Earth. She says her agents are bringing in the part - an eye.
Emerging from the wreckage of the jeep, Tegan offers Gibbs the eye. It leaps and impants itself in his forehead. He then leaves. Feeling the eye upon her, Mulkris suffers what the Doctor calls a psychic seizure. While she is unconscious, the Doctor, Nyssa and Kate explore her shuttle. They find a set of fossilised remains laid out in the silhouette of a man. It is labelled with the description "here, held in a stasis field, lie the gathered mortal silicon remains of Eldrad, architect and destroyer of Kastria". There are parts missing.
With a road block ahead, Tegan and Turlough abandon their jeep and continue on foot. Mulkris has awoken and the Doctor lectures her on the dangers of collecting the fragments given that, with a dose of radioactivity, any part could become a whole Eldrad. The fragments begin to move and the Doctor tells Mulkris she is being used. He explains that Eldrad is all around them and that he has lured Mulkris to the island where the remains have access to radiation. Mulkris refuses to destroy the remains until all have been given, per Rokon's orders. She does not believe the Doctor's claim that Kastria is a dead world.
Gibbs boards the ship and attacks Mulkris declaring that "Eldrad's rebirth begins". Meanwhile, Nyssa and Kate begin to fall under the Kastrian's influence. Gibbs orders that the ship be readied for the restoration of Eldrad. The Doctor tells him the icebreaker lacks the necessary radiation output, but as he explains this, his TARDIS rises from the crystallised sea and Gibbs tells him it will serve as the power source.
Nyssa is trying to open the door to Eldrad's remains using a lattice key. The code she calculates is corrected by the voice of Eldrad in her mind and is accepted. Tegan and Turlough arrive aboard the ship and hear the Doctor being tortured by Gibbs into opening the TARDIS. His obstinancy sees Gibbs resort to using controlled sand to get inside the lock and open the ship. Distracting him with a fire alarm, Turlough and Tegan assist the Doctor to escape.
Mulkris is trying to contact Kastria. Nyssa and Kate approach her and ask her listen to Eldrad. The Doctor also arrives and confirms again that Kastria is death and asks her to destroy the fragments. Gibbs enters and says that Eldrad will build a new Kastria in his own image. Mulkris threatens him with a dart of the poison Eldrad created. However, he turns it on her and, dying, she asks the Doctor to complete her mission and tells Eldrad he is alone. Mulkris bequeaths her genetic ring to the Doctor. He uses it to vaporise the remains in stasis, but the eye still exists. Gibbs declares that Eldrad's growth continues and he will become the Earth.
Part Four
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Peter Davison
- Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding
- Turlough - Mark Strickson
- Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
- Eldrad - Stephen Thorne
- Mulkris - Nancy Carroll
- Charlie Gibbs - Pip Torrens
- Kate Sherrin/Waitress - Jessica Claire
- Bob Gell/Captain O'Brien - Brian Protheroe
- Jim/Lt Parker/Rocco - Mark Field
References
- Charlie Gibbs was one of Turlough's classmates in Brendon Public School in 1983.
- Charlie tells Turlough that he is also an exile from Trion and that his family supported the opposing faction in the civil war.
- All Kastrians seem to have genetic rings.
- Other parts of Eldrad survived his obliteration and seem to be aware of each other. Despite this, the older and newer Eldrads are different and do not seem to be psychically linked.
Notes
- This story was recorded on 11 and 12 December 2012 at The Moat Studios.
- The title of this audio alludes to "Eldrad must live", a declaration spoken in The Hand of Fear.
Continuity
- Eldrad was first encountered by the Fourth Doctor, who doubted the fall on Kastria killed him. (TV: The Hand of Fear)
- Turlough and Charlie discuss their time at Brendon Public School. (TV: Mawdryn Undead)
- The two incarnations of Eldrad are different individuals but are both still Eldrad, similar to the Older and Younger Processes who fought each other in the SARDIT. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)
External links
- Official Eldrad Must Die! page at bigfinish.com
