Stage Fright (audio story)
- You may be looking for the Confidential episode.
Stage Fright was the third full cast audio story in the The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure audio anthology released in 2015 by Big Finish Productions.
Publisher's summary
The Doctor and Flip visit Victorian London, where investigators Jago and Litefoot explore theatrical performances that have echoes of the Doctor's past lives...
Plot
The story opens on the Valeyard staging a theatre play about a group of people experiencing their friend dying. He explains that he will himself be playing the dying man and then goes on to instruct the actors, Susie, Sylvie, and Tommy, in their roles. During all this a weird machine keeps humming in the background. As the Valeyard lays out the scene, Sylvie interrupts him with questions, noticing that another actor, Johnny, has mysteriously disappeared since the first rehearsal, but the Valeyard responds that it is normal for actors to come and go, and she accepts the explanation though she still finds it strange. She then asks about the plot of the play, pointing out that when she rehearsed it alone with the Valeyard it was about man dying from being poisoned, but now it has changed to be about a man dying after falling from a great height, to which the Valeyard answers that the final act is always the most important one and sometimes you have to rewrite it several times to get it right. He then asks everyone to take their places and begin the rehearsal. It soon becomes clear that the scene is actually an re-enactment of the Fourth Doctor's regeneration, though with slightly altered lines. As the actors play their roles and begs the Doctor not to die, the strange machine begins humming with increasing insensitivity, and soon the actors starts screaming in extreme agony
more to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Colin Baker
- Flip Jackson - Lisa Greenwood
- Henry Gordon Jago - Christopher Benjamin
- George Litefoot - Trevor Baxter
- Ellie Higson - Lisa Bowerman
- The Valeyard - Michael Jayston
- Susie/Sylvie - Andree Bernard
- Bella - Lizzie Roper
References
- Flip saw a Jack the Ripper exhibition at the London Dungeon.
- Baker Street is being extended.
- Flip was forced to perform on stage at school in Year 3 aged 8 and was very shy about it.
- Flip compares the Prydonian Chapter to the houses of Hufflepuff and Slytherin in Harry Potter.
- The Doctor explains the concept of regeneration to Flip.
- Flip compares the difference between the Doctor and the Valeyard to that between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the Star Wars film franchise, representing light and dark.
- Flip likes Jar Jar Binks.
- Jago and Litefoot recall a book, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, that was released recently, and suggest it needs a theatre revival.
Notes
- This story was recorded at The Moat Studios.
Continuity
- The Valeyard performs scenes of the Doctor's past regenerations on stage at the theatre company: a frail man, a trial with a computer genius and a Scotsman, giant spiders in an army base, falling from a great height, and being poisoned. (TV: The Tenth Planet, The War Games, Planet of the Spiders, Logopolis, The Caves of Androzani) More theatrical versions of dialogue originally spoken in these stories are presented here.
- Jago and Litefoot recall previously meeting the Doctor with a different face. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang, AUDIO: The Justice of Jalxar)
- The Valeyard uses the pseudonym of Timothy Yardvale, which both recalls the name he previously used. (AUDIO: The End of the Line)
External links
- Official Stage Fright - The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure page at bigfinish.com
