Tick-Tock World (audio story)
- You may be looking for the titular planet.
Tick-Tock World was the second audio story in the anthology The First Doctor Adventures: Volume Three. It was written by Guy Adams and featured David Bradley as the First Doctor, Claudia Grant as Susan Foreman, Jemma Powell as Barbara Wright and Jamie Glover as Ian Chesterton.
This story is notable for featuring Carole Ann Ford, the original actor for Susan, as a guest star.
Publisher's summary
When disaster befalls the TARDIS, its occupants find themselves in a bizarre location, somewhere between space and time.
Desperate survivors hide among ruins, greedy scavenging creatures hunt new prey, and ghosts scream out warnings across time.
All the while, a mysterious woman watches the TARDIS crew, knowing, as sure as tock follows tick, that a terrible fate awaits them...
Plot
The Graveyard World (1)
No sooner has the TARDIS flown away from Carthage, the console begins sparking, the ship's power being overridden by something nearby. As more hardware explodes, the Doctor scrambles to course correct, shoving aside his companions' attempt to render aid, but can ultimately do nothing as the TARDIS is drawn to a nearby planet and makes a crash landing.
Coming to, Ian, Barbara and Susan inexplicably find themselves in a ruined wasteland, unable to recall how they exited the TARDIS or what happened to the Doctor. Hearing the sound of the ship's engines however, they run after it, catching a fleeting image of a ghostly TARDIS. Susan explains to her teachers that that was a temporal shift, a version of the TARDIS slightly in the past or the future. Examining their surroundings, the three briefly wonder if the ash might be radioactive fallout before Barbara and Susan point out the oddity of the buildings. A mixture of architectural styles that were all stacked next to each other without any consideration for their neighbours. Before moving off, the three hear an odd ticking sound.
As they continue to walk, the three hear a shout aimed at them before they encounter another temporal shift. Susan elaborates, saying that time travel is different from space travel in that only the past destination is fixed. If a time traveller isn't careful, they can jump time tracks into one of the unfulfilled potentials, leaving them unable to properly synchronise with their destination, at least not right away. And the temporal shifts are the worst possible scenario.
Passing by another building, the three see a group of shadows in panic. Though Susan is confident that the temporal echoes can't see or hear them, Ian points out one that is clearly motioning to them. Perturbed by Susan's claims, the echo vanishes, leaving Ian to comment on how familiar she seemed.
Hearing the TARDIS noise again leads them to the prone form of the Doctor, mourning the loss of his beloved ship, with his last act being to allow them all to escape. Needing time to mourn, the Doctor steps away from the group. Sitting in the ruins, Ian and Barbara come to terms with a scenario they knew was always possible, but never wanted to accept: They are never going home.
Searching for her grandfather, Susan comes across the temporal echo from before, finally conceding that she can see and hear Susan. As Susan vents her worries about the Doctor's mental state to the echo, the Doctor pops up. After freeing himself from Susan's crushing hug, the Doctor examines the echo while Susan hears the ticking sound again. As the two Time Lords take their leave, the echo imparts one word onto Susan: "Xesto".
As the Doctor returns to Ian and Barbara, Susan runs up and imparts the echo's warning before the second echo then appears, revealed as none other than Ian. The future Ian warns the four that they must leave this place. Or else this will be the day that they die.
The Time Ship (2)
to be added
Death in Time (3)
to be added
Feast of the Xesto (4)
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - David Bradley
- Barbara Wright - Jemma Powell
- Ian Chesterton - Jamie Glover
- Susan - Claudia Grant
- Woman - Carole Ann Ford
- Nocta - Belinda Lang
- Horl - Mina Anwar
- Katta - Susie Emmett
References
- "Relative" in TARDIS refers to the time traveller's relative past and future.
- The Doctor suspects the planet to be in or near Cleaver's Square, a galaxy "some considerable way" from Mutter's Spiral.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- Ian notes the unlikeliness of someone leaving them an anti-radiation drug. (TV: The Daleks)
- Susan recalls how she and the Doctor lost everything when they left Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Beginning)
- Susan mentions Reapers and Chronovores as examples of creatures that essentially "eat" time. (TV: Father's Day, The Time Monster)
- Susan remembers Ian and Barbara caring enough about her to follow her home from school. (TV: An Unearthly Child)
- The Doctor notes that he is a complicated space/time event, (TV: Journey's End) and how his premature death could have great consequences. (TV: Turn Left, The Name of the Doctor, Twice Upon a Time)
- The Third Doctor at one point deliberately removes the TARDIS console from the ship to operate on its own solo power supply in an attempt to escape his exile. (TV: Inferno)
- The Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald will also experience an event where they erase the destruction of the TARDIS by sending a message back to their past selves. (TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS)
External links
- Official Tick-Tock World page at bigfinish.com
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