The Lost Resort (audio story)
The Lost Resort was the first story in the audio anthology The Lost Resort and Other Stories. It was written by AK Benedict and featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka, George Watkins as Marc and Matthew Waterhouse as Adric.
Publisher's summary
Reunited with his companions, the Doctor's plans to travel home to Gallifrey are cast aside when the TARDIS materialises on the Soresia: a planetoid with an unusual temporal atmosphere, home to the Welkin Sanatorium; seemingly an ideal place to recuperate. But the patients – like the Sanatorium – are mere shadows of their former selves. Decay has taken hold... yet their secrets remain as strong and healthy as ever.
Plot
Part 1
The TARDIS materialises on Callanna. Nyssa surprises Tegan by not being excited by its arrival, as she believes that they could have been happy on Callanna, and she and Marc bemoan all of the upcoming danger, running and things that will go unsaid. The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS and says that they should talk.
In the TARDIS, the Doctor says that they will talk when the time is right, prompting Marc to leave for his bedroom and Tegan to complain that they were all falling apart. He sets the coordinates to take them to Gallifrey to talk in a council room with an arbitrator, but they land in the wrong place.
Dr Aether Beauregarde worries about what will happen to Nora Edgecastle when she dies and refuses to allow her to die with her. Fabrico, a robot, arrives and suggests that Aether goes for a walk to deal with her aggression, which Nora encourages her to do.
Tegan cannot bear the smell of sulphur where they have landed and commands Marc, who wishes to stay in the TARDIS, to join her, the Doctor and Nyssa. The Doctor suggests that they are beneath a lagoon where the water is in the air due to technology affected gravity, which Aether confirms when she makes her presence known; they are on Soresia, a planetoid which is home only to the Welkin Sanatorium. The Welkin is a shadow of its former self but Marc wishes to stay to see if he can be cured following his partial cyber-conversion and the Doctor, after being advised to leave by Aether, cannot resist but have a look.
On a jetty high above the lagoon, the travellers admire the view. Aether tells them how dangerous the marsh can be and, when asked, says that she was out foraging due to how crowded the Welkin can get, following the marsh lights. Tegan says that she does not like being above the lagoon and, when Nyssa says that one can trust mathematics (specifically statistics indicating that they are safe), she asks how mathematics worked out for Adric. The Doctor and Nyssa are shocked.
The five board the ferry to the Welkin and are greeted by Fabrico. Fabrico advises them to hold onto the handrail as they travel so as not to be lost to the vapours, a mysterious phenomenon that causes temporal relief and allows the Welkin to treat their patients with more efficacy. Fabrico says that she can detect dis-ease in each of the travellers and indicates that she knows a lot about them, as well as the TARDIS, and that she has the memories of all of the Welkin's patients. When Tegan says that Fabrico's metal face is "creepy", Marc asks if she thinks that he is as well. The Doctor breaks up the bickering.
Viscount Luchino, who talks in the third person, is exercising in the gymnasium with Fabrico when he is put off by his brother, Franco. The Viscount inherited the Welkin and does not listen to Nora when she criticises his manner of speaking; she has joined them in the gym because her walls looked to her like they were melting to the floor. Fabrico tells everybody of the new arrivals and that it is possible that the Doctor will be able to find a cure to a virus that is troubling them. If he cannot, the Viscount says, he and his companions will die just as everyone else will.
The five disembark the ferry, where Fabrico remains as is her job, and see that the building is falling apart. Sylvie and her robot son Thad come looking for Aether and invite her to play a card game, which she agrees to after she has seen Nora. Tegan asks Sylvie she is a ventriloquist and Thad her dummy, prompting the Doctor to quickly apologise for her rudeness. Sylvie invites everyone to tea.
Fabrico welcomes the group to the Welkin, the Doctor surmising that there are multiple Fabricos with shared memories, and shows the Doctor to his room whilst the others wait for other Fabricos to do the same for them. In the Doctor's room is a Wolf-Star Trance Machine, which he says is the next best thing to a Zero Room, and when he hears someone call out to him Fabrico prescribes an hour of Soresian trance. Wanting to close his eyes to everything, he agrees and enters the Trance Machine.
Tegan knocks on Nyssa's door, having spotted water running down it. Aether asks her to be quiet as Nora is asleep and informs her that Nyssa left to analyse the atmosphere some time ago. She makes an offer of tea, but Tegan declines and asks about the source of what sounds like a wailing woman coming from an abandoned part of the hospital, but Aether can provide no explanation. Tegan then asks about Thad and learns that Sylvie lost a son to disease and has been travelling with Thad ever since, bringing him to the Welkin after coming to believe that he too was sick.
Wanting equipment from the TARDIS to analyse the vapours, Nyssa asks Fabrico to take her back to the lido, which she agrees to. Fabrico says that she has seen faces in the vapours before, which Nyssa says is simply pareidolia, something which she would not expect an android to experience. Fabrico finds this rude and says that she might have caught it from the patients or seen faces because she is without one and wants one.
Fabrico prepares to leave Marc in his room, inviting him to croquet on the lido later in the day, when he confronts her, having picked up that there is more going on in her mind that she lets on. He angers her by saying that they both have hearts of metal, a comparison which offends her as he has friends, choices and freedom whilst there are thirty of her and none have any power. She leaves, having a party to prepare.
The Doctor relaxes in his machine and begins to enter a trance before demanding that he be allowed out.
Nora wakes up to find herself alone and asks to speak to Fabrico over a communicator.
Fabrico switches off the Doctor's machine and he asks her if she heard what he had, but she says that the trance must have made him think that his hallucinations were real. She suggests that a bed might be better than the machine, which he says might be the case, and begins to hypnotise him into deep trance.
Nora screams.
As he enters trance, the Doctor lets go of all that haunts him and says that there is no such thing as ghosts. Adric's voice tells him that he is quite wrong about that.
Part 2
to be added
Part 3
to be added
Part 4
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Peter Davison
- Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
- Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding
- Marc - George Watkins
- Adric - Matthew Waterhouse
- Fabrico - Julia Sandiford
- Aether - Anna Barry
- Nora - Alibe Parsons
- Franco / Luchino - Glen McCready
- Sylvie - Chandrika Chevli
- Thad - Clare Louise Connolly
References
Arts and entertainment
- Sylvie asks Aether if she would like to play a hand of Rialto.
Food and drink
- Aether likes humbugs, which she describes as a "mint that never lets you down".
- The Doctor says that he is seasoned with sea salt and thyme/time.
Locations
- The Doctor intends to take Nyssa, Tegan and Marc to Gallifrey to talk in a Council Chamber with a Time Lord Arbitrator.
- Nyssa is reminded of the sunset on Traken.
- Tegan says that the canals of Venice never rocked so much.
- The TARDIS lands in the sulphur lido.
- Fabrico says that the Doctor's synapses will "fire like the Lalatusian Sun as it dies".
Religion and folklore
- Aether follows will o' the wisps, which she calls fool's fire, Marc calls ignis faatus and the Doctor calls marsh lights.
- Marc describes the hospital as a temple to Asclepius.
Science and logic
- Nyssa explains Margyle's knife, which the Doctor likens to Occam's razor. The Doctor claims he once met William of Ockham.
- Nyssa mentions pareidolia, the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.
- Tegan compares the colourful clouds to the lights of the aurora borealis.
Species
- Aether says that she was once like a cat but is now more of a snoxfrom. The Doctor says that the last one he met was not as spritely as Aether.
Technology
- The marsh is full of marsh traps which cause the ground to give way.
- The Doctor uses a Wolf-Star Trance Machine, Third Class. He compares it as the next best thing to the Zero Room.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- The Doctor has recently returned for Nyssa, Tegan and Marc following the events of Madquake.
- Marc mentions his cyber-conversion. (AUDIO: Warzone, Conversion)
- The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan mention Adric's death. Adric mentions that the last thing he remembers was that he was on a freighter. (TV: Earthshock)
- Adric recalls the Fourth Doctor's regeneration and seeing the effects of entropy. (TV: Logopolis)
- The Doctor initially refuses to say goodbye to Adric as a final farewell, only relenting at the end. He would again refuse to say goodbye to River Song in his Eleventh incarnation, saying it was too difficult, before finally saying goodbye. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
- The Doctor states that a Time Lord will always lie when asked their age, potentially explaining the inconsistency with his age over his incarnations.
- Adric notes that he has never heard the Doctor not to go to someone's aid. The Thirteenth Doctor would similarly state "When people need help, I never refuse." (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
- The Twelfth Doctor would also see 'ghosts' of his deceased former companions Clara, Bill and Nardole, who turn out to be avatars of the Testimony. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)
- The Doctor tells Tegan that he is responsible for his companions, especially after Adric's death. He would also swear that he would not allow any of his other companions to die during his fifth incarnation, (PROSE: Goth Opera) and would later assert to Clara Oswald in his Twelfth incarnation that he had a duty of care which he took very seriously. (TV: Under the Lake, The Girl Who Died, Hell Bent)
- The Doctor hated it when people ask him what he is a doctor of, which notably occurred in his Third (TV: Spearhead from Space) and Twelfth incarnation. (TV: Mummy on the Orient Express, Flatline)
- This would not be the first time that illusions of Adric appeared to the Doctor or his companions:
- An illusion of Adric appeared to Nyssa and Tegan to dissuade them from entering Kalid's inner sanctum (TV: Time-Flight)
- The Seventh Doctor found what appeared to be Adric, along with other former companions, alive again and desperate to leave in the TARDIS. He learned that these were actually Gwanzulums, a race of shapeshifters. (COMIC: Planet of the Dead)
- While in a Hell-like world composed of the Seventh Doctor's mind, Ace met an eerie, ghost-like recreation of Adric along with other companions of his who had died because of him. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation)
- In the Divergent Universe, the Eighth Doctor was shown an illusory version of Adric by the Kro'ka. (AUDIO: The Last)
- The Tenth Doctor watched Adric die again as a manifestation of the TARDIS Matrix. (COMIC: The Forgotten)
External links
- Official The Lost Resort page at bigfinish.com
