Crime of the Century (audio story)
Crime of the Century was the fourth story release in the second series of The Lost Stories, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was adapted by Andrew Cartmel, from the original script by Ben Aaronovitch, and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace and introduced Beth Chalmers as Raine Creevy.
This story was originally intended to be the third story of the original Season 27, but was cancelled along with other planned stories when Doctor Who itself was cancelled in 1989.
Publisher's summary
The year is 1989. In London, safe cracker Raine Creevy breaks into a house — and finds more than the family jewels.
In the Middle East, the kingdom of Sayf Udeen is being terrorised by Soviet invaders and alien monsters.
And on the Scottish border, a highly guarded facility contains an advanced alien weapon.
These are all part of the Doctor's masterplan. But masterplans can go awry...
Plot
Part one
In October 1989, Raine Creevy goes to a party and, watched by a guest whom she gives a spiked maraschino cherry, cracks her way into a safe and finds the Doctor waiting inside. He knew to wait for her there because he read her diary, although she has not yet written an entry on this night, and tells her where the black pearl necklace that she was hired to rob is. Before they can get off the property, the alarm sounds and they flee, throwing black pepper into the eyes of the dogs; upon getting away, Raine abandons the Doctor in her car.
Ace gets the attention of Markus Creevy, sat in his car, and reminds him of how they met in Russia in the 1960s. She tells him that the Doctor wants his help, but he refuses until she warns him that eleven or twelve CID men are in the warehouse he is watching. He calls off the operation to steal antique coins worth £30,000 and invites Ace into his car; she asks him to use his connections in the Middle East to get her into Kafiristan, a country at war, and provide her with guns, maps, vodka and other supplies. They drive away upon hearing sirens.
Several nights later, Raine waits in the cold for her buyer and lifts a sword which feels warm and natural in her hand. She is only able to put down thanks to the Doctor, who arrives and reveals that he is her client, having hired her to steal several items obtained illicitly to be returned to their rightful owner. He tells her that the sword is Martian and that a device she has is a human transponder. A man approaches, having found Raine using the transponder, and intends to take the treasures back.
Ace travels with Lieutenant Nikitin to Kafiristan by a terrain vehicle before going by foot. They come across wrecked vehicles which Nikitin tells her are rumoured by the tribes to have been attacked by demons. Ace suggests that they have a closer look, but Colonel Maxim Alexandrovitch Felnikov and soldiers of the People's Army, to which Nikitin belongs, stop her and prepare to execute her.
to be completed
Part two
to be added
Part three
to be added
Part four
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
- Ace - Sophie Aldred
- Raine Creevy - Beth Chalmers
- Markus Creevy - Ricky Groves
- Nikitin / Parvez - Derek Carlyle
- Colonel Maxim Alexandrovitch Felnikov / Party Guest / Waiter - John Albasiny
- Metatraxi / Walnuf / Gunman - John Banks
- Prince Sayf Udeen / Valentin - Chris Porter
References
- Raine keeps a diary.
- Raine drinks a Manhattan.
- Raine obtained a stethoscope from a medical student she met at a party in Holland Park.
- Raine has a jar of maraschino cherries.
- Raine learnt some safecracking skills from somebody that her father knew.
- Markus lost a lot of his money on Black Monday, the biggest financial meltdown since the Wall Street Crash.
- The Doctor gets ground black pepper from the kitchen.
- Kafiristan is best known for its uses of goat skin.
- The People's Army of Kafiristan defeated insurgents.
- Nikitin is an interpreter.
- The Doctor claims that dolphins are "one of the few sentient species" on Earth.
Notes
- This audio drama was recorded on 13 and 14 April 2010 at the Moat Studios.
- It was released on 18 May 2011.[1]
- Raine Creevy is based on Raine Cunningham, the companion who was intended to come after Ace in the then-unproduced Season 27. A feature in DWM 255 gave the character the name Kate Tollinger, but according to an interview with script editor Andrew Cartmel in DWM 433, the character was always going to be named Raine. The character has been renamed Raine Creevy, as Cartmel had since discovered someone of the name Raine Cunningham existed in real life.
- Notably, this story deliberately does not give the identity of the British Prime Minister in 1989 in the Doctor Who universe. In reality, it was Margaret Thatcher, who served in that office continuously from 4 May 1979 to 28 November 1990. This contrasts with several other audio dramas based in the 1980s, including The Ultimate Adventure (in which she is featured as a character) and Rat Trap (in which she is mentioned several times). The latter was released in June 2011, only one month after the release of Thin Ice.
Continuity
- Raine Creevy was delivered by the Doctor in the Soviet Union on 7 November 1967 (AUDIO: Thin Ice), almost twenty-two years before the events of this story. From the Doctor's perspective, those events occurred immediately before his encounter with the adult Raine on 13 October 1989.
- The Doctor and Ace previously met Markus Creevy and the then-Major Felnikov in Moscow in November 1967. Both Creevy and Felnikov take some time to realise that Ace is the same girl whom they had last seen more than two decades earlier, having not aged a day in the interim. (AUDIO: Thin Ice)
- Ace refers to her home of Perivale. (TV: Ghost Light, TV: Survival)
- Ace mentions that she has previously had bad experiences in caves. (TV: Dragonfire, TV: Battlefield)
- Ace hates being called "small." (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
- Felnikov calls Ace "tovarishch", a Russian word meaning comrade or friend or ally. The Fenric-possessed Captain Sorin also called her tovarishch. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
Footnotes
External links
- Official Crime of the Century page at bigfinish.com
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