The End (11DC audio story)
The End was the third and final story in the audio anthology Geronimo!, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Rochana Patel and featured Jacob Dudman as the Eleventh Doctor and Safiyya Ingar as Valarie Lockwood.
Publisher's summary
Valarie/The Doctor is dying. Only the Doctor/Valarie can save Valarie/the Doctor, but for her/him to survive, the Doctor/Valarie will have to die in her/his place.
For the Doctor/Valarie, this is journey's end.
Plot
Valarie hurries the Doctor, who is going into cardiac arrest, onto a medibed where Luna tries to help him. However, the computer declares that he has died. / The Doctor hurries Valarie, who is going into cardiac arrest, onto a medibed where he and Luna try to help him. However, the computer declares that she has died.
Luna tells Valarie to ignore the computer and uses a medibot to take over the functions of the Doctor's secondary heart, reviving him. He is still being attacked by a toxin, however, and Luna informs Captain Vega of the presence of the two travellers on the ship. / Luna uses a medibot to take over the functions of Valarie's heart, reviving her but requiring her to remain sedated. She is still being attacked by a toxin, however, and an alarm sounds due to the two travellers being on the ship.
Captain Vega and Delphine arrive at the medbay and are shown the two red marks on the back of the Doctor's neck, looking like a bite from a parasite. Valarie takes Delphine to the TARDIS in the cow pens whilst the Doctor remains with Luna and Captain Vega. / Captain Vega arrives at the medbay and is shown the bite mark on the back of Valarie's neck. The Doctor intends to go to the cow pens to find the parasite responsible, but Captain Vega stands in the way and receives a call from Delphine, who is in the engine room with a creature which bites and immobilises her. The Doctor and Captain Vega head to the pens.
Valarie and Delphine examine the cows, which are bound for the newly-independent Earth, bought by the Shadow Proclamation for basically nothing after the previous owner deemed it a bad investment. The Doctor joins them, followed by the protesting Luna, and detects something in the engine room with his sonic screwdriver. / The Doctor and Captain Vega find Delphine in the engine room with a bite smaller than that on Valarie, indicating that there are at least two creatures on board. They hear skittering in the pipes above them and the Doctor uses his screwdriver to lock the door, trapping the creature inside with them.
The Doctor finds an egg sac in the engine room and Luna takes a sample from one of the embryos, after which the mother creature attacks and bites her before disappearing from reality. Although they are able to get Luna out, she goes into cardiac arrest and dies. / Captain Vega finds an egg sac and the Doctor takes a sample from one of the embryos.
Delphine calls Captain Vega and tells him about Luna. Valarie has been bitten on her cybernetic arm and is thus unharmed. She enters the TARDIS with the Doctor, who runs a DNA analysis and identifies the creatures as time spiders, believed to have been wiped out by the Time Lords. The TARDIS can produce an antivenom, but it will take twelve days and the TARDIS is unable to dematerialise due to the time spiders. / The eggs hatch and the Doctor and Captain Vega flee from the hundreds of time spiders and return to the medbay where Luna is pessimistic about Valarie's chances of survival. Valarie gives her permission to be put into cryogenic stasis to await a cure. The Doctor tells Captain Vega that he wants to blow up the ship.
The Doctor brings Captain Vega and Delphine into the TARDIS and loses control of his legs. Valarie suggests that they flood the reactor chamber and goes with Delphine to see if it would be possible. / The Doctor plans to put Valarie, Captain Vega and Luna into an escape pod to send them away from the blast radius of the ship once it detonates.
Valarie and Delphine open the bulkhead, guided by the Doctor who is using a communicator from the TARDIS. / The Doctor and Captain Vega sneak around the sleeping spiderlings to reach the coolant.
Valarie and Delphine redirect the coolant and Captain Vega is bitten, allowing the two of them to make a run for the release valve. Delphine reaches it but is bitten by the mother which then sits by the valve, keeping Valarie from reaching it. / The mother sits at the entrance to the engine room and attacks Captain Vega, standing on his body to keep the Doctor from entering.
to be completed
Cast
- The Doctor - Jacob Dudman
- Valarie Lockwood - Safiyya Ingar
- Vega - Paul Panting
- Delphine / Computer - Jo Castleton
- Luna - Pepter Lunkuse
References
- The ship docked at the Orion Shipyard.
- Luna is a medtech. Captain Vega trained as one.
- The cows include Buttercup, Cupcake, Daisy and Ermintrude.
- Delphine looks for Jeznox worms. The Doctor says that they are "horrible bitey things".
- The Shadow Proclamation recently bought Earth and made it independent again.
- The Doctor says that he speaks Cow telepathically.
- Time spiders belong to the chrono arachne genus, supposedly wiped out along with their natural predators by the Time Lords in their early days of exploring the Time Vortex. The Doctor recalls legends of them weaving the Web of Time.
- The TARDIS Cloister Bell tolls.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- The Doctor says that he needs better kidneys. Upon regenerating into the Twelfth Doctor, he remarks upon his new kidneys. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
- The Doctor suggests Totter's Lane 1963 as where he first ran into trouble. (TV: An Unearthly Child)
- The Doctor has seen the destruction of the TARDIS destroy the universe. (TV: The Big Bang)
External links
- Official The End page at bigfinish.com
