Sins of the Flesh (audio story)
Sins of the Flesh was the third and final story in the audio anthology Everywhere and Anywhere, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Alfie Shaw and featured Jacob Dudman as the Eleventh Doctor and Safiyya Ingar as Valarie Lockwood.
Publisher's summary
Is your child exhibiting sinful behaviour? Have they set themselves on the road of eternal damnation? Has everything you tried failed? Feel like you’re out of options?
Don't worry. We can help. Bring them to the Rebirth Organisation today. Bring them to be converted.
Plot
Posing as an agent of the Central Investigations Bureau on Alma, the Doctor meets with Robert McIntosh of the Rebirth Organisation, a religious group who are converting people into Cybermen to cure them of their sexuality and claim that the "redemption suits" will fall off over time. Robert introduces him to Alexander Kurz, a Cyberleader who claims to be unfamiliar with the term "Cyberman" and professes his devotion to the divine being Unica, and the two of them explain that the group do not use conversion units nor do the converted lose their individuality.
Valarie joins as a patient and takes part in a group led by McIntosh's converted daughter, Carmen, and speaks up against her homophobia. During the meeting, Harry is inexplicably converted in what Alexander, who takes the Doctor to witness the event, describes as a miracle showing that Unica has forgiven him. The Doctor's sonic screwdriver, however, indicates that the supposed miracle was a show likely disguising a teleport and he tells Valarie that Harry and the other Cybermen are only pretending to have retained their personality.
After breaking into his flat in the TARDIS, the Doctor is caught by Alexander, who claims to have been told of the Doctor's Time Lord identity by Unica and begs for the opportunity to go on with his penitence for violent crimes in his redemption suit. The Doctor points out that his emotional inhibitor is active, however, and flees into the TARDIS when Alexander, whom he hits with a car, attacks him. In the TARDIS, he receives another phone call from the stranger telling him that he is running out of time and begins the process of tracing the call with the Arkheion device.
Carmen and Harry round up Valarie and the others to be converted and Valarie tries to expose the process's inability to change sexuality and by ripping Harry's head off, but Lilly Hartley and the others want to become Cybermen regardless and are teleported away. The Cybermen attempt to assimilate Valarie and find that her cybernetic upgrades are incompatible, so Alexander demands information on her upgrades and forces her to listen to the others' screams. She gives in on the condition that the conversions stop, but once she has done so the conversions continue and she is locked up with Lilly to await the chamber herself. However, she manages to get out and equip Cyber-arms.
The Doctor interrupts a television programme on which the McIntoshes are being interviewed and deactivates Carmen's emotional inhibitor, allowing her to confront her father about his bigotry on live television and give the Doctor the coordinates of the Cybermen's ship before the inhibitor resets. McIntosh is incapable of facing the truth of what he has done and surrenders himself to be upgraded rather than accept the Doctor's help, so the Doctor sabotages the ship's engines and goes back in time several minutes to rescue Valarie, whose Cyber-arms have been taken over. The new Cybermen have been upgraded with elements adapted from Valarie's own, so she is able to "knacker" all of the Cyber-technology and escape into the TARDIS with the Doctor and those yet to be upgraded.
Supporting Lilly, the Doctor and Valarie go with her to confront her father, Jason, and warn him to be a better person if he does not want to lose his daughter. They then return to the TARDIS, where the Doctor tells Valarie about Amy and Rory and how he feels responsible for their separation from their family and friends after they were sent back in time. He does not want to lose Valarie as well. When the Arkheion device gets a lock on the stranger's whereabouts, the Doctor and Valarie head off to confront them and get some answers.
Cast
- The Doctor / Harry - Jacob Dudman
- Valarie Lockwood - Safiyya Ingar
- Cyberleader / The Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs
- Carmen - Maddison Bulleyment
- McIntosh - Sean Connolly
- Lilly - Alexandra D'Sa
- Jason - Brad Shaw
Worldbuilding
- Alexander Kurz is a Cyberman.
- Lilly wants to study at Atherton University.
- Lilly and Irene both applied to Kingsmarch Uni.
- Lilly and Irene once kissed.
- Harry is a patient.
- Valarie studied the Cybermen at university.
- Chester is a television presenter on Wake-Up Call.
- Carmen held Jane's hand.
- Superintendent Leopold Timmins is arrested for suppressing investigation into the Rebirth Organisation.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- The Doctor mentions having met early Cybermen on his travels, a reference to his meetings with them in stories including The Tenth Planet [+]Loading...["The Tenth Planet (TV story)"], Spare Parts [+]Loading...["Spare Parts (audio story)"] and The Silver Turk [+]Loading...["The Silver Turk (audio story)"].
- Valarie is clinging to the hope of an afterlife because of All's Fair [+]Loading...["All's Fair (audio story)"], in which her future self died.
- The Doctor discusses what happened to the Ponds, as occurred in TV: The Angels Take Manhattan [+]Loading...["The Angels Take Manhattan (TV story)"], and losing Clara Oswald, as occurred in TV: The Snowmen [+]Loading...["The Snowmen (TV story)"].
External links
- Official Sins of the Flesh page at bigfinish.com
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
