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The Church and the Crown was the thirty-eighth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright and featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown and Caroline Morris as Erimem.
It was, broadly, a historical examination of the era of The Three Musketeers, although it featured original musketeers rather than those created by Alexandre Dumas.
It featured Erimem's first journey in the TARDIS and her second display of field-of-battle heroism. As with several other historicals in the first five years of Big Finish's main Doctor Who line, it was a so-called "pure" historical without any science fiction elements aside from the TARDIS.
It also gave Nicola Bryant an expanded acting opportunity, since it featured her as both Peri and Queen Anne. Like Romana I before her in The Androids of Tara, Peri had an exact doppelgänger in a royal family.
Publisher's summary
A nation divided...
A Queen's life at risk...
A net of conspiracy closing in...
Sometimes being a time travelling adventurer just isn't easy...
For a start there's a temperamental TARDIS that lands a few thousand years off course in 17th century Paris. But why shouldn't the Fifth Doctor, Peri and their travelling guest Erimem take a look around the city on the morning of King Louis' annual State Ball?
As Peri becomes embroiled in a plot to kill Queen Anne and smash the unity of the Church and the Crown, the Doctor finds himself duelling musketeers on the streets.
With Peri missing, Erimem catching King Louis' eye and a Musketeer's sword at your throat, could things get any worse?
Probably...
Plot
Part 1
to be added
Part 2
to be added
Part 3
to be added
Part 4
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Peter Davison
- Peri Brown / Queen Anne - Nicola Bryant
- Erimem - Caroline Morris
- King Louis / Blind Maurice - Andrew Mackay
- Cardinal Richelieu - Michael Shallard
- The Duke of Buckingham - Marcus Hutton
- Delmarre - Peter John
- François Rouffet - Andy Coleman
- Captain Morand - Robert Curbishley
- Madame de Chevreuse - Wendy Albiston
- Crow - Mark Wright
- Piere - Gary Russell
- Passerby - Mark Wyman
Crew
- Cover Art - Clayton Hickman
- Director - Gary Russell
- Executive Producer - Jacqueline Rayner
- Music - Russell Stone
- Producers - Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery
- Sound Design - Gareth Jenkins
- Writers - Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
Worldbuilding
The Doctor
- The Doctor tells Erimem that, earlier in his personal timeline, he met an older version of Louis XIII in 1638.
- The Doctor has a lifetime membership to the Marylebone Cricket Club.
- The Doctor claims to have once met a Visigoth with a sword.
Foods and beverages
- The Doctor offers to take Peri and Erimem to Barastabon for a chocolate cake.
Individuals
- Erimem names her new pet cat Antranak.
- The Doctor dislikes Alexandre Dumas and thinks he totally miscast Cardinal Richelieu as a villain.
Locations
- The Doctor has visited the Louvre.
Gallery
Original CD cover
Comic preview by Martin Geraghty in DWM 324
Notes
- This audio drama was recorded on 5 and 6 September 2002 at the Moat Studios.
- An illustrated preview featured in DWM 324 with artwork by Martin Geraghty.
- This is the last story in the Monthly Range to use the Delia Derbyshire arrangement of the main theme. All following releases would include the Howell, Glynn and McCulloch versions of the theme for the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors.
- This story is set between Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani.
Continuity
- Before landing in France, the Doctor was trying to reach the Braxiatel Collection, in fulfilment of the promise he made to Erimem at the end of her previous story, AUDIO: The Eye of the Scorpion. The Doctor's purpose at this stage in his relationship with Erimem was to get her to a place of education, not necessarily to travel indefinitely with her.
- The Doctor refers to his former companion K9. (TV: The Invisible Enemy, etc.)
- The Doctor mentions that he was the protégé of the American escapologist Harry Houdini. (TV: Planet of the Spiders) Prior to their arrival in 1963, his first incarnation and his granddaughter Susan Foreman met Houdini in the United States. Houdini taught the Doctor how to perform sleight-of-hand tricks. (PROSE: The Sorcerer's Apprentice) His fourth incarnation had previously told the Iceni cook Bragnar that Houdini kept numerous lock picks on his person. (AUDIO: The Wrath of the Iceni) He met Houdini again at an earlier point in his fifth incarnation, whilst travelling with Adric, Tegan and Nyssa. (AUDIO: Smoke and Mirrors)