Didn't You Kill My Mother? (audio story)
Didn't You Kill My Mother? was the first story in the audio anthology Victory of the Doctor, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by John Dorney and featured Jacob Dudman as the Eleventh Doctor and Safiyya Ingar as Valarie Lockwood.
Publisher's summary
Another day, another set of clients needing arbitration. However, this case is special. It's the kind of case that could make a career. It could definitely earn you a promotion. The case? Lockwood versus Hendricks.
Plot
The Doctor, going by "Mr Doctor", acts as an impartial arbiter in a legal matter in which Valarie seeks restitution from Mrs Hendricks for several deaths, including her mother's, which Mrs Hendricks claims were necessary to create a weapon to save the universe from the Daleks. Neither party can remember the name of the Time Lord who was involved in the incidents discussed and the Doctor has no memory of being involved in them and they break for lunch, after which the Doctor is confused by Tim, a colleague, saying that it is Tuesday when it had previously been a Monday and is concerned that he cannot remember his job interview or his boss.
Following a brief lunch, the Doctor has Tim take him to the boss's office in the hopes of finding answers and enters using his sonic screwdriver, which he uses instinctively despite not knowing what it is. He finds that the boss's paperwork comprises solely of the word "choose" written over and over again and answers the boss's telephone when it rings, hearing a familiar voice say "nothing we do seems to hold them back for long". When he returns to Valarie and Mrs Hendricks, they complain that they have been unable to leave and that there is no lift for them to leave by, despite the Doctor having arrived in one earlier. The Doctor calls an end to the day as the clock indicates that they have overrun, although Mrs Hendricks says it has only been a few minutes since lunch.
The Doctor decides to wait for the boss to come back and then step down from Valarie and Mrs Hendricks's case as Tim tells him it would be unprofessional to do so immediately. He again finds that time flies by and, the next day, Valarie argues that Mrs Hendricks's actions in developing the Darinthian Blight and the Surge were wrong because her Time Lord friend said so. The Doctor nears his verdict and finds a Dalek gunstick in his briefcase which they agree means that he will have to exterminate the person who loses their case, after which he confronts Tim about where they are working and what the date is. Tim does not have an answer, but does eventually tell him that the other people who worked at the office were killed because they did not make a choice in their arbitration.
Refusing to pass his judgment, the Doctor is teleported to Tim and realises that he is Valarie's Time Lord friend and that Tim is Mrs Hendricks's consultant. Tim confirms that this is the case and restores everybody's memories before explaining that he was created by the Cult of Skaro to infiltrate TARDISes and showing him to the console room of the dimensionally transcendental time machine they are in. When Valarie shoots a light fitting whilst threatening Mrs Hendricks with a gunstick and Tim feels pain, the Doctor realises that he is the interface of the time machine. Tim believes that the Daleks should be wiped out and has been testing the Doctor to see if he is capable of killing somebody before asking him to kill him. Should he do so, the time machine will explode and the Doctor will be able to change time by distributing the Surge before the New Dalek Paradigm's war begins.
Valarie chooses not to kill Mrs Hendricks so as not to go against her mother's ethos and starts damaging the office, forcing Tim, whose request the Doctor has declined to grant, to teleport to her and take the gunstick before Mrs Hendricks can kill him. As the Doctor looks for the TARDIS, he hears Hayden and Roanna and deduces that the TARDIS has been trying to alert him to what is going on outside of the office; the Daleks are attacking Medrüth. Tim painfully restores Mrs Hendricks to how she used to be and suffers himself when the time machine's systems malfunction thanks to the Doctor, who picks Valarie up in the TARDIS and takes her to save Medrüth.
Cast
- The Doctor - Jacob Dudman
- Valarie Lockwood - Safiyya Ingar
- Arabella Hendricks - Lara Lemon
- Tim - Homer Todiwala
Worldbuilding
- The Doctor acts as an arbiter.
- Tim enjoys Ellery Quest.
- Tim does not like tacos.
- Tim was reading An Unearthly Quest by Jeremy Castle when it was rewritten thanks to the Doctor and Valarie.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- Mrs Hendricks claims that the Darinthian Blight, which she unleashed in The Inheritance [+]Loading...["The Inheritance (audio story)"], was an attempt at an anti-Dalek weapon.
- Valarie knows that Mrs Hendricks will kill her, in her future but Hendricks's past. This occurred in All's Fair [+]Loading...["All's Fair (audio story)"].
- Tim asks the Doctor if he has read any books by Ellery Quest, whom the Doctor met in All of Time and Space [+]Loading...["All of Time and Space (audio story)"].
- The Doctor told Valarie about the Time War in Broken Hearts [+]Loading...["Broken Hearts (audio story)"].
- Tim was built by the Cult of Skaro during the Time War. (TV: Doomsday et al.)
External links
- Official Didn't You Kill My Mother? page at bigfinish.com
