Sleeper Agents (audio story)
Sleeper Agents was the fourth story in the Beyond the Doctor series released by BBC Audio. It was written by Paul Magrs and was read by Anneke Wills.
Publisher's summary
It’s July 1966, and Ben & Polly have just said goodbye to the Doctor at Gatwick Airport. Now they must return to their old lives - but things at home aren’t quite right. Polly’s cat is behaving oddly, and both she and Ben soon realise they are under close scrutiny. To complicate matters further, the pair must akcnowledge their true feelings for each other.
When they find themselves transported against their will to a far-flung destination, what matters most is their loyalty to each other - and to the Doctor.
Who are the mysterious Mr Harmer and Ms Leamann, and what can they possibly want with Polly & Ben?
Plot
to be added
Characters
Worldbuilding
- Polly lives in a flat above a fancy shoe shop in Chelsea.
- On her commute to the Post Office Tower, Polly takes the London Underground to Warren Street, then traversing Tottenham Court Road and through Fitzrovia.
- Ben and Polly meet at a coffee bar in Soho for lunch.
- Ben's landlady is called Mrs Montague.
- Polly recalls her French teacher at school, who also coached hockey.
Notes
- In this story Ben reports back to his ship and is expecting to return to the sea. This is in contrast to The War Machines, where Ben is decidedly miserable at being given a shore posting, leading to his moping at the Inferno and eventual meeting with Polly Wright.
Continuity
- Polly and Ben have just said their farewells to the Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon, following on from the end of TV: The Faceless Ones. The following day, Ben and Polly are lured into a trap, just as the Doctor and Jamie were subsequently lured into a trap by Edward Waterfield in TV: The Evil of the Daleks.
- WOTAN was defeated four days earlier, on 16 July, as depicted in TV: The War Machines.
- Polly recalls Dodo, and wonders if she too had been caught up in Harmer and Leamanns' plans. Polly had met Dodo in The War Machines and had similarly wondered about her during another stay in London with the Doctor, in AUDIO: The Dead Star.
- Polly mentions the Macra to Harmer, and how Ben had been under their influence in TV: The Macra Terror.
- Leamann and Harmer have kidnapped others of the Doctor's companions, including Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton a year earlier in AUDIO: London, 1965, where they also employed the use of imagery related to the Doctor, such as the replica TARDIS interior.
External links
- Official Sleeper Agents page at Penguin Books
