Time Killers (audio story)
Time Killers was the second story in the audio anthology Destiny, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Lizzie Hopley and featured Colin Baker as The Warrior and Geoffrey Beevers as The Master.
Publisher's summary
Arriving on Marinus in search of a temporal weapon, the Warrior and the Master are confronted by a place where time literally is money. As the Master finds himself in changed circumstances, the Warrior finds himself with a deadly decision to make.
Plot
Arrival
The Warrior and the Master are in the Warrior's TARDIS; a cacophony of warnings and alarms going off.
The Warrior has allowed the TARDIS to determine the specific coordinates, and they have arrived on a planet, where the pace is at an accelerated pace.
They are seeking a temporal weapon to use in the Time War.
Stepping out of the TARDIS they hear the noise of an ambulance arriving, and leaving; time itself is happening at an accelerated pace.
They discover this planet has two suns, and is enclosed beneath a large dome.
They're confronted by the authorities, of a sort; Horol they're all wearing helmets, they are from the bank of Millennius, and their business is time. Time is literally the currency there. If citizens of Marinus waste time; by not moving, or not doing things they have that time removed from their projected lifespan via a bracelet placed on their wrists at birth.
The Warrior and the Master are soon tagged with these bracelets too. And because they have stopped moving 15% of their lifespan (of their current regeneration) has been deducted from them.
They decide to retreat to the TARDIS and the Warrior sets new coordinates, although not away from the planet. They dematerialise, but find themselves back where they first arrived. They attempt again, and realise they are stuck in a time loop.
The Warrior and the Master meet a woman Otia who explains that those who fail Horol are expelled from the city to 'beyond the wall', her brother was one such person because he stopped to watch her son at school, and because he stopped for a few seconds, this was enough to fall afoul of Horol.
They split up as they see the TARDIS being taken away, with the Warrior seeking out the manager of the bank of Millennius, and the Master seeking what is beyond the wall, or to damage the wall and dome itself.
The Master takes control of a tram with Otia and smashes it through the wall of the city. There is a time differential between the city and outside world, the Master is caught in the tram and is burnt, but escapes. He exits the city at a different point to Otia (relative to when he exited it is the past).
Otia is also removed from the tram, but at point closer to the 'present'.
Outside the wall
The Master has been outside the wall for a number of seasons, he's been in charge of the resistance; the people who have been ejected from the city.
People outside the wall are not subject to the temporal effects of Horol. They exist at a normal pace, but begin to forget their lives within the dome.
The Master remembers his name, but not why he has came to the planet.
Then a ship crashes; a Dalek saucer and a time ship.
The Master leads a raiding party and retrieves Dalek weapons from the wreck.
He uses the weapons to spur a revolution and to take on the wall, and the leading Horol.
Meanwhile back in the city
The Warrior has been taken to the bank and meets the manager, it's Horol, and they're still wearing a helmet.
The Warrior tells them to remove the helmet; it's a woman, heavily disfigured.
She explains that the TARDIS has been taken to the bank's vault where the time is stored in a different dimension. And the Warrior is also taken to the vault, and finds that the TARDIS has been split into infinite pieces by the vault's interior. He also becomes split into multiple entities as he's put in. Through sheer will he makes it into the TARDIS (along with all his infinite variations) and manages to dematerialise and pause for a moment. He then receives a message from himself explaining what had happened; there is no weapon and by arriving they created the woman; Horol and created the time loop.
During the revolution
The revolution has faltered and Horol has captured the Master, taking more time from his life.
He offers the Time Lords to Horol and their TARDISes and all the energy they have, telling her that he only came with the Warrior to find the weapon to destroy the Time Lords.
The Warrior hears
The Warrior realises what the Master has offered and bides his time. He fully collapses the time loop, which destroys Horol.
The Master insists they she be brought into the TARDIS, where she dies. The Warrior says he doesn't want the body in his TARDIS and tells the Master to remove it.
As the Master removes the body the Warrior locks him outside and dematerialises, leaving the Master on Marinus.
Cast
- The Warrior - Colin Baker
- The Master - Geoffrey Beevers
- Horol / Coraine / Young Otia - Lara Lemon
- Otia / Guide - Nichola McAuliffe
- Riffort - Akshay Khanna
Worldbuilding
- There are trams within the city.
- A Dalek saucer and Dalek time ship crash land outside the city.
- There are two suns on this planet.
- The Warrior and the Master's arrival triggers a time loop.
- The city is called Millennius.
Notes
- The Master was disfigured after a tram crash, thus establishing himself as the Warrior's universe analogue of the Decayed Master.
- The concept of time as currency on its citizens shares similar story ideas as the movie In Time.
Continuity
- Marinus first appeared in TV: The Keys of Marinus [+]Loading...["The Keys of Marinus (TV story)"].
External links
- Official Time Killers page at bigfinish.com
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