Worlds Beyond (audio story)
Worlds Beyond was the second story of the thirteenth series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Robert Khan & Tom Salinsky and featured Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Christopher Naylor as Harry Sullivan and Eleanor Crooks as Naomi Cross.
Publisher's summary
The Doctor, Harry and Naomi have arrived on a luxury resort world where custom-made holidays are provided for every visitor. Their minds are scanned and their ideal getaway is planned.
Naomi gets an activity break by the sea, Harry explores a crumbling ruin and the Doctor ends up playing chess with Alan Turing. All seems idyllic...but every paradise must have a snake...mustn't it?
Plot
Part one
Naomi is unimpressed by the size of the TARDIS control room and the Doctor sets the ship to take them to the nearest holiday planet to show her and Harry how entertaining travelling together can be. They land on Erinee and are welcomed by the cicerones, who explain that they offer tailor-made holidays using native neuro-retention spores. The Doctor decides to leave, but Harry diagnosis him with stress and forbids him from re-entering the TARDIS until they have all had the opportunity to relax. However, the Doctor denies any responsibility should they be captured as part of an evil scheme during their stay.
The Doctor is given a holiday beside a swimming pool with several men playing chess whilst Harry is shown around a castle by Donald and Naomi enjoys activities at the beach with Abby. After losing four games of chess, the Doctor realises that he has been playing against an avatar of Alan Turing, who starts to feel more energised as the cicerones boost his power to keep the Doctor engaged in the scenario and starts to believe he is the real Turing. The cicerones take Turing away to be restored to factory settings when he collapses and the Doctor discreetly joins them, watching a screen showing Naomi collapsing and Harry being buried alive by a collapsing castle wall.
Part two
The cicerones have been using the spores as a source of energy, feeding on the suffering of visitors, and detain the Doctor with the intention of altering his mind and returning him to his scenario. Watching the unharmed Harry tend to Donald's broken leg and Naomi being tied to a stake by Abby as the tide comes in, the Doctor volunteers to return to his scenario and suffer in their place, but the spores cannot be safely stopped at a moment's notice and the scenarios have to play out. The cicerones release him into Naomi's scenario and he uses a device pickpocketed from them to transport the two of them into Harry's where they recover him and Donald. Being a puppet created by the spores, however, Donald disappears in the real world.
The cicerones send Harry and Naomi into the Doctor's scenario and begin to wipe the Doctor's memory with a machine, but Turing attacks them and joins the Doctor in using Contact to control the machine. Harry and Naomi are attacked by the zombie-like men around the swimming pool until they suggest playing chess, soon after which they start to decompose thanks to the Doctor. Before they die, they reveal that they are low caste cicerones whose bodies the greater caste have been using to create avatars and that they are now free to die in peace. Turing absorbs all of the energy from the machine and is able to locate and retrieve Harry and Naomi from the system. The three travellers depart in the TARDIS as the planet dies, having to leave Turing behind as he loses energy.
In the TARDIS, Naomi wonders whether their adventure on Erinee was a wish-fulfilling fantasy granted by the spores, giving the Doctor an adventure thwarting an alien threat with one of his heroes, reminding Harry of what it is like to be a doctor and showing Naomi how capable she is. The Doctor is sceptical and dematerialises, but the TARDIS goes out of control and receives coordinates in chess notation.
Cast
- The Doctor - Tom Baker
- Naomi Cross - Eleanor Crooks
- Harry Sullivan - Christopher Naylor
- Alan Turing / Low Caste Cicerone - Anthony Howell
- Cicerone #1 / Man - Oscar Pearce
- Abby / Cicerone #2 / Woman - Amaka Okafor
- Donald / Cicerone #3 - David Shaw-Parker
Crew
to be added
Worldbuilding
- The TARDIS has four libraries.
- Naomi has a friend called Shona who lives in a council house.
- Erinee is in the Arfax system.
- Naomi swims lengths of a swimming pool when possible.
- Harry's father worked in the military and his stepmother worked in medicine.
- Harry carries a lighter.
- Harry has not played chess since school.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- Naomi Cross has just stepped into the TARDIS for the first time. The Doctor is disappointed that she finds it not as big as she expected. (AUDIO: Storm of the Sea Devils [+]Loading...["Storm of the Sea Devils (audio story)"])
- The Doctor notes the TARDIS has a swimming pool and library somewhere within its corridors. During Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS [+]Loading...["Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (TV story)"], Clara Oswald once stumbled across both of these rooms. In fact, by rearranging the rooms, the Eleventh Doctor once managed to break River Song's fall from a skyscraper by allowing her to fall straight through the TARDIS doors, bypassing the control room and straight into the swimming pool, as seen in Day of the Moon [+]Loading...["Day of the Moon (TV story)"].
- Despite knowing instinctively that Erinee would be a trap, the Fourth Doctor gives into Harry Sullivan's call for them to stay, remembering that Harry was supposed to be on holiday. (AUDIO: Storm of the Sea Devils [+]Loading...["Storm of the Sea Devils (audio story)"])
External links
- Official Worlds Beyond page at bigfinish.com
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