Death and the Queen (audio story)
Death and the Queen was the third and final story in The Tenth Doctor Adventures: Volume One, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by James Goss and featured David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble.
It was added for free to the podcast Into the TARDIS as part of Big Finish's 25th anniversary of creating Doctor Who audio stories. It was released in two parts on 28 March and 6 April 2024 and hosted by Sixth Doctor actor Colin Baker. It was the first story to be re-released onto the podcast.
Publisher's summary
Donna Noble has never been lucky in love.
So when, one day, her Prince does come, she is thrilled to have the wedding of all weddings to look forward to. Though the Doctor isn't holding his breath for an invitation. And her future mother-in-law is certainly not amused.
But on the big day itself, Donna finds her castle under siege from the darkest of forces, marching at the head of a skeleton army.
When it looks like even the Doctor can't save the day, what will Queen Donna do to save her people from Death itself?
Plot
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - David Tennant
- Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
- Rudolph - Blake Ritson
- Queen Mum - Alice Krige
- Hortense - Beth Chalmers
- Death - Alan Cox
Uncredited
Crew
- Cover Art - Tom Webster
- Director - Nicholas Briggs
- Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
- Music and Sound Design - Howard Carter
- Producer - David Richardson
- Script Editor - Matt Fitton
- Writer - James Goss
Worldbuilding
Locations
- The Kingdom of Goritania has not gone to war for around five centuries.
- Goritania changes from a monarchy to a republic and was renamed as "The People's Republic of Goritania" six months after the events of this story.
- The Doctor and Donna were originally going to Blackpool but landed in the French Riviera instead where Donna met Rudolph.
Sonic Screwdriver
- The Doctor's sonic screwdriver has a setting for horseshoes.
The TARDIS
- The Doctor wonders why the TARDIS's translation circuits aren't translating the motto of the kingdom.
TV and film
- Donna refers to Death as "Skeletor".
Notes
- This story was originally released on CD and download. In 2019, this story was re-released on vinyl in a limited run of 1250 copies.
- This story was released dubbed in German, as Der Tod und die Königin.
- The Doctor compares Goritania to Brigadoon, a mysterious Scottish village from the musical of the same name which appears for one day every 100 years.
- This story was recorded on 22 October 2015 at The Moat Studios.
- When the Doctor said, "I love the smell of regime change in the morning", it was a reference to the line, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" from the 1979 film Apocalypse Now.
- This story was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 3 September 2022.[3] It was later edited into two parts which were first broadcast on 10 and 13 November 2023.[4][5] The first part ends after the Doctor admits he has lied to Donna.
Continuity
- Donna refers to her skill at shorthand. She listed it as one of the skills of a temp in TV: The Stolen Earth [+]Loading...["The Stolen Earth (TV story)"].
- Donna notes that she has a history of choosing bad men to marry. Her previous fiancé was Lance Bennett, who, like in this story, planned to sacrifice her in order to resurrect the Racnoss in TV: The Runaway Bride [+]Loading...["The Runaway Bride (TV story)"].
- The Doctor states that the TARDIS is able to translate all languages, as was stated on numerous other occasions such as TV: The End of the World [+]Loading...["The End of the World (TV story)"], The Christmas Invasion [+]Loading...["The Christmas Invasion (TV story)"], and Cold War [+]Loading...["Cold War (TV story)"]. However, it sometimes fails due to the age of the language, as was also seen in The Christmas Invasion and TV: The Impossible Planet [+]Loading...["The Impossible Planet (TV story)"].
- The Doctor refers to the fact that his companions leave the TARDIS to save another universe. Examples include Romana II in TV: Warriors' Gate [+]Loading...["Warriors' Gate (TV story)"] and Rose Tyler in TV: Doomsday [+]Loading...["Doomsday (TV story)"]. They also leave after they fall in love, as happened with Vicki Pallister in TV: The Myth Makers [+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (TV story)"], Jo Grant in TV: The Green Death [+]Loading...["The Green Death (TV story)"], Leela in TV: The Invasion of Time [+]Loading...["The Invasion of Time (TV story)"], Thomas Brewster in AUDIO: A Perfect World [+]Loading...["A Perfect World (audio story)"], and Evelyn Smythe in AUDIO: Thicker Than Water [+]Loading...["Thicker Than Water (audio story)"].
- The Doctor says that he once had a robot dog who left him twice. K9 Mark I left with Leela in TV: The Invasion of Time [+]Loading...["The Invasion of Time (TV story)"], while K9 Mark II left with Romana in TV: Warriors' Gate [+]Loading...["Warriors' Gate (TV story)"].
- The Doctor notes that he was present at Donna's previous wedding, which is not strictly true, but he was certainly involved in the events surrounding her wedding in TV: The Runaway Bride [+]Loading...["The Runaway Bride (TV story)"]; and that he'll probably be present at her next. Indeed he was, though Donna no longer remembered him, as depicted in TV: The End of Time (part two) [+]Loading...{"part":"Two","1":"The End of Time (TV story)"}.
- Donna refers to Death as "Skeletor". She also referred to both a Sycorax in COMIC: The Widow's Curse [+]Loading...["The Widow's Curse (comic story)"] and Meng Tian in COMIC: The Immortal Emperor [+]Loading...["The Immortal Emperor (comic story)"] as such.
- The Doctor once again says, "My kingdom for a horse", as the Sixth Doctor did in AUDIO: The Hollows of Time [+]Loading...["The Hollows of Time (audio story)"].
Cover gallery
Doctor Who auf Deutsch cover titled Der Tod und die Königin
External links
- Official Death and the Queen page at bigfinish.com
- Official Doctor Who auf Deutsch: Der Tod und die Königin page at bigfinish.com
- Official Death and the Queen page at serialbox.com
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 BFX: The Tenth Doctor Adventures: Volume One
- ↑ Is to be played by the same actor as Death and Cloud, according to the script.
- ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bq6z
- ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001s4p6
- ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001sdp2
|