In Search of Lost Time (audio story)
- You may be looking for the NSA short story or the original book by Proust.
In Search of Lost Time was the third story of Echoes Through Eternity, marking 20 years of the Gallifrey series, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Una McCormack and read by Sophie Aldred. It featured Ace.
Publisher's summary
Old Time Agents never die - they just lose their memories. Back on Earth after her involvement in the Time War, Ace is having trouble fitting in - and coincidence seems to be following her...
Plot
Back in London with no memory of her adventures with the Doctor or living on Gallifrey, Ace flat sits for a friend and regularly chats with a neighbour. One day, she hangs around the post boxes waiting for the neighbour and, when she arrives, she tells her about the strange day she has had.
Ace takes the Tube to Leicester Square and, when the train stops at Covent Garden, she is bumped into by a man who remembers her from school but whom she fails to recall. She purchases the next book in a series she is reading from a bookshop on Charing Cross Road before going to the National Portrait Gallery where she is approached by another man. Like her, he finds the statue of Queen Victoria and Price Albert tacky and, as they laugh about it, he recognises her as the girl who blew up the art room at Perivale High. She makes her excuses and leaves.
Ace sits to read in Soho Square, unhappy at being referred to as "Dorothy McShane" by both men who recognised her, and is disturbed by an old woman who sits next to her and keeps trying to make conversation. The old woman also recognises her and identifies herself as Miss Matthews, her old biology teacher. Ace feels somewhat threatened when Miss Matthews grabs her hand and asks if things turned out well, so she makes an excuse and leaves without her book, deciding not to return to Soho Square when Miss Matthews tells her that she can always find her there if she wishes to.
Having told her story, Ace finally confronts the neighbour, remembering about Gallifrey and knowing that the Time Lords are attempting to extract information from her using coded messages. The neighbour confirms that she is a Time Lord and that they are after information to assist in the Time War and uses a memory reintegrator on Ace to restore her memories, including Braxiatel taking them away, long enough to acquire galactic coordinates for a secret research base. Once she has this information, the neighbour says farewell to the amnesiac Ace and gives her a book.
Characters
Worldbuilding
- Ace's friend has gone to Salford because of her job.
- Ace's friend lives in Camden.
- Ace's friend has a collection of books.
- Ace attended Fraser Road Primary and Perivale High.
- Ace visits a bookshop on Charing Cross Road.
- Ace thinks that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were basically Posh and Becks.
Notes
- The title is taken from Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, otherwise known as À la recherche du temps perdu, a book which both the Sixth and Seventh Doctors are noted to have read in the DWU.
Continuity
- Ace recalls Braxiatel wiping her memories of Gallifrey, as depicted in AUDIO: Soldier Obscura [+]Loading...["Soldier Obscura (audio story)"].
External links
- Official In Search of Lost Time page at bigfinish.com
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