1963: The Assassination Games (audio story)
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1963: The Assassination Games was the one hundred and eightieth story in Big Finish's monthly range. The third story in the 1963 audio trilogy celebrating the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.
Publisher's summary
London. The end of November, 1963. A time of change. The old guard are being swept away by the white heat of technology. Political scandals are the talk of the town. Britain tries to maintain its international role; fanatics assassinate charismatic politicians and Group Captain Ian Gilmore is trying to get his fledgling Counter-Measures unit off the ground.
When his life is saved by a familiar umbrella-bearing figure, he knows something terrible is going on. Whilst Rachel investigates an enigmatic millionaire and Allison goes undercover in an extremist organisation, Gilmore discovers a sinister plot with roots a century old.
The Doctor and Ace are back in town. A new dawn is coming. It's time for everyone… to see the Light.
Plot
Part One
to be added
Part Two
to be added
Part Three
to be added
Part Four
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
- Ace - Sophie Aldred
- Group Captain Gilmore - Simon Williams
- Rachel Jensen - Pamela Salem
- Allison Williams - Karen Gledhill
- Sir Toby Kinsella - Hugh Ross
- Sir Gideon Vale/Handler - Oliver Cotton
- Eleanor Vale/Amanda Caulfield - Gemma Saunders
- Martin Regan/Sir Robert Devere/Mulryne - Gerald Kyd
- Sir Francis White/David Ritchie - Alisdair Simpson
References
- Stephen Mulryne, the Defence Secretary, was alleged to have had an affair with Amanda Caulfield, a woman of "dubious morals," for several weeks. However, he denied the allegation in Parliament. At the same time, she was having an affair with a Soviet spy.
- Mulryne fought in the British Army during World War II and participated in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944.
- David Ritchie was born in 1932. He was a student activist and a member of the Communist Party of Britain until the Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956. Prior to his death, he was a member of the militant organisation Disarmament Now.
- Amanda Caulfield was born in 1933. At 30 years old, Sir Toby Kinsella believed that she was too old to be "a good time girl."
- Using the pseudonym "John Rutherford," the Doctor was elected as an independent MP on a platform of nuclear disarmament in May 1963. This name is a reference to Ernest Rutherford, the father of nuclear physics. He tells Gilmore that he would have normally used the alias "John Smith" but that this would cause confusion as another MP with that name will be elected in Lanarkshire in 1970.
- In 2013, the Doctor and Ace found Gilmore's memoirs in a bookshop in London. Ace looked herself up in the index and found references to two encounters: the Shoreditch Incident and another at the time of the Starfire Incident. Gilmore was very vague about the events of the latter, though he did mention that the Doctor saved his life on that occasion.
- Rachel has never met Sir Toby.
- Ace mentions Mission: Impossible and refers to Sir Gideon Vale as "Lord Snooty." She later alludes to the James Bond film franchise and tells Rachel that she is going to love Goldfinger. However, Rachel claims that the films "aren't exactly [her] thing."
- Ace refers to Sir Toby as "Sir Humphrey," a reference to the character Sir Humphrey Appleby from the BBC sitcom Yes Minister.
Notes
- This is the first audio drama released in the main range to feature the Seventh Doctor and Ace travelling alone since AUDIO: The Rapture in September 2002.
- The circumstances surrounding Stephen Mulryne's affair with Amanda Caulfield are based on the Profumo Affair.
- When Sir Francis White threatens him by calling him a "dead man," the Doctor says, "You may very well think that but I couldn't possibly comment." This is a reference to Francis Urquhart's most famous line from the political thriller House of Cards.
- Rachel's comment that the Bond films "aren't exactly [her] thing" may be an in-joke referring to the fact that Pamela Salem played Miss Moneypenny in the unofficial Bond film Never Say Never Again in 1983.
- The identity of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is never given in the story. In reality, the Prime Minister in November 1963 was Alec Douglas-Home, who served in that position from 18 October 1963 to 16 October 1964. He was previously mentioned in AUDIO: The Pelage Project and AUDIO: State of Emergency.
- Chronologically, this marks the first appearance of Sir Toby Kinsella.
- This story was recorded on 11 and 12 February 2013.
- This story was offered as a free download with DWM 467, along with a number of other "Part Ones".
Continuity
- David Ritchie refers to the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 (PROSE: Heart of TARDIS; AUDIO: 1963) and the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963 (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy; TV: Rose; AUDIO: 1963: The Space Race).
- Group Captain Gilmore refers to the Shoreditch Incident. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
- Allison refers to her boyfriend Julian St. Stephen. (AUDIO: Artificial Intelligence, State of Emergency)
- Sir Gideon Vale refers to the fact that Rachel is Jewish. (AUDIO: Threshold)
- The Doctor tells Gilmore that he was very fond of cats a lifetime ago. (TV: The Twin Dilemma)
- The Doctor tells Gilmore that there are at least five other versions of him in 1963 and that two of them are previous versions of his seventh incarnation. (TV: An Unearthly Child, Remembrance of the Daleks; AUDIO: 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men, 1963: The Space Race, The Light at the End; PROSE: Those Left Behind, Ghost Ship)
- Gilmore refers to Sgt. Mike Smith. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
- The Doctor continued to serve in Parliament as "John Rutherford" until the next general election in October 1964. (AUDIO: State of Emergency)
- UNIT had records of Ace's involvement in this incident in the 2020s. (AUDIO: Signs and Wonders)
External links
- Official 1963: The Assassination Games page at bigfinish.com
