Full Fathom Five (audio story)

Full Fathom Five
Doctor:	The Doctor
Companion(s):	Ruth Mills
Featuring:	New Doctor
Main enemy:	The Doctor, General Flint
Main setting:	D.E.E.P., Earth, 2039 and 2066
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	David Bishop
Director:	Gary Russell
Music:	Andy Hardwick @ ERS
Sound:	Gareth Jenkins @ ERS
Cover by:	Clayton Hickman
Release details
Release number:	3
Release date:	July 2003
Format:	1 CD, 65 minutes
Production code:	DWUN03
ISBN:	ISBN 1-84435-014-2
Doctor Who Unbound
← Previous	Sympathy for the Devil
Next →	He Jests at Scars...

Full Fathom Five was the third Doctor Who Unbound audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. It featured David Collings as the Doctor. Unlike the previous two stories this story's Unbound scenario is not immediately apparent, but as the story unfolds it is revealed to be a scenario of "What if the Doctor believed the ends justified the means?", taking the story and the character of the Doctor into darker and harsher territory than has previously been explored.

Publisher's summary

What if...?

"If I told you the truth, I'd have to kill you..."

The Deep-sea Energy Exploration Project was apparently destroyed by dirty bombs in 2039 AD, turning the surrounding sea bed into a radioactive tomb. Rumours suggest the DEEP was conducting illegal, unethical experiments...

In 2066, the Doctor discovers the research centre remains intact. The terrible truth about what happened twenty-seven years ago will soon be revealed. The Doctor is determined to be the first to uncover and confront the secrets of the DEEP.

But unearthing the past can have terrible consequences for your future...

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - David Collings
• General Flint - Ed Bishop
• Ruth - Siri O'Neal
• Hoskins - Jeremy James
• Professor Vollmer - Matthew Benson
• Lee - Jack Galagher
• The New Doctor - Ian Brooker (credited on Big Finish website only)

References

• The Doctor uses the alias "Dr John Smith."
• The Doctor has told Ruth about regeneration but has never specified how many times he has done so, although he has apparently "used up most of them", suggesting that he is in the latter part of his regeneration cycle.
• When the Doctor fled the D.E.E.P. in 2039, he was forced to leave his TARDIS behind. Consequently, he has been trapped on Earth for the previous 27 years.
• The Doctor manages to gain access to the D.E.E.P. using his UNIT credentials.

Notes

• Over the course of the story, the "What If" scenario is revealed to be "What if the Doctor believed the ends justified the means?", with Collings's Doctor being portrayed as a Doctor who kills as the first option for the "greater good" where the Doctor in the "prime" universe would be more willing to rely on peoples' better natures and allow them to live after making dangerous mistakes rather than killing them in case they repeated their errors.
• After Sympathy for the Devil, this is the second Big Finish audio drama to feature a Time Lord regenerating. It was the only one in which the Doctor does so until the release of Seven Keys to Doomsday in 2008. Furthermore, the Sixth Doctor regenerated into the Seventh Doctor in AUDIO: The Brink of Death in 2015.
• The regenerated Doctor at the end of the story was credited to Ian Brooker on the Big Finish website, but was not listed in the story's printed liner notes.
• This audio drama was recorded on 19 May 2003 at The Moat Studios.
• The titles of this story and the next Unbound story He Jests at Scars... are Shakespearean references. "Full fathom five thy father lies" is a line from The Tempest Act 1, Scene 2. Both stories are also about dark Doctors.

Continuity

• The Doctor observes that military intelligence is an oxymoron. (TV: Terror of the Autons)

External links

• Official Full Fathom Five page at bigfinish.com
• Full Fathom Five at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• DisContinuity for Full Fathom Five at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide