Seven to One (audio story)
Seven to One was a 2011 Big Finish Productions audio short story, read by Nicholas Briggs and William Russell. It featured the first seven Doctors and was published in eight parts spread across the disc between the other stories. It was marketed as a First Doctor story and listed as such by Big Finish.
Summary
Seven Doctors... one tricky situation. Will the First Doctor be able to save his future incarnations from a deadly game?
Plot
The Seventh Doctor and Ace find themselves in the realm of Grey Space. The Doctor explains to Ace about the two entities that created this realm. The two entities are bound together in some way and rarely agree on anything. However, in order to do anything, they need to be in agreement. Grey Space is their only achievement. They had pulled the Doctor to them once before, and he used a copy of the game Monopoly to escape, having left the entities arguing about who would go first.
The Doctor and Ace find a RWR Mark II android guarding a small, grey door. The entities contact them, and tell them that this is a test. The Doctor will have seven chances to succeed. If he should fail, the entities will erase the Doctor from existence. Ace quickly determines that they needed to get past the android and open the door. The Doctor agrees and approaches the android. He tries to use the default admin password of 0-0-0-0 and succeeds. He orders the android to shut down and it does so. The Doctor and Ace then approach the door. The door has a simple combination lock, and it doesn't take the Doctor long to crack it. He opens the door and peers inside. At that moment, the imposter, that was pretending to be Ace, pushes him through the door, causing him to fall into the larger dimension that the door leads to. The Doctor has failed the test, and his first chance is used up.
The entities summon the Sixth Doctor and Peri, and inform them of the test and of the Seventh Doctor's failure to complete the test. Just like his next incarnation, the Doctor figures that he needs to get past the android and open the door. The Doctor talks to the android and takes advantage of the limited AI in the android. He convinces the android that it no longer has any purpose and should shut down. The android does so. The Doctor cracks the combination lock and opens the door. As he looks inside, Peri pushes him through the door. The Doctor has failed the test again, and his second chance is gone.
The entities summon the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa, and inform them of the test and the failure of the other two Doctors. The Doctor uses a Nanoware maintenance engineer card to convince the android to shut down for inspection. The Doctor can feel that something is off, as the test has been too easy so far, way too easy. However, Nyssa's complaints cause him to drop the line of thought and he opens the door. As he peers inside, Nyssa pushes him through the door. The Doctor has failed the test for a third time, and only has four chances left.
The entities summon the Fourth Doctor and Romana, and inform them of the test and the failure of the other three Doctors. The Doctor uses his scarf to wrap up the android's limbs, puts liquorice whirls over its visual sensors, jelly babies in its audio receptors, and sherbet in its processing unit in order to disable the android. The Doctor then uses his sonic screwdriver to crack the combination lock. Romana comments that the only reason that the other Doctors failed must have been because she is most likely not with them. The Doctor opens the door and looks inside. Romana then pushes the Doctor through the door. The Doctor's fourth chance has been used up, and he now only has three left.
The entities summon the Third Doctor and Jo, and inform them of the test and the failure of the other four Doctors. The Doctor convinces the android that Jo is a potential buyer for Nanoware. The android goes into a marketing mode, and the Doctor tells it to demonstrate the effectiveness of the anti-matter rifle by shooting it at the floor. The android proclaims that the anti-matter spread will continue on forever, so the hole will go on for infinity. Jo points out that she can see the bottom and when the android goes to look, the Doctor knocks it into the hole. The Doctor then uses his sonic screwdriver to crack the combination lock. He opens the door and peers inside. Jo pushes him through the door. The Doctor has failed the test once again, and he now only has two chances left.
The entities summon the Second Doctor and Jamie, and inform them of the test and the failure of the other five Doctors. The Doctor talks to the android about the effectiveness of its weapon and its casing, and points out the contradiction of the weapon being able to penetrate anything, and the casing being impenetrable. The Doctor tricks the android into testing it, by shooting its rifle at its own head. The android's head is destroyed and it falls over. The Doctor then cracks the combination lock by hand. He opens the door and looks inside. Jamie pushes him through the door. The Doctor is now down to only one chance.
The entities summon the First Doctor and Susan, and inform them of the test and the failure of the other Doctors. The Doctor writes PTO (please turn over) on both sides of a piece of paper and gives it to the android, leaving it to turn over the paper forever. The Doctor studies the lock, finding it curious that it's a simple combination lock. There's no way it could have stumped the other Doctors. Susan figures it's because this Doctor is more clever then they are, but the Doctor points out that the other Doctors are his future selves.
Susan wonders what's behind the door, and thinks it could be something valuable, or maybe the way to the TARDIS, but the Doctor is more concerned with the test, and not making the same mistake as his other selves. He notices Susan's odd focus on what is behind the door, and wonders if his future selves had any companions with them. He cracks the combination lock, while mentioning that the essence of a good magic trick is to distract the victim with one hand, while performing the trick in the other hand. He opens the door, and then quickly springs to one side of the doorway. His hunch about Susan being an imposter is correct, as she had moved to push the Doctor through as he opened the door. However, since he has moved to the side, she passes through the space that the Doctor was just in and falls through the doorway. The Doctor has passed the test.
The entities abide by their rules and return all seven Doctors to their respective places and times. The entity who gambled on the Doctor losing complains that seven chances was too many, but the entity who gambled on the Doctor winning points out that the number of chances had been decided by the roll of the Monopoly dice. With the test concluded, the entities have finally determined which of them would go first. However, a new problem quickly appears. One of the entities wants to use the dog game piece, but the other entity disagrees, for that entity wants to use the dog game piece.
Characters
- Seventh Doctor
- Sixth Doctor
- Fifth Doctor
- Fourth Doctor
- Third Doctor
- Second Doctor
- First Doctor
- The Entity
- RWR Mark II android
References
- The Entity once challenged the Doctor to a game of Monopoly.
- The RWR Mark II android carries a Zavarian anti-matter rifle.
- The Doctor asks if he wins a goldfish for passing the Entity's test.
Notes
- An alternative title of What a Grey Day! was briefly considered to replace Seven to One.
- While the segments of the story featuring the Second through Seventh Doctors are narrated by Nicholas Briggs, the last two segments featuring the First Doctor and the ending are narrated by William Russell.
Continuity
to be added
External links
- Official Short Trips - Volume III page at bigfinish.com
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