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The Eternal Summer was the one hundred and twenty-eighth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Jonathan Morris and featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa.
It was the second story in a trilogy centring around the fictional town of Stockbridge. This audio also marked the audio debut of Maxwell Edison, played by Mark Williams. Edison, like the village of Stockbridge, was created in Doctor Who Magazine comic stories.
Publisher's summary
It's been a long, hot summer in Stockbridge. Longer than the villagers can remember. Summer's lease is never-ending — and all thanks to the Lord and Lady of the Manor!
One man alone knows that something's wrong: Maxwell Edison, Stockbridge's unofficial ambassador to the universe. Or "flying saucer nut", as the locals have it. He'll need help proving it: from the local postmistress Miss Nyssa, perhaps; or the village Doctor, the fellow that's been living at the Green Dragon Inn these last 30 years.
They'd better hope that autumn never comes to Stockbridge. When autumn comes, the world is doomed...
Plot
Part 1
The meta-bionic drive system of the Rutan's ship has gone faulty and is about to cause the ship to explode, which could wipe out half of England. The panic-stricken Fifth Doctor along with Nyssa attempts to stop it...
A knock on the door awakens the Doctor. Alice Withers has brought him breakfast in bed. She addresses him as Doctor Smith. He is utterly bewildered as she knows the kind of tea he likes and his favourite breakfast meal despite his claim of never having met her before. He begins asking her questions to which she gives exceedingly vague answers. It is revealed he is living in Stockbridge and that he knows Alice, even if he can't remember her at present.
Heading downstairs, the Doctor meets and begins to question her husband Harold Withers. Harold reveals that the Doctor has always been a guest at the Green Dragon "for as long as [he] can remember", and that he cannot recall when the Doctor arrived. The Doctor is further puzzled that there haven't been any visitors to the village either. He says he must go looking for someone and suddenly Alice remembers that what he is doing today is exactly the same thing he was doing yesterday.
The Doctor walks through the village, noting to himself that everything is as it seems. Suddenly a young girl on a bicycle, named Jane Potter, crashes into him, and the Doctor has some strange flashback. He asks her if she can help him find his companion and it is revealed that Jane already knows Nyssa, surprising him, and that she is at the post office. Far off, a man undercover recognises the Doctor and is shocked and unnerved over seeing him again.
The Doctor finds Nyssa in the post office where it is revealed that she too is mystified by their circumstance, after having arrived all the villagers claimed to have already been aware of her identity and to have known her "for as long as they can remember", whereas she is just as confused as the Doctor. She recounts their final moments aboard the Rutan ship before its imminent explosion after which she woke up here. The Doctor notes how similar Stockbridge looks to one of their previous visits, prompting Nyssa to recall Andrew Harper and wondering if she may be able to find him. The Doctor suggests that they'll head down to the local pub, the Redfern, to get some information.
At the bar, Nyssa inquires from Dudley Jackson as to the whereabouts of Andrew but he recalls no such person of that name ever having lived in the village. The Doctor asks him what year it is, and after a strange flashback, he replies that it's the 4th of August 2009... 1950. They leave. The Doctor points out the cars in the street don't have glaze and there's no antennae dishes, placing the era in either the 60s or 70s. They bump into Jane again, dressed in 1950s clothing headed to a wedding that they are unaware of. Nyssa asks her what day it is, and she replies that it's the 12th of June 1984. The Doctor notes that there's something strange going on with time. They arrive at the wedding... and the marrying couple turn out to be Alice and Harold from earlier, in their 20s. The Doctor is confounded. Just then they see a fire in the distance, realising that the village school is on fire.
A boy named Philip has been trapped in the fire. He is rescued from the wreckage and the Doctor is brought over to try and save him, but the Doctor, after much effort, pronounces him dead on the scene... and suddenly time reverses. The Doctor and Nyssa find themselves at a funeral which was for Harold. The Doctor is utterly perplexed. They go and read the gravestone and find that Harold, Alice and Philip's names are written on the tombstone but the Doctor points out that there are no dates. Suddenly the Doctor spots a police telephone box. Thinking it's the TARDIS, they go and investigate, only to find that it is just an empty police telephone box. They use the phone and the voice on the other end says that time is winding backwards. The phone then rings, the Doctor answers, repeating the same words he had just heard unintentionally, and realises the voice he had just heard before was him in the future. The Doctor surmises that someone doesn't want them contacting the outside world. The Doctor says time is moving too quickly and that the villagers don't realise it.
Just then, they are approached by Maxwell Edison. He says he wanted to make sure it really was the Doctor before revealing himself. The Doctor introduces him to Nyssa. Nyssa seems a little put-off by him but the Doctor assures her that Maxwell can be trusted and he does, as he claims, somehow, have some sort of supernatural "sixth sense". Maxwell explains that something is wrong in Stockbridge, as the school fire happened twenty years ago, and events seem to be occurring in non-linear order. Maxwell mentions that there are ghosts here as well. They make there way over to a spot Maxwell claims is where super-natural phenomenon are occurring. The trio observe three beings wearing spacesuits manifest and begin approaching them. The Doctor tries to warn Nyssa to stay away but suddenly they disappear, having taken Nyssa with them...
Cast
- The Doctor/Lord of the Manor - Peter Davison
- Nyssa/Lady of the Manor - Sarah Sutton
- Maxwell Edison - Mark Williams
- Lizzie Corrigan - Pam Ferris
- Harold Withers - Roger Hammond
- Alice Withers - Susan Brown
- Dudley Jackson - Nick Brimble
- Jane Potter - Abigail Hollick
- Vicar - Barnaby Edwards
- Geoff - Nicholas Briggs
References
Individuals
- Alice Withers may be a descendant of Maud the Withered.
- The Lord of the Manor almost utters the Doctor's true name, but has forgotten it.
- Maxwell has read all of Terry Pratchett's books.
English towns and villages
- Stockbridge exists/existed within a time bubble for sixty years.
Organisations
- In an alternate timeline, Lizzie Corrigan ran the Psychic Investigation Group (PIG).
Spacecraft
- The Lord and Lady's manor is built on top of the Rutans' spacecraft.
Cultural references from the real world
- Lizzie tells Max that her PIG teammates are fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files.
- Lizzie compares the situation in Stockbridge to the storyline of the 1954 film Brigadoon starring Gene Kelly and Van Johnson.
Games
Notes
- CD 1 contains the CD extras following parts 1 & 2.
- Included on CD 2 is The Three Companions; Episode 9 - "Many Meetings".
- This audio drama was recorded on 11 and 12 June 2009.
- Subscribers whose subscription included this story received the bonus story Museum Peace, originally printed in the Dalek Empire anthology, read by Nicholas Briggs.
- This story is set between Time-Flight and Arc of Infinity.
- This story was originally released on CD and download.
Continuity
- AUDIO: Castle of Fear leads directly into this story.
- When the Lady of the Manor touches Nyssa, there are flashbacks to AUDIO: Circular Time, AUDIO: The Mutant Phase and AUDIO: Primeval.
- Maxwell Edison first appeared and met the Doctor in COMIC: Stars Fell on Stockbridge, which is partially dramatised here in flashbacks.
- Nyssa unsuccessfully looks for her former lover, Andrew. During this quest, his surname is revealed to be Harper, despite being stated as Whitaker in AUDIO: Autumn. However, this is likely due to the paradoxical nature of this story, which may have been reverted when the timeline was corrected.
- The TARDIS interior would revert to that of a regular police box again in TV: Father's Day.
- The Doctor compared the village's circumstances to the fake Devesham which he and Sarah Jane Smith discovered on Oseidon during his fourth incarnation. (TV: The Android Invasion)
- The Doctor tries to get the Lady of the Manor to remember her life as Nyssa by reminding her of Adric, (TV: The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis, et al.) Tegan Jovanka and the Tremas Master, (TV: Logopolis, Castrovalva, et al.) and the Cyberman. (TV: Earthshock, AUDIO: Spare Parts)
- Lizzie lived in Stockbridge until her death at 112 years old. (AUDIO: Plague of the Daleks)
- The Doctor mentions Castrovalva when he noticed that Stockbridge topography has gone wrong. (TV: Castrovalva)