The Ravencliff Witch (audio story)
The Ravencliff Witch was the second story of the eleventh series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by David Llewellyn and featured Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Nerys Hughes as Margaret Hopwood.
Publisher's summary
The TARDIS lands in Ravencliff, a small town on the English coast that stands in the shade of a newly built power station. And that just happens to be haunted.
Every now and then a spectral figure is glimpsed on the beach - the Ravencliff witch. And every time she appears, it's the prelude to disaster.
The Doctor has to solve the mystery of her appearances if he wants to prevent a catastrophe. But he won’t have to do it alone – as he has the help of Margaret Hopwood, a renowned sculptor destined to play a big part in his life.
Plot
Part one
At Ravencliff Power Station, Vic Harris records himself as he goes to deal with a minor leakage. He replays the tape when he hears a strange noise and, when he sees a light and starts hearing whispers, he goes to investigate and sees something impossible. He screams.
The TARDIS' instruments give no indication of where it has landed or what the environment like, so the Doctor exits and finds that he is near a coast on Earth. He goes to a nearby house but hurries back to the TARDIS when he hears it start to dematerialise, keeping it from leaving him behind.
On the beach, lighthouse keeper Silas Keynes and his dog, Buster, find a family of dead dolphins. Margaret Hopwood, who is looking for driftwood for a new sculpture, sees them and notes that sea life has been washing up dead since the power station opened. She heads home and finds Silas' daughter Amanda waiting for her and again refuses to sell her house to Gordon Miles and leave Ravencliff despite the increased offer.
Dr Celia Banks and John Fairweather inform Miles of Vic Harris' disappearance and present his tape, but Miles is loath to contact the police despite Michael Harper from security vanishing earlier that month. In both cases, shadows have been etched into the walls. Later, Miles has Amanda look over the quarterly reports despite the fact her working day was coming to an end and her colleague, Mavis Barnes, is killed by the same entity that killed Harris.
The Doctor meets Margaret and learns of the power station, the beached dolphins and the Ravencliff witch, whom she saw two days before learning of her father's death at Passchendaele. They investigate a light in the water by boat and the Doctor discovers, using his sonic screwdriver, that there is a void in spacetime below them. A whirlpool forms and the boat capsizes.
Part two
The Doctor sends out an SOS with his screwdriver and gets the attention of Silas, who comes to his and Margaret's rescue and take them to the lighthouse. Amanda arrives and tells them that Mavis somehow vanished in a dead end corridor and left her silhouette on the paintwork, a sign of a blast of radiation. The Doctor believes that Mavis's death, the whirlpool and the witch, whom Amanda saw before her mother's death when she was a girl, are connected.
As Amanda does not believe that Miles will listen to anybody, she goes to see Fairweather in the morning whilst the Doctor, pretending to work for the government, sees Banks. Miles discovers the ruse after a call with Sir Graham, however, and has the Doctor escorted out. After speaking with Fairweather, Amanda goes with him in search of Banks, but the witch kills Fairweather.
Margaret and Silas research the witch and find that sightings date back to 906 AD, when a Brother Edwin saw a shooting star land in the sea nearby. Since then, she has appeared shortly before people die. The house is surrounded by animals. The Doctor and Banks, who came to find out what he knew about the attacks given that he hinted to her that he knew about the shadows, see the animals heading to the house. Margaret and Silas are trapped inside with foxes.
Part three
to be added
Part four
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Tom Baker
- Margaret Hopwood - Nerys Hughes
- Amanda Keynes - Deli Segal
- Celia Banks - Lucy Pickles
- Gordon Miles - Richard Earl
- Silas Keynes - Trevor Cooper
- John Fairweather - Nicholas Briggs
References
- The Doctor considers going to the Moon of Celebrasis IX or the Palazzo Medici during the reign of Cosimo I.
- Upon arriving on Earth, the Doctor smells 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, a smattering of argon and a pinch of carbon dioxide.
- Buster is a dog. He is named after Buster Crabbe and not Buster Keaton.
- Michael Harper worked in security.
- The power station uses novium.
- There was a Dominican monastery in Ravencliff in the 10th century.
- The Doctor compares the witch to a banshee.
- Margaret mentions Medusa, Grendel's mother and Kali.
- Miles offers to take Amanda to a new bistro in Folkestone.
- Miles forgets Mavis Barnes's name.
- Margaret cannot swim.
- Amanda has two sugars in her tea.
- The Doctor speaks Dog, but never mastered the language of bloodhounds.
- The staff of the power station have to sign the Official Secrets Act.
- Silas's uncle was lighthouse keeper before him.
- Silas' wife is deceased. Her sister lived in Ashford and, on her way to visit her, she died in a car crash on Canterbury Road.
- When an atom bomb explodes, it leaves the shadows of those blasted to atoms etched into stonework.
- Ravencliff is in Kent.
- Celia Banks is the chief science officer.
- John Fairweather is a director.
- The Doctor offers Banks a jelly baby.
- Miles calls Sir Graham.
- Miles has Tony escort the Doctor from the power station.
- Margaret's grandmother was a spiritualist and only became more of one following the death of Margaret's father.
- In 1483, the witch appeared just before the Aguila, a Spanish vessel, was wrecked in a storm and all those aboard died.
- In 1939, the witch was seen shortly before a German U-boat was sunk off the coast of Ravencliff. Margaret remembers this.
- Novium is a primordial actinide.
Notes
- This story was recorded on 30 June and 5 July 2017 at Audio Sorcery.
Continuity
to be added
External links
- Official The Ravencliff Witch page at bigfinish.com
Footnotes
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