Shadow of the Past (audio story)

Shadow of the Past
Main character(s):	Liz Shaw
Featuring:	Third Doctor, the Brig, Yates, Benton, Adelphi
Main enemy:	Mim
Main setting:	Vault 75-73, 1970s
Key crew
Writer:	Simon Guerrier
Director:	Lisa Bowerman
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Richard Fox & Lauren Yason
Sound:	Richard Fox & Lauren Yason
Cover by:	Iain Robertson
Release details
Number of parts:	2
Release number:	4.9
Release date:	30 April 2010
Format:	1 CD Download
Production code:	BFPDWCC29
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-465-8 (physical) ISBN 978-1-78575-814-0 (digital)
Official trailer
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The Companion Chronicles
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Shadow of the Past was the ninth story of the fourth series in The Companion Chronicles audio range. It was produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Simon Guerrier, narrated by Caroline John and featured the Third Doctor, Liz Shaw, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Captain Yates, Corporal Benton and UNIT.

Publisher's summary

There's a secret locked up in UNIT's Vault 75-73/Whitehall. Dr Elizabeth Shaw is the only one left who knows what that secret is. Returning to UNIT for the first time in decades, she slowly unravels the past. The vault contains the remains of a spaceship that crashed in the Pennines in the seventies. For the young Liz Shaw, the priority is to ensure the thing's safe. However, the Doctor is more concerned about the alien pilot and the chance this ship offers for escape. Can he resist the temptation, or will the Third Doctor turn on his friends?

Plot

Part One

to be added

Part Two

to be added

Cast

• Liz Shaw - Caroline John
• Marshall - Lex Shrapnel

Crew

• Cover Art - Iain Robertson
• Director - Lisa Bowerman
• Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
• Music - Richard Fox and Lauren Yason @ FoxYason Studios
• Producer - David Richardson
• Script Editor - Jacqueline Rayner
• Writer - Simon Guerrier

Worldbuilding

• Liz comments wryly upon the oddly British practice employed by UNIT of "hot sweet tea" salving all wounds.
• Liz mentions Apollo 1 and Mars Probe 7.

Story notes

• This audio drama was recorded on 11 August 2009 at the Moat Studios.
• Liz refers to Mike Yates as "Captain Yates", which is at odds with his rank as given in the novel The Scales of Injustice, but is consistent with the audio story Vengeance of the Stones.
• The Sergeant who dies in the story is stated to be Benton's immediate predecessor, thus setting this story before TV: The Ambassadors of Death.
• This story was told from Liz's perspective.
• This story was originally set on CD and download.

Continuity

• Liz saw a plague unleashed a few weeks ago. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
• The Doctor and the Brigadier are still not back on good terms after the bombing of the Silurians. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
• Liz comments that her dissatisfaction with her role in UNIT arose because she felt all she had to do was tell the Doctor he was brilliant and pass him his test tubes. She later told the Brigadier this face-to-face, (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice) which he later used to convince the Doctor to accept Jo Grant as his new assistant. (TV: Terror of the Autons)
• The Doctor is said to still be deeply offended at being imprisoned on Earth. (TV: Spearhead from Space)
• Liz mentions her "preternatural research". (HOMEVID: The Zero Imperative, etc.)
• The Time Lord in a bowler hat appears in the TARDIS. He would later appear to warn the Doctor of the Master's arrival on Earth. (TV: Terror of the Autons)
• The Doctor mentions that the Time Lords accepted that some evils had to be fought. (TV: The War Games)

External links

• Official Shadow of the Past page at bigfinish.com
• Shadow of the Past at the Doctor Who Reference Guide