The Screaming Skull (audio story)

The Screaming Skull was the third full cast audio story in the The Worlds of Doctor Who audio anthology released in 2014 by Big Finish Productions.

Publisher's summary

Disgraced soldiers Ruth Matheson and Charlie Sato are called back into action by Captain Mike Yates, when the UNIT Vault is mysteriously locked down by a deadly force. Together they must infiltrate the Vault and get those trapped out alive. But what enemy are they facing?

Plot

Mike Yates, Ruth Matheson and Charlie Sato.

to be added

Cast

Captain Ruth Matheson - Daphne Ashbrook
Warrant Officer Charlie Sato - Yee Jee Tso
Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
Mr Rees - Jamie Glover
Lieutenant Jane Lucas - Rachel Atkins
Soldier - Stephen Critchlow
Soldier - Rory Keenan
Terravore - Sinead Keenan
Henry Gordon Jago - Christopher Benjamin
Professor George Litefoot - Trevor Baxter

Worldbuilding

Sato compares Rees's attempt to make a body to a Gunther von Hagens sculpture.

Notes

Although Jane Lucas is a lieutenant, Ruth refers to her as "Captain" several times.
This is the only story in The Worlds of Doctor Who anthology to not be written by Justin Richards.

Continuity

Charlie and Ruth refer to once being under the control of the Master, (AUDIO: Mastermind) after which they were sent to Fortress Island, now acting as a retirement home for ex-UNIT operatives who posed a security risk. (TV: The Sea Devils)
Charlie refers to Yates' subordination in his youth. (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs)
Yates, Charlie and Ruth prove their identities for entry into the Vault with a DNA test. (AUDIO: Tales from the Vault)
Yates refers to the fact that the Brigadier lent artefacts to museums. (TV: Terror of the Autons)
Yates mentions plastic daffodils (TV: Terror of the Autons) and a gargoyle from the Devil's End incident. (TV: The Dæmons)
The Vault contains the skeleton of an allosaurus, which was carbon dated to only a century earlier, (AUDIO: The Monstrous Menagerie) a chess set (TV: The Curse of Fenric; AUDIO: Tales from the Vault) and a fragment of a Sontaran scout ship. (AUDIO: Tales from the Vault)
C19 were the forerunners of the Vault, before it was taken over by UNIT in the 1990s. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice; AUDIO: Tales from the Vault)
Some of the items from the "Black Vault", a UNIT base below the Tower of London, have been moved to the Vault temporarily whilst it's being refurbished. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
The Vault contains a pipe organ salvaged from the priory that occupied the future site of UNIT HQ prior to being burned down in 1911. (TV: Pyramids of Mars)
Rees uses the damaged Terravore in the Vault to attack Charlie and Ruth. (AUDIO: Tales from the Vault) It was among the thousands of Terravores which invaded Earth and attacked the London Underground in 2010. (AUDIO: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster)
Charlie and Ruth hide from the Terravore in Diamond Jack's magic cabinet. (AUDIO: The Magician's Oath)
Ruth tells Charlie that Sir Toby Kinsella of the Counter-Measures team placed the Reesinger music box in storage in 1964 and it was given to UNIT in the mid 1970s. (AUDIO: The Reesinger Process)
Yates refers to Corporal Bell. (TV: The Claws of Axos)
When Rees looks into Yates' mind, he sees the Brigadier, the Dæmons, (TV: The Dæmons) the Daleks, (TV: Day of the Daleks) the Master, (TV: Terror of the Autons, et. al) Karfel, (TV: Timelash; PROSE: Speed of Flight) Hyde Park frozen in July, (AUDIO: The Magician's Oath) stone circles in Scotland, (AUDIO: Vengeance of the Stones) a shining blue crystal, (TV: The Green Death) Operation Golden Age, (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs) Yates' breakdown and rehabilitation, (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Planet of the Spiders) and Nest Cottage and Mrs. Wibbsey. (AUDIO: Survivors in Space, et al.)
Charlie and Ruth listen to Henry Gordon Jago and Professor George Litefoot's phonograph recording about their encounter with Rees in the 1890s. (AUDIO: Mind Games)
Jago and Litefoot's records are stored in the Professor Dark collection. (AUDIO: Chronoclasm, Jago in Love, Beautiful Things, The Lonely Clock, The Hourglass Killers)
Rees refers to the deaths of Charlie's father and sister. (AUDIO: Mastermind)
Ruth refers to the fact that Terravores have extremely limited vision. (AUDIO: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster)
Yates has UNIT use the space-time telegraph to contact the Doctor. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, Terror of the Zygons) The message was received by his sixth incarnation. (AUDIO: Second Sight)

External links

Official The Screaming Skull page at bigfinish.com