My Own Private Wolfgang (audio story)
My Own Private Wolfgang was the second story in the audio anthology, 100, which comprised the hundredth release in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Robert Shearman and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Maggie Stables as Evelyn Smythe.
It had a notably innovative structure for a pseudo-historical story. The story began with a difference between how the audience and the TARDIS crew viewed historical events. It ended with the Doctor unwittingly changing history into a shape the audience recognises. In the beginning, the Doctor and Evelyn accept an exceptionally long-lived Mozart (with a career in decline) as being the norm for their time stream, but they change history so that Mozart died a young man in 1791. Furthermore, there are actually three timelines in the story; the original timeline, which differed from ours in that Mozart actually finished his famous unfinished requiem, leading through a chain of events to the creation and poor treatment of Mozart clones much further into the future, the aforementioned “long-lived Mozart” timeline, created by one of said clones from the initial timeline in an attempt to prevent his own creation, and the final timeline, created by the Doctor, which is one the listener would be familiar with, where Mozart’s iconic unfinished requiem was actually unfinished.
Publisher's summary
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Born in 1756, a veritable wonderkind — playing music for the crowned heads of Europe as an infant, composing by the time he was five years old. But it's tempting to wonder whether his amazing longevity has overshadowed his creative genius — would Mozart's music be better respected, maybe, if he'd died as a young man? Would he be a legend of music, rather than of scientific curiosity, if he'd never lived to compose the film score for the remake of The Italian Job?
Plot
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Colin Baker
- Dr Evelyn Smythe - Maggie Stables
- Mozart/Young Mozart/Butler/Mask/Old Mask - John Sessions
Worldbuilding
- Mozart's compositions "The Magic Flute" and "Requiem" are mentioned. "Piano Concerto in C Major" is also mentioned.
Notes
- The audio story A Requiem for the Doctor would later give a different account of how Mozart's Requiem came to be unfinished.
- The audio abruptly ends with the Sixth Doctor saying, "Well, nobody likes an abrupt end...”, an in-joking reference to both Mozart's famous unfinished requiem and the infamous ending of TV: Revelation of the Daleks.
- This story is set between The Trial of a Time Lord and Time and the Rani.
Continuity
to be added
