The Last Day (audio story)

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The Last Day (audio story)

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The Last Day was an audio story comprising the fourteenth and fifteenth releases of The Seventh Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Matt Fitton and Guy Adams and starred Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor.

Part One, containing the first six parts of the story, was released on 28 December 2023. Part Two, containing the final six parts of the story, was released on 25 June 2024.

Publisher's summary

There is always injustice to fight. There is always a new danger for the universe. But what if the Doctor found a way to put things right, once and for all? Would it really be so terrible to take a stand? Would the end justify the means? And would his friends agree? The Seventh Doctor’s last day is coming...

Plot

Part one

On Ungar, Mel runs from the voice of a carnivorous hotel and is rescued by Ace in the TARDIS, neither of which she entirely recognises. The ship struggles to fly through the broken universe, which was caused by somebody taking complete control of it and which Ace believes could be responsible for Mel's memory problems. Mel remembers the Doctor and Ace explains that she is gathering people to save the universe since the Doctor is lost. She agrees to help and Ace leaves her in a desert where she soon meets Benny.

Hex wakes up from a dream about a giant frog and takes his and Sally's youngest children, Damo and Evie, to school on the way to the hospital where he works as a healthcare manager. He gets stuck at work and sees on the news that the World Administration are cutting rations and instituting new security measures which the President will later be giving a speech on. Whilst he is on the phone with Sally, Ace, whom he recognises from his dreams, uses psychic paper to pretend to be an inspector and gets him to help move her cases into the hospital.

Ace tells Hex that she used to travel with him and Sally, something he has no memory of, and gives him with a beeping device after the presidential address begins, telling him that it will change the way he sees things. Watching the speech, he recognises that Ace is almost identical to President McShane. Elsewhere, the Master is rescued from being buried alive by Ace, who stuns his superstitious attackers and demands his help in saving the universe.

Part two

Ace infiltrates Kane's relaxation room on Proamon and threatens him with a flamethrower, forcing him to watch how she captured Garundel to join in her mission to save the universe. Kane does not believe that she is capable of killing somebody in cold blood and is proven right when she refuses his order to kill his guards, but she claims that she would indeed kill if provoked.

Ace shows Kane how she and Garundel travelled to the Mother's Milk Benevolent Association's orphanage where the children, kept silent by negation fields, tied the two of them up to be questioned by Mother Finsey. She also met with Vienna in a restaurant, but Vienna refused to hear her out and was killed in an attack by the Dark Citizens, the reality-destroying enemy that Ace is trying to fight. Whilst Kane does not believe that the Dark Citizens can be defeated, the Master, who got Garundel and the Mother to join the cause, assures him that he can.

Kane joins the group to protect his way of life and Ace explains that the Dark Citizens are acting under the orders of the person that they need to defeat, somebody far more dangerous and feared than the Master, the Mother, Kane or Garundel. Inside the TARDIS, Ace presents this threat: the Doctor, who asks about the state of his universe.

Part three

On Gallifrey, the Doctor, as President of the High Council, visits the captive Krasi President, watches a religious war on Hemera which he decides not to put an end to and gets an update on the Thals, who are living in peace in the absence of the Daleks. He is contacted by President McShane, the version of Ace whom he deemed best-suited to hold the human race back from developing advanced technology per his plans to keep Earth safe, and he advises her not to worry about the other version of herself out there.

The Krasi President reflects on how she feared for her position when she destroyed an island on Krasi Major under the mistaken belief that the residents were making chemical weapons when, in truth, they were making fertiliser. The Doctor claims that he has no such concerns as he is able to continually rewrite history to ensure a good outcome and is not worried about the possibility of the Krasi coming for their President, explaining that they have already made an attempt and he had them wiped out of existence. Privately, he admits to the Dark Citizens that he doubts himself.

Returning to the planet of the Tuffleshrews, who cannot speak but whom he likes to talk to, the Doctor finds the corpse of the exiled Braxiatel and leaves him to be devoured by birds. He visits Hemera, now at peace thanks to his interference in the planet's history, and puts one of the orchids he admires so much in his buttonhole. He declines a Hemeran's offer of lemonade as he is always too busy, although he always has time for orchids.

Part four

Mel and Benny head across the dying planet, experiencing time shifts and avoiding Ogrons installed with cranial leashes which cause them pain until they complete their tasks, and enter a series of caves in search of a machine Ace asked them to recover. Having a data pad connected to the Matrix, Benny informs Mel that they are on the original Gallifrey and that the Celestial Intervention Agency buried the machine beneath the Panopticon due to its reality-warping powers being capable of preventing its own destruction through time shifts.

The pair of them fall into a pit of batsnakes whilst using a gravity grapple and damage their torches, so they use the light from Benny's data pad to keep the creatures back and light their way. They find the machine, the Quantum Possibility Engine, and decide to use it to warp reality and transport themselves to the surface with it. However, it vanishes as Hob arrives with one of his Ogron slaves. The vengeful Hob orders the Ogron to kill Mel and Benny, neither of whom know who he is despite his grandiose introduction.

Part five

Hex and Sally get Cassie to take Damo and Evie to school so they can talk about Ace, whom Sally believes is a figment of his imagination, and Lysandra, whose Global Security soldiers President McShane has replaced with an elite alien force. Afterwards, Hex joins Miss Peters in chaperoning Cassie's class's visit to the Government Hub and is concerned to learn that Cassie has a private audience with President McShane to discuss her ideas about energy. He refuses to allow her to go and attempts to call Sally, but a security guard destroys his phone and locks him up.

The Doctor observes the meeting with Cassie and tells President McShane that he is impressed by Cassie, whom he intends to use against Hex and Sally. President McShane then shows the imprisoned Hex Cassie drinking milkshakes on the other side of one-way glass and reveals that she has the same dreams that he does, elaborating on them in her office and reminding him of the Doctor. As the Doctor's voice tells him to relax, President McShane subjects him to a machine and he passes out.

Sally learns from Lysandra that they have been permanently reassigned to protecting the coast and joins her in flying Pegasus One to a secret security compound in Jersey. On the way, Sally asks Lysandra about gaps in her memory from their time together in the old days, but Lysandra brushes her concerns off for the moment. They are caught by a Sontaran and incapacitate him by hitting his probic vent, although neither can explain how they recognised the Sontarans nor how they know their weakness. They help their captive colleagues escape from the Sontarans and Lysandra demands an audience with their leader, Marshal Stenn. He kills her and threatens to do the same to Sally if she does not surrender.

Part six

Using a stasis lock, the Mother freezes a number of the Time Lords remaining on the barely-populated Gallifrey and she, Ace, the Master, Garundel and Kane, wearing a thermal buffer suit to protect himself, infiltrate the Capitol. The Master argues with Ace's plan to go to the Vault Archives and instead goes to the record room to collect his data extract, after which they break into the Vault Archives, only for the Master to lock everybody inside and join the Doctor in the observation room. The group find what Ace was looking for: a passage to the Dark Universe through which she forces the others to go before she follows.

The Doctor and President McShane use a reality diffuser and give Hex back the memories of his first few months of adventures in the TARDIS, up to when he was shot. When he becomes conscious, President McShane summons Cassie, whom she wants to join her and the Doctor in protecting Earth from the wider universe. Stenn informs her that he has Sally captive and she uses the reality diffuser to make Cassie believe that her parents are both traitors, giving her the choice of which of them is to be executed for their joint crimes.

Mel claims that Hob will be unable to find the Quantum Possibility Engine without her and Benny, but Hob shoots and kills Benny and demands that Mel hands it over. Elsewhere, the Doctor reminisces about those he has lost and how one can never give up on trying to hold the universe together. Whenever things seem to be as bad as they can possibly be, however, he assures the person to whom he is speaking that things can always get much worse.

Part seven

When the Quantum Possibility Engine reappears, Mel informs Hob that it is in an hour-long time loop which she claims she can deactivate for him, giving her the opportunity to escape with it an hour into the past when it vanishes again. She unwittingly activates its voice control, which uses the voice of the Doctor, and learns that the planet will soon collapse without its protection as it is running low on power without any temporal paradoxes.

Chris and Roz fly to the planet to meet Benny and don time-shielding suits to protect themselves. Utilising the batsnakes against Hob and the Ogrons, Mel joins her past self and Benny to strengthen the Quantum Possibility Engine by saving Benny's life. However, her past self is killed by falling debris, after which Roz arrives and shoots Hob. The three of them reach the strengthened Quantum Possibility Engine and Roz informs Chris by radio that they are to travel to Earth to rendezvous with Ace, who told her when she enlisted her help that she would die in any and all timelines.

Part eight

to be added

Part nine

to be added

Part ten

to be added

Part eleven

to be added

Part twelve

to be added

Cast

Part one

Worldbuilding

Notes

Continuity

Cover gallery

  • Part One textless cover

    Part One textless cover

  • Part One alternate cover

    Part One alternate cover

External links


v • e
The Seventh Doctor Adventures
Single releases
The Seventh Doctor:
The New Adventures
Volume One
Silver and Ice
Sullivan and Cross - AWOL
Far From Home
The Doctor and Carnacki
v • e
Decayed Master stories
Television
Audio
Prose
Comics
Video games
Considered
not part
of the DWU
* Substantial appearances only; see a full list of appearances here
v • e
Ogron stories
For the purposes of this list, an "Ogron story" is one in which one living, authentic Ogron plays a part within the confines of the story, outside of flashbacks to previous stories and cliffhangers that lead into the following story.
Television
Broadcast
Home video
Audio
Prose
Comics
Video games
Complete list of appearances
v • e
Sontaran stories
For the purposes of this list, a "Sontaran story" is one in which one living, authentic Sontaran plays a part within the confines of the story, outside of flashbacks to previous stories and cliffhangers that lead into the following story. For this reason, stories such as The Halloween Apocalypse and Survivors of the Flux are not counted due to the Sontarans' appearance being defined by their importance to following stories. Stories like The End of Time and The Time of the Doctor are also not included due to the Sontarans' appearance being no consequence to the plot of the story. Stories featuring Strax of the Paternoster Gang are only included on the Paternoster Gang story template.
Television
Broadcast
Home video
Audio
Prose
Comics
Video games
Complete list of appearances
  1. ↑ https://twitter.com/bigfinish/status/1782469930144628865
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