The Gulf (audio story)
The Gulf was the second and final story in the audio anthology The Third Doctor Adventures: Volume Seven, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Tim Foley and featured Tim Treloar as the Third Doctor and Sadie Miller as Sarah Jane Smith.
Publisher's summary
The TARDIS lands on an ocean planet where the Doctor and Sarah find themselves stranded on a former rig, which has recently been converted into an artistic retreat.
But art is far from the residents’ minds. A troubled member of their collective has disappeared, and the Doctor senses a sinister psychic presence. The waves are rising. And there's something in the water.
Plot
Part one
The TARDIS materialises on an obsolete Earth Empire spin drifter on an ocean world and the Doctor and Sarah look around, crossing a bridge towards a figure that Sarah sees. The figure disappears, but Lynette warns them that the bridge is unsafe and it collapses because of their weight as they reach the other side, separating them from the TARDIS. Although Lynette is unhappy about their arrival as she believes them to be from Depot, the conglomeration that owns the spin drifter, Marta welcomes them and has Lynette take Sarah to Pen for some dry clothes. She explains to the Doctor that the spin drifter, known as the Collective, is a retreat for artists and that Laurel, one of their number, disappeared the night before.
Marta, whom the Doctor realises is the famed painter Marta Malvani, gives the Doctor a tour and introduces him to Jesko, a cook, before taking him to the hydroponic garden. At the Doctor's request, she takes him to Laurel's room where they are joined by Sarah and Pen and look at Laurel's latest watercolour, one depicting tentacled creatures in the ocean. Looking at them gives the Doctor a feeling which he felt whilst outside. Although this is a theme present in many of the artists' works, there is supposedly no life native to the planet and Marta states that they are likely metaphorical. The Doctor touches the painting once Marta and Pen have gone and realises that Laurel used water from the sea, which is poisoned by trivax.
At dinner, Sarah admires a portrait of Marta's daughter, who was killed at the border of Barbica whilst on a pleasure cruise. When the Doctor asks the group what they think of the retreat, Pen says that the sea screams at night and Jesko reports that those who worked at the spin drifter before its closure experienced strange phenomena which led to Depot pulling out. Marta disregards this, however. The Doctor and Sarah spend the night in the observation lounge to listen out for the screams and hear a knocking from the deck below. Pen warns them not to go outside through the hatch, but the Doctor ignores her and the hatch opens.
Part two
Laurel enters through the hatch and Marta sends her straight to bed rather than making her answer questions on her whereabouts. In the morning, she explains that she fell into the water for a few seconds and spent several hours recovering before making the considerable climb back up the spin drifter. She returns to her work without eating breakfast and the Doctor recommends that Marta contacts the authorities via an astral flare regardless of Laurel's return, telling Sarah that she could not have survived the trivax nor made the climb. The spin drifter's systems began to falter and the Doctor, suspicious of the timing given Laurel's return, goes to examine the tidal generators to ensure that the Collective does not fall into the sea. Laurel, meanwhile, tells Lynette that their secret project is over and threatens the eavesdropping Pen into silence.
The Doctor sends Sarah to the library with Pen to discover what phenomena made the spin drifter's crew leave and warns her to keep her distance from Laurel, who is secretly given instructions by a monster she has made an agreement with. However, after reading about how the crew experienced night terrors and heard screams, Sarah is told by Pen about the project she heard Laurel and Lynette talking about and decides to investigate it despite the Doctor's warning. As the Doctor and Marta descend to the generators, Marta explains that the Depot have only allowed the artists to reside on the spin drifter to avoid having to decommission it and that nobody has been to the generators in quite some time. The doors, however, have clearly been serviced recently and the area is full of containers of raw trivax.
to be completed
Part three
to be added
Part four
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Tim Treloar
- Sarah Jane Smith - Sadie Miller
- Marta Malvani - Wendy Craig
- Laurel - Lucy Goldie
- Pen - Jennifer Saayeng
- Lynette - Bethan Walker
- Jesko - Issy Van Randwyck
Worldbuilding
- Spin drifters are "concrete monstrosities" dropped into a planet's ocean from orbit. They use sonic extractors to collect trivax.
- Trivax is a highly valuable but toxic plasma sourced from seas. It once powered half of the Earth Empire.
- Sarah jokes that the Doctor has vertigo.
- The Doctor has walked the Astral Peaks in handcuffs.
- IMC, ATP and GMG have been absorbed by Depot.
- Marta does not think favourably of the Barbica Colonies.
- Marta intends to fire an astral flare from a life raft to summon the authorities.
- Jesko used to cook on Babette.
- At school, Sarah's art was described as "accidentally Picasso" by her art teacher.
- The Shrieking Sea is a painting by Pen.
- Laurel does watercolours.
- The Doctor mentions meeting Raphael in his artists studio.
- The Collective make their own wine.
- Jesko met a drifter at Pensive Port.
- Jesko makes cocoa for the Doctor and Sarah.
- Depot and Barbica are fighting in Galaxy Three in the first of the Conglomeration Wars.
- Buildings in Sarah's time were brutalist.
- Marta thanks Minerva.
- The Marquis of Piff once visited the Collective.
- Dr Kurtz worked on the spin drifter.
Notes
- This story marked the debut of Sadie Miller in The Third Doctor Adventures reprising her mother's role of Sarah Jane Smith. Miller first portrayed her opposite the Fourth Doctor in Return of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Return of the Cybermen (audio story)"] in The Lost Stories. With this story, the Third Doctor had now appeared with all of his television companions in Big Finish full-cast audio dramas.
Continuity
- The Doctor tells Sarah that the TARDIS is capable of towing a planet, and that if she is lucky, she may see this one day - something she would indeed witness many years later. (TV: Journey's End)
- The Doctor likens the mental displacement caused by the Gulf to being inside the mind of Omega. (TV: The Three Doctors)
- The TARDIS is able to float on the water again. (TV: Fury from the Deep)
- Lauren tries to use Sarah's memories of Aunt Lavinia Smith. (TV: A Girl's Best Friend)
External links
- Official The Gulf page at bigfinish.com
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