Death in Blackpool (audio story)
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Death in Blackpool was the first story in the fourth series of the Eighth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Alan Barnes and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Sheridan Smith as Lucie Miller.
Even though she would make an appearance in five more stories, this story marked the end of Lucie's travels aboard the TARDIS, and also closed the "Aunty Pat" story-arc.
Publisher's summary
Lucie Miller always loved Christmas back home in Blackpool. Her Mum running a still-frozen turkey under the hot tap at ten. Great-Grandma Miller half-cut on cooking sherry by eleven. Her Dad and her uncle arguing hammer and tongs about who was the best James Bond all through dinner. And in the afternoon, Aunty Pat, haring up to the house on the back of a moped weighed down with ridiculous presents.
Christmas 2009 didn't turn out like that.
Christmas 2009, the Doctor turned up...
Plot
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Paul McGann
- Lucie Miller - Sheridan Smith
- Auntie Pat - Helen Lederer
- Billy - David Schofield
- Father Christmas / Security Guard - Jon Glover
- Natasha / Marika / Receptionist - Harriet Kershaw
- Shopkeeper - Nicholas Briggs
Crew
- Cover Art - Simon Holub
- Director - Barnaby Edwards
- Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
- Music and Sound Designer - Howard Carter
- Producer - Barnaby Edwards and David Richardson
- Script Editor Alan Barnes
- Writer - Alan Barnes
- Zygons created by Robert Banks Stewart
Worldbuilding
- "Billy" mentions the NHS.
- The Doctor suggests Pat use adrenaline on him.
- The Doctor claims he knew a flying yogi who could switch his consciousness on and off.
- Pat grazes her coccyx - something which the Doctor didn't know Zygons had.
- Lucie registers at 4 on the Glasgow coma scale.
- "Billy" claims to be a Porter.
Food and beverages
- Bramlington services sell Frappe Lattes and toasted paninis.
- Father Christmas says people used to put out a mince pie and a glass of sherry on a Christmas Eve.
- Lucie suggests going to the Labour Club for a bottle of cider.
- A receptionist recommends a patient use goose fat to ease their arm free from a turkey.
- Lucie has chocolate by her bedside.
Individuals
- Billy had a teacher called Mrs Williams.
- Billy has a son.
- Lucie sarcastically refers to the barista as Paolo Panini.
- The Doctor wonders if Flo still works at the services.
- Lucie used to have a boyfriend who was diabetic.
- Pat has previously taken Sven and Wolfie to Blackpool at Christmas.
- Doctor Millington works at Blackpool General.
- Bill is a patient at Blackpool General.
- The Doctor mentions Trevor.
Species
- Lucie remembers the Only Ones.
- "Billy" uses cats as an example of a different state of awareness.
- Photomelanoma occurs when a Zygon stays in the same body too long, causing it to look older.
- A banshee foretells the death of someone living.
- A Zynog is a Zygon which can no longer change its form, after having broken Zygon law by shifting into the form of another Zygon.
- Pat mentions the Skarasen.
Locations
- Billy mentions Roedean.
- Billy travels to Warrington.
- Billy has a motor business in Sydenham.
- Bramlington is located just of the M62.
- Lucie says that spelling her name with a Y, instead of IE, makes it "all Home Counties and horsey".
- Lucie lives at 46 Cheney Road, Blackpool.
- Father Christmas mentions Blackpool Tower.
- Lucie mentions the Golden Mile.
- Father Christmas mentions the Pennines.
- The Doctor says he once rode a magic carpet over the Khyber Pass.
- Lucie mentions Saint Annes.
- The Doctor suggests taking Lucie to Kal-Med One or the Bi-Al Foundation.
Technology
- Billy's son used play with a yellow Dinky hot rod, so Billy's bought him "the big version".
- Pat drives a blue Nova.
- Pat used a Parabolic diverter to pull the TARDIS out of the vortex into 2008.
- Billy's hot rod has the registration FW15BB.
- Father Christmas suggests checking CCTV.
- "Billy" uses a Zynog diadem to get inside Lucie's head.
Popular culture
- Lucie mentions James Bond.
- Lucie mentions Del Boy.
- Father Christmas is looking for his reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. He also mentions Rudolph.
- Lucie jokingly refers to Pat as Parker.
- Lucie mentions Holby City.
- Lucie compares "Billy" to Saint Peter.
- "Billy" mentions Casualty.
Music
- Billy sings "While shepherds washed their socks", a variation of "While shepherds watched their flocks".
- The variation of the song mentions Sunlight Soap.
- Pat likes James Blunt.
- Pat tells Lucie "You're beautiful", making her think of the James Blunt song.
- Lucie has never heard of Siouxsie and the Banshees.
- Father Christmas sings "In the Bleak Midwinter".
Notes
- This story is the conclusion for the story arc of Lucie Miller's aunt 'Pat' and her complex relations with the Zygon race.
- There is some confusion as to the timeline placement of this story. The Publisher's Summary gives a year of 2009. In the story itself, the Doctor is aiming for Lucie's time and ends up one year earlier, in 2008.
- This story was recorded on 21 September 2008 at the Moat Studios.
- It was first released on 9 December 2009.[1]
- The story was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 7 January 2013.
Continuity
- The TARDIS materialises in the same service station in Bramlington as it previously visited in 1974 during an earlier audio drama in this series, Horror of Glam Rock [+]Loading...["Horror of Glam Rock (audio story)"]
- Lucie discovers that her aunt Patricia Ryder died in 1984 and that her identity was assumed by her Zygon husband Trevor, as happened in The Zygon Who Fell to Earth [+]Loading...["The Zygon Who Fell to Earth (audio story)"]
- The Doctor refers to Cal-Med One from PROSE: Legacy and the Bi-Al Foundation from TV: The Invisible Enemy).
Footnotes
External links
- Official Death in Blackpool page at bigfinish.com
- Death in Blackpool at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for Death in Blackpool at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
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