Neverland (audio story)
Neverland was the thirty-third of Big Finish Productions' monthly audio stories. It featured the Eighth Doctor played by Paul McGann and Charlotte Pollard played by India Fisher, with Lalla Ward making an appearance as Lady President Romana. This story concluded the arc of stories beginning with Invaders from Mars concerning the paradox of Charley Pollard's surviving the R101's destruction. Neverland was one of three audio stories to feature Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor alongside Romana as played by Lalla Ward. The others were the audio adaptation Shada, which itself was an extended release of the webcast of the same name, and Zagreus.
Publisher's summary
The Web of Time is stretched to breaking. History is leaking like a sieve. In the Citadel of Gallifrey, the Time Lords fear the end of everything that is, everything that was... everything that will be.
The Doctor holds the Time Lords' only hope — but exactly what lengths will the Celestial Intervention Agency go to in their efforts to retrieve something important from within his TARDIS? What has caused the Imperiatrix Romanadvoratrelundar to declare war on the rest of creation? And can an old nursery rhyme about a monster called Zagreus really be coming true?
The answers can only be found outside the bounds of the universe itself, in a place that history forgot. In the wastegrounds of eternity. In the Neverland.
Plot
Part one”
The Doctor and Charley celebrate their victory over the Daleks, trapped in a paradox and cut off from the rest of Time. The Time Lords will release them from the loop eventually, as much of history depends on their actions... but Romana has a score to settle with them, and will no doubt let them stew for a while. But as the Doctor sets course for their next destination, a fleet of battle TARDISes materializes around his own ship, just like the fleet the Doctor slipped past once before. This time, he realizes that they’re after him -- and Charley. CIA Co-ordinator Vansell and President Romana are already on their way...
The Doctor attempts to weave his way out of the trap, but one of the battle TARDISes fires time torpedoes at him. If he dematerializes to avoid them, the fleet will pluck his ship out of the Vortex; if the torpedoes hit, the Doctor and Charley will be frozen for centuries, giving the Time Lords plenty of time to break in. The Doctor refuses to give up, however, and at the last moment he and Charley are saved by a wave of time distortion which sweeps past, stealing vital seconds from the web of Time. By riding the crest of the wave, the Doctor gets past the battle TARDISes, which are unable to track his turbulent path. By the time the disturbance dies down, the Doctor and Charley have escaped.
Apparently satisfied, the Doctor tells Charley the time has come to celebrate her birthday, and presents her with a single exclusive invitation to a thousand-year party in a distant pocket of time and space which the Time Lords know nothing about. Sadly, there’s only one invitation, but the Doctor promises to pick her up again in a year’s time while he takes care of trifling business elsewhere. Charley isn’t fooled for a moment. She knows the truth; by rescuing her from the R101, the Doctor has broken history. She’s supposed to be dead, and the Doctor is taking the responsibility upon himself -- confident and carefree that nothing will go wrong, like Peter Pan living a life of adventure in Never-never-land. But while Wendy shared Peter’s adventures for a time, she had to grow up eventually. Charley chose to stow away on the R101, she chose to travel with the Doctor, and she understands the consequences of those decisions -- and thanks to the Doctor’s instructions during the Nimon invasion, she knows what the Fast Return Switch does. Before the Doctor can stop her she presses the Switch just once, and the TARDIS returns to its previous location, materializing in the path of the time torpedoes just as they detonate...
Three hundred years later, Celestial Intervention agents Kurst and Levith finally break into the Doctor’s TARDIS. He’s beginning to recover, and they send him to the President’s battle station, locate Charley, and prepare to install her in a space-time converter. Charley begins to recover, disoriented, but not so disoriented that she fails to take offence at Levith’s patronising attitude. Levith assures her that the Doctor is all right, and that they’re simply preparing Charley for a small procedure which shouldn’t harm her -- if she doesn’t resist...
The Doctor revives, deliriously reliving a few moments of a past adventure with Mary Shelley and Lord Byron before he recovers and realizes that he’s in a Time Station. Vansell attempts to interrogate him, ignoring the Doctor’s taunts and gibes; the Doctor has been brought here to discuss Charlotte Elspeth Pollard. The Doctor invokes the Archetryx Convention and demands a fair trial, but Romana arrives and assures him that Charley will not be harmed. However, the Doctor must be made aware that the time distortion which enabled him to escape earlier was not a random event. The Time Lords have detected many such distortions recently -- and they now believe them to be caused by particles of anti-Time. The Doctor doesn’t know whether to laugh or not; anti-Time is a pseudoscientific concept with more basis in superstition than reality. According to legend, when Rassilon created the Eye of Harmony, Time was pinned down to one continuous history -- but as every action has its equal and opposite reaction, the creation of positive Time created a mirror universe of anti-Time, a force as destructive to causality as anti-matter is to positive matter. If the Universe of anti-Time really exists, it’s a chaotic realm with no past, present or future; just an endless, meaningless, ever-changing Now.
The Doctor doesn’t believe such a place exists, but Romana reveals that the web of Time is near breaking point. History has changed on several important worlds, including Earth, where the wrong President was elected into control of a major landmass. The initial outbreaks of time distortion have now been traced -- to the times and places which the Doctor has visited with Charley. The mere fact of her survival has created a breach in space-time, a living gateway through which particles of anti-Time are flowing into this Universe, shattering causality. The Matrix has been turned over completely to anchoring the web, but it’s breaking under the strain -- and what’s left has projected a horrific future. Vansell reveals that the Doctor is inside a projection unit, an Eighth Door through which he casts the Doctor into the Matrix to see the future for himself...
The Doctor finds himself in the ruins of a once proud city, the skies dark with smoke, but not so dark that the Doctor can’t recognise the constellations. A sad old man, whom the Doctor finds terribly familiar, confirms that this world was once called Gallifrey -- but it is now the empire of Zagreus. The Doctor recognizes the name from an old nursery rhyme, but as he tries to recall the details, he is transported to a vast arena which was once the Panopticon. The crowd chants viciously as the cruel Imperiatrix Romana takes the stage and presents to her people the Dalek Emperor, trapped with his people in a time pocket. The Emperor demands to be released, arrogantly convinced that his race is required to maintain historical causality -- but instead, Romana passes judgement and obliterates the Daleks from history completely. The Dalek Emperor, realizing too late what is happening, begs for pity -- but Romana simply scoffs as the Daleks are crushed into oblivion forever. The Doctor is appalled, but as he protests this cruelty, the angry mob turns on him, prepared to tear him to pieces...
Vansell pulls the Doctor out of the projection just in time. Though shaken, he refuses to accept that saving Charley’s life was wrong; if Romana wishes to put Charley back on the R101, she’ll have to erase the Doctor from the whole of history first. As long as he lives, he’ll find a way to save his friend. But Romana reveals that there is already another way -- albeit a potentially dangerous one. According to Vansell, certain esoteric records in the Matrix have provided an alternative. Just as particles of anti-Time are travelling through Charley, so the Time Lords can use her as a conduit to travel the other way and stop the threat at its source.
Kurst and Levith are already at work in the Doctor’s TARDIS, setting up a proton accelerator to transform Charley into a living breach in space-time. Charley braces herself, and tells Levith to give the Doctor her love, though she believes Levith won’t understand such a concept. Kurst activates the converter, and Charley’s body twists out of time and space completely...
The Doctor is concerned, but Romana assures him that the change will only be temporary, and that once the flow of anti-Time has been stopped, Charley will be free to go. The Doctor thus accepts her plan, and accompanies her and Vansell to the bridge of the Time Station -- which is staffed with a skeleton crew of Interventionists due to the secret nature of the mission. Levith contacts Vansell and reveals that Charley has become a gateway, through which she can see the whole Universe. “And the gate of Zagreus opened before him...” But as the Time Station dematerializes, the Doctor’s TARDIS console overloads and the TARDIS is sucked through the breach itself. The Doctor begs Romana to abort the mission, but they’re already committed and can’t stop now. The Time Station passes through the breach...
As the Doctor’s TARDIS loses power, so does the space-time converter, and Charley returns to her natural human form, badly shaken by her experience. Kurst and Levith, also shaken, check the destination monitor and find that it can’t settle on temporal co-ordinates. They are in a universe without Time... yet strangely they’ve materialized on a solid surface. Charley leads them outside, where Levith sets up a beacon to guide the Time Station to them. Assuming, of course, that the Station made it through the breach before it closed up...
The Time Station materializes, but its sensors, calibrated to operate in a Universe of linear Time, are overloaded with useless data. The Doctor suggests just opening the windows, as it were, and the Under-Cardinal lifts the observation ports to reveal a universe of constant motion and chaos -- with one fixed point, a static planetoid which cannot have originated in this maelstrom. The Doctor theorizes that his TARDIS would naturally have been attracted to the one safe place for it to materialize, which seems confirmed when the Time Lords pick up a signal from a time beacon and a TARDIS signature -- although the TARDIS signature is too scrambled to identify clearly. The Time Lords set course for the planetoid, but as they approach, they lose the signal -- and the Doctor realizes that it’s being affected by time distortion.
As Levith waits impatiently for the Station, Charley and Kurst see a forest of metal spikes in the distance. Charley sets off to explore, unaware that Kurst and Levith aren’t following her -- something has gone wrong with the beacon and they’re desperately trying to get it back under control. Nevertheless, Charley isn’t alone -- for something speaks to her in her own voice, and she finds herself facing what appears to be her own ghost. More spectres surround Charley, identifying themselves as the people who never were. Kurst and Levith open fire on the ghosts, distracting them while Charley flees to safety -- but the ghosts reform and descend upon Kurst, consuming the essence of his life. Charley and Levith try to flee back to the TARDIS, but the ground splits open before them, and the beacon and TARDIS tumble into the abyss and are lost.
The beacon stops signalling, and the Doctor realizes that the TARDIS they’re detecting isn’t his. Frustrated by the Time Lords’ hesitation, the Doctor pushes past the Under-Cardinal and pilots the Time Station beneath the cloud cover before Vansell can stop him. Their descent scatters the ghosts before they can descend upon Charley and Levith, but the Doctor dismisses the forest of metal spikes as another sensor fault -- although he admits his mistake after the Station crashes. Vansell is concussed by the crash, and deliriously quotes from Gallifreyan mythology -- “Zagreus waits at the end of the world, for Zagreus is the end of the world; his time is the end of time and his moment time’s undoing.” The Doctor is puzzled; why does a make-believe villain from children’s stories keep reappearing today...?
Vansell is infuriated when he recovers, but as he threatens to erase the Doctor from history completely, Charley’s ghost materializes -- or rather, the spectre which has taken Charley’s form. The Doctor realizes that this is a native of the Antiverse, a Never-person -- and he’s horrified when it reveals that it has passed through the breach before, and that it consumed Lucy and Richard Martin while it was there. More Neverpeople materialize in the station and begin drawing temporal energy out of its cracked time rotor, but when Vansell tries to drive them off, their leader informs him that the thing he seeks lies in a grotto not far from here. Vansell decides to set off immediately, and though the Doctor questions the wisdom of leaving the Time Station to the Neverpeople; however, Romana reveals that if they leave the Station long enough it will repair itself. The Doctor reluctantly accompanies Romana, Vansell and the guards out of the Station, beginning to suspect that Romana hasn’t told him the whole truth about their visit to the Antiverse. He’s right, and Vansell fears that the Doctor will oppose them when he learns the truth...
Outside, the Doctor is reunited with Charley, and while Levith reports to Romana and Vansell, the Doctor studies the metal spikes; they are artificial, and the ground itself consists of iron filings. Acid begins to rain from the sky, and the Doctor, Charley and the Time Lords shelter in a nearby cave -- but as they head deeper into the cave they realize that the tunnel is more like an artificial corridor. Charley spots a familiar round pattern on the walls, and when they enter a vast chamber with a hexagonal structure at the centre, the Doctor realizes that this “planetoid” -- which must be from their own universe -- is the wreck of a TARDIS.
Vansell, delighted, operates the TARDIS’ power receptors, and manages to bring up a hologram which the Doctor recognizes instantly. It’s the old man from the Matrix, a wise, sad old man who should be centuries dead; conqueror of the Yssgaroth, over-priest of Drornid, and first President of Gallifrey -- Rassilon himself. Rassilon speaks to the Time Lords who have found him, and tells them that the legends are true; by locking the continuum in place with the Eye of Harmony, he also created the menace of anti-Time. He thus piloted his TARDIS into the weird fringes of space-time, where he found the monster Zagreus and did battle with it. The monster was defeated, but Rassilon’s TARDIS was shattered and the way home lost. Since then he has lain suspended in a Zero Cabinet, waiting for his descendants to find him -- and rescue him. After millions of years, Rassilon is coming home.
Cast
- The Doctor - Paul McGann
- Charley Pollard - India Fisher
- Romana - Lalla Ward
- Coordinator Vansell - Anthony Keetch
- Kurst - Peter Trapani
- Levith - Holly King
- Rorvan - Mark McDonnell
- Taris - Nicola Boyce
- Rassilon - Don Warrington
- Matrix voices - Jonathan Rigby, Dot Smith, Ian Hallard
- Dalek Emperor - Alistair Lock
- Undercardinal - Lee Moone
References
Botany
- In a Matrix projection, there are no Cadonwood trees left alive.
Conventions
- The Doctor invokes the Archetryx Convention on Charley's behalf.
Galaxies
- The Doctor hasn't visited the Acteon Galaxy for some time.
- The Doctor mentions the Seven Galaxies.
Gallifreyan culture
- The origins of Zagreus are explored.
- Kurst swears saying "by Thalia's bones".
- Gallifreyan Presidents are made aware of: the War Perceptives, Jasquig Records, Cavox Imperatives and the Oubliette of Eternity.
Gallifreyan history
- The Matrix (while recounting dates) mentions: the Cult of Morbius, the Master's theft of plans for the Doomsday Weapon, Chancellor Goth's visit to Tersurus, and the Daleks' failed invasion of Gallifrey.
- Rassilon is: Conqueror of Yssgaroth, Overpriest of Dronid, First Earl of Prydon, Patris of the Vortex, Ravager of the Void.
- Rassilon used the Eye of Harmony to anchor all of space-time into a single continuity.
Gallifreyan technology
- The Oubliette of Eternity erases people and Time Lords from history. They end up in the Antiverse.
Space-time vessels
- The Time Station is a class 7C supra-orbital time station made from triple-bonded Polysium and Tinclavic. It runs on Artron fuel. Its temporal engines are protected by a Zybanium shield.
Other realities
- Anti-time cannot pass Gallifrey's transduction barriers.
- In a Matrix projection the Doctor sees Romana as Imperiatrix of Gallifrey.
Species
- The Doctor mentions Megaluthian slimeskimmers.
- Vansell mentions the Monan Host and the Warpsmiths of Phaidon.
TARDIS
- Charley uses the fast return switch to fly the TARDIS back into the path of time torpedoes.
Theories and concepts
- The Web of Time is stretched to breaking point. Even Gallifrey's own continuity is ready to break.
Timeline
- There is time distortion present in the Humanian Era, Sensorian Era and Sumaran Era.
Time Lords
- When Romana was a young girl of sixty, her family went to the shores of Lake Abydos on Gallifrey.
Literature
- Charley makes various reference to Peter Pan.
Notes
- Don Warrington's name was not included in any of the cast lists printed in Doctor Who Magazine, www.doctorwho.co.uk or the CD's inner booklet in order to conceal the character's identity. His name does, however, appear on the cover of the CD.[1]
- Despite Neverland being publicised as a traditional Big Finish Productions four-story, it was released as "a special two-part, feature-length" presentation with episodes of seventy-two minutes each.[1]
- Part 2 of Neverland leads directly into Zagreus. However, there was a gap of a year and five months between the release of Neverland in June 2002 and the release of Zagreus in November 2003.
- This audio drama was recorded on 24 and 25 January 2001 and 27 February 2002.
Continuity
- The paradox of Charley's survival started in AUDIO: Storm Warning.
- The Daleks were stuck in the vortex in AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks.
- The Time Lords first tried to get the Doctor in AUDIO: Embrace the Darkness.
- The Doctor originally tells Charley that the Time Lords want the Doctor to report at an inquiry into the recent Nimon incursion on Earth in AUDIO: Seasons of Fear, before giving in and telling her its about her survival.
- Vansell makes note of the Doctor and Charley's presence in Beauvais, France on 5 October 1930 (AUDIO: Storm Warning), the cargo ship Vanguard in 2503 (AUDIO: Sword of Orion), Venice in 2294 (AUDIO: The Stones of Venice), Malebolgia in 2003 (AUDIO: Minuet in Hell) and New York City in 1938 (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars).
- Vansell also notes their next appearance in London, but it is unclear how true that is, given the events of AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight.
- AUDIO: Seasons of Fear first showed the Neverpeople entering the normal universe.
- AUDIO: Project: Twilight, PROSE: Instruments of Darkness and AUDIO: Seasons of Fear mentioned Zagreus.
- The Matrix noted Rassilon Era date of 6978.3. This is incorrect, and should have been 6798.3.
- The Library of St John the Beheaded appeared in PROSE: All-Consuming Fire; Yssgaroth appeared in PROSE: The Pit, and Gallifrey's Mount Cadon comes from PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation.
- The Doctor recalls his and Romana's adventures in E-Space. (TV: Full Circle, TV: State of Decay, AUDIO: The Invasion of E-Space, TV: Warriors' Gate)
- The Doctor mentions his encounter with Mary Shelley and Lord Byron near Lake Geneva in Switzerland in June 1816. (AUDIO: Mary's Story)
- The Matrix voices refer to the crash of the British airship R101 on 5 October 1930 (AUDIO: Storm Warning), Adolf Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933 (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus), the abdication of King Edward VIII on 10 December 1936 (PROSE: Players), the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 (AUDIO: A Blind Eye), the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk on 27 May 1940 (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus, AUDIO: Fugitives), the admission of Peladon into the Galactic Federation (TV: The Curse of Peladon, TV: The Monster of Peladon), the election of Mavic Chen as Guardian of the Solar System in 3950 (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan), the Daleks' forces assembling on Kembel in 4000 (TV: Mission to the Unknown), the establishment of the Cult of Morbius in 5725.3 (TV: The Brain of Morbius), the theft of the plans for the Doomsday Weapon by the Master on 5892.9 (TV: Colony in Space), Chancellor Goth's visit to Tersurus in 6241.1 (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks), the disappearance of Lady President Romana and Etra Prime in 6776.7 and the repulsion of the Dalek invasion of Gallifrey by Romana in 6796.8 (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element).
- After Vansell's death, he would be succeeded as coordinator of the CIA by Narvin. (AUDIO: Weapon of Choice)
- During their visit to Light City in the Divergent Universe, the Doctor and Charley's memories were contributed to the pool of information used to programme the Proles. An edited version of their visit to Gallifrey was included in an infotainment broadcast which the Proles were obligated to watch. (AUDIO: The Natural History of Fear)
- After Charley escaped from the Ever-and-Ever Prolixity, a Viyran agent was stationed on Gallifrey to search for her. (AUDIO: The Fall of the House of Pollard)
- The Doctor mentions previously being in Rassilon's Tomb. (TV: The Five Doctors)
Footnotes
External links
- Official Neverland page at bigfinish.com; note that it is out of print and is available as download only.
- Neverland at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for Neverland at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
