Chronomancer (audio story)
Chronomancer was the third and final story in the audio anthology Purity Undreamed produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Robert Valentine and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush, Ruth Madeley as Hebe Harrison, Cherylee Houston as Elise and Imogen Stubbs as Patricia McBride.
Publisher's summary
The Doctor, Mel and Hebe take Patricia to see 26th century Sheffield, but their trip is cut unexpectedly short. Caught in the crossfire between time-criminal, Khavûl, and dashing ‘chronomancer’, Tannus Vallon, the TARDIS crash-lands back in the present.
With a dimensionally transcendental artefact lost somewhere in the city, the Doctor and his friends must find it before Khavûl can...but with resentments and prejudices finally unmasked, is an even bigger threat about to engulf the world?
Plot
Part one
Khavûl, a traitor to the Chronomantic Order, escapes from Tannus Vallon by jumping in the Time Vortex. Vallon jumps in after him for truth, justice and freedom.
The Doctor takes his companions to Sheffield in 2569 to sate Patricia's anthropological interests, but she is overwhelmed and asks to be taken home, although Mel and Hebe do not understand why. In the Vortex, they see Vallon and Khavûl fighting and save the former, taking him with them to Earth and noticing that he is wearing a suit capable of time travel. Due to an artron overload, the TARDIS is out of action and they take Vallon to Elise and Ron's house.
The Doctor manages to restore Vallon's life signs thanks to him being symbiotically connected to his suit. Vallon confirms that he is Drornidian and explains that he is a chronomancer of the Chronomantic Order; his job is to protect the Vortex from the Gentry, a sect modelled on the Time Lords and led by Khavûl, who wants to steal an Oubliette. In the kitchen, the Doctor confronts Patricia about her disgust of the diversity they saw in the future and angrily tells her to leave. Hebe goes after her and is appalled when Patricia expresses her disappointment at disability still existing in the future.
Patricia is found by Khavûl, whose suit detected the artron energy from her crossing the time stream, and claims that she does not know where Vallon is. She agrees to help him find the Oubliette, however, out of her fear of the Earth's future.
Part two
Vallon wants to go in search of Khavûl to prevent him from accidentally activating the Oubliette's failsafe and destroying the city. After Vallon describes it, Elise says that she believes it landed in the Botanical Gardens three months ago and is part of an exhibition that Ron is helping with. The Doctor, Mel, Hebe, Elise and Vallon head there and find that Khavûl, led there by Patricia, has already inadvertently activated the countdown.
The Doctor and Vallon confront Khavûl, who shoots and kills Vallon. Patricia refuses to hand the Oubliette over to Khavûl until he threatens to kill everybody, at which point she hands it over. The Doctor takes Vallon's vortex gun and goes after Khavûl, demanding that he takes the Oubliette away from Earth and banishing the device into itself when Elise hits Khavûl with her car. Khavûl jumps away and the Oubliette is destroyed by recursive dimensional inversion. Unbeknownst to the others, Patricia puts on Vallon's time suit and provides her username as Purity.
After destroying Vallon's vortex gun, the Doctor, Mel and Hebe head back to the TARDIS to have a film night by visiting various premiers. On the way, the Doctor feels a temporal judder and Hebe vanishes. The Doctor looks at the TARDIS console and finds that Hebe no longer exists.
Cast
- The Doctor - Colin Baker
- Mel Bush - Bonnie Langford
- Hebe Harrison - Ruth Madeley
- Patricia McBride / Time Suit - Imogen Stubbs
- Elise - Cherylee Houston
- Tannus Vallon / Vallon's Suit - Joseph Kloska
- Khavûl / Khavûl's Suit - Matthew Brenher
- Ron - Toby Hadoke
References
- The 26th century has hovercars, hoverchairs and hover pizza cutters.
- Khavûl destroys a green police box.
- Ron helps with an exhibition at the Botanical Gardens.
- Vallon and Khavûl are Drornidians.
- Ron gets a curry.
- Ron goes to stay around Bernard's.
- Hebe mentions the film Labyrinth.
- Patricia says that she is tolerant of disability, homosexuality and neurodivergence because they cannot be changed.
- Khavûl is Duke of Drornid, Paradox Mage and highest of the Gentry.
- Hebe states a willingness to give Vallon CPR.
- Hebe moved into a flat three months ago. It is not very big.
- Stanley is a police officer whom Elise knows.
- The Doctor mentions Pease Pottage.
Notes
- Chronomancer was recorded at the Soundhouse in November 2021.
Continuity
- The Doctor mentions how he took Hebe to various water worlds. (AUDIO: The Tides of the Moon, Maelstrom)
- Khavûl and Vallon hail from Drornid, an offshoot of Time Lord society that developed independently from Gallifrey due to ideological differences. As a planet, Drornid would later play a critical role in the War in Heaven. (TV: Shada, PROSE: The Book of the War)
- Ron mentions the debacle with the Mindless Facility. (AUDIO: The Mindless Ones)
External links
- Official Chronomancer page at bigfinish.com
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