Mission Improbable (audio story)

Mission Improbable
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Evelyn
Main enemy:	Gaines
Main setting:	Prison
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Chris Wing
Read by:	Stephen Critchlow
Release details
Release number:	34
Release date:	20 March 2018
Format:	Audiobook
Subscriber Short Trips
← Previous	The Night Before Christmas
Next →	Taken For Granted

You may be looking for Mission: Impractical (novel).

Mission Improbable was the thirty-fourth Subscriber Short Trips audio story. It featured the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn Smythe and was available to subscribers of Big Finish's main Doctor Who range whose subscription included Serpent in the Silver Mask.

Plot

In a prison thirty miles from the mainland, Evelyn is visited by Captain Gaines, who claims that there is footage of her and the Doctor taking part in a rebellion. She is sure that the Doctor will rescue her in the TARDIS before the time of her execution, but he instead infiltrates the prison by jumping from his flying ship with a parachute and putting on some overalls in a disguise that he completes with a false moustache.

The Doctor, after evading two security guards and causing a third to knock himself out, locates Evelyn by accessing the CCTV at a computer terminal and attempts to shut down the security systems on the route. His biometrics are not recognised, however, and he sets off an alarm by damaging the computers with a wet mop before travelling through the air vents. Later, Gaines tells Evelyn that the Doctor has been captured and that he too will be executed in the morning, but, when he exits, she calmly collects her handbag and prepares to leave.

Disguised as a guard, the Doctor closes the door behind Gaines and frees Evelyn, congratulating her on her acting abilities and explaining that he took his guard's helmet from a new member of staff who was subsequently misstaken for him. They leave, intending on letting the wrongfully-imprisoned guard out, and the Doctor rhetorically asks Evelyn who could ever forget her.

Characters

• Sixth Doctor
• Evelyn Smythe
• Gaines

Worldbuilding

• The Doctor uses the fast return switch.
• The Doctor has a parachute from his exile on Earth.
• The Doctor was given lockpicks by Marie Antoinette.
• In his overalls and fake moustache, the Doctor is misstaken for Carlos.
• Evelyn mentions Mozart and Bach.
• The Doctor is wearing his blue frock coat.

Notes

• This was the first story to feature Evelyn Smythe since Industrial Evolution in 2011.

Continuity

• The Doctor exiled on Earth in a prior incarnation. (TV: The War Games, etc.)
• The Doctor no longer has a sonic screwdriver. (TV: The Visitation)
• The Doctor wonders why he does not wear disguises as he used to. (TV: The Reign of Terror, The Underwater Menace, The Green Death, etc.)
• The Doctor has put on a Mexican accent before. (TV: The Enemy of the World)