The Nightmare Fair (audio story)

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The Nightmare Fair was the first story in the first series of The Lost Stories, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was adapted by John Ainsworth, from the original script by Graham Williams, and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown and introduced David Bailie as the Toymaker.

This story was originally intended to be the first story of the original Season 23, but was cancelled along with other planned stories when Doctor Who went on a production hiatus.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

The TARDIS has been drawn to Blackpool in the year 1986, where the Doctor intends to investigate a dangerous space/time vortex... while enjoying some local attractions along the way. But an old enemy is watching from his base deep within the amusement park, a timeless being who craves revenge.

The Celestial Toymaker has returned. The game is on. And, should he lose, the Doctor will pay the ultimate forfeit...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]

After the TARDIS is pulled to Blackpool in 1986 by a space/time vortex, the Doctor takes Peri up Blackpool Tower and around the amusement park. Peri is not initially enamoured by the experience, but they enjoy a roller coaster ride together and go for a walk, during which the Doctor telepathically hears a voice he had previously mistaken for Peri saying his name. He senses that something is wrong as they watch a woman find her missing son and traces the voice to the Galactic Adventure ride to which they are followed by Kevin, who has been watching the pair.

The attendant puts Peri and Kevin in one carriage and the Doctor in one to himself despite his protestations. When Peri disembarks at the end of the ride, she notices that the Doctor has disappeared and goes with Kevin to speak to security about his whereabouts, but a man with a gun captures them and leads them away until Kevin manages to get the weapon and shoot at him, injuring himself with a ricocheting bullet. Kevin tells Peri how his brother, Geoff, disappeared near the video arcade and that he has seen a mandarin, strange lights and a red creature there.

The Doctor is locked in a cell next door to somebody whom he attempts to communicate with through knocking to no avail. He is visited in his cell by the Toymaker, who reveals that is using Peri to collect Kevin and releases the Ventusan from the next cell to attack the Doctor. After the Doctor manages to soothe it through more knocking, Stefan escorts him to the Toymaker's rooms where he learns that the Toymaker himself is the vortex that pulled the TARDIS to 1986 to invite him to play another game.

Peri and Kevin follow a tunnel to the goldmine ride and are attacked by animated dummies. Kevin is captured and taken to the cells whilst Peri is to be dealt with by the Toymaker, who is delighted when the Doctor accepts his challenge to play the ultimate game.

Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor clarifies that he will not play the game until he sees Peri and is returned to his cell where he finds Kevin and an arcade game. He puts together an image loop so that the Toymaker's video camera shows the two of them in conversation, allowing him to discover that the arcade game is a solid hologram, and he alters it to show Peri as well when she is imprisoned with them. She explains how she was attacked by an android duplicate of Kevin which she took to be the real thing until his voice malfunctioned and she realised he was unharmed despite Kevin having been shot, after which she was captured and he faded away.

The Doctor uses a device to make the three holographic walls of the cell fade away so that the trio can escape with the Ventusan and meet the android SB, another prisoner who joins the group. The fourth wall remains in place. When Stefan comes to take him to the Toymaker, the Doctor tells Peri to yell if she needs him and is made to play the arcade game, which the Toymaker made with Geoff's help and which will soon be released around the world. The Doctor beats the Toymaker's high score and realises that he is from another universe, hurled alone into this one alone by a catastrophe which left him long-living and bored until he found games; the Toymaker sets an electrical monster on him.

The Ventusan works on a device using SB's parts and attacks Peri when it makes a continuous loud noise. Peri's scream incapacitates the Toymaker and causes the monster to attack Stefan, after which the Doctor returns to the cells to free Peri and Kevin and get them to look for the Toymaker's tele-mechanical relay to control his holograms. Once he finds it, he ensures that it operates eternally to keep the Toymaker trapped in an endless loop inside his own holograms so long as he lives, which he believes is the only way to deal with him. He also explains to Peri that the Ventusan built a transmitter on the same wavelength as the holograms and that Peri's scream flooded the Toymaker's mind, getting rid of the monster he intended to release upon the Earth.

Kevin and Geoff are reunited and the Doctor advises them to locate the patents for the arcade games to take over and close down the Toymaker's factory. The Doctor agrees to use the transdimensional stabiliser to move the Toymaker's prison and to use the TARDIS to take SB and the Ventusan home, but he first takes her back to the funfair.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

CD Sleeve illustration of events of the story.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]