Klein's Story (audio story)

Elizabeth Klein is an anomaly, a renegade from an alternate future in which the Nazis won World War II. In an attempt to get to know his latest companion, the Doctor invites Klein to tell him how exactly she came to be in possession of his TARDIS and of the events that led to her trip into the past to Colditz Castle.

Cast

References

In her timeline, Klein was researching at University of Cambridge in 1962 when she recruited by Major Jonas Faber to study and unlock the secrets of alien technology stored in a bunker in Berlin. She and Faber eventually became lovers.
The Führer Adolf Hitler was reluctant to acknowledge the existence of superior alien civilisations and technology and therefore ordered all evidence of this to be placed in the bunker. After his death in 1961, policy was changed and research into the alien technology began in earnest. However, the succeeding ruling body was soon weakened by divisions and internal conflicts.
Klein had been studying a Drahvinan power drive. She learned how to operate the device but remained ignorant of how it worked. Consequently, she was unable to duplicate the technology.
Faber tells Klein that, using the laser technology obtained from Ace's Walkman shortly after her execution at Colditz Castle in October 1944, Germany was able to develop nuclear weaponry. They subsequently bombed New York City and Moscow, forcing the surrender of the Allies and winning World War II for Nazi Germany.
In Klein's timeline, the Seventh Doctor fled Colditz Castle after Ace was killed by the Nazis. Immediately afterwards in his personal timeline, he returned to Germany in 1955. The TARDIS materialised near a border checkpoint in the West. As he appeared to be carrying a weapon, the Nazi soldiers on duty shot him immediately. After examining his body, they realised that it was in actuality an old umbrella. Although the TARDIS was captured, the Doctor's body seemingly disappeared. While the Nazi assumed that it had been stolen by trophy hunters, its "disappearance" was due to the fact that the Doctor had regenerated into his eighth incarnation and absconded. He adopted the alias "Johann Schmidt" and later told Klein that he was a collector of sorts who had stolen the Doctor's body and gained possession of the TARDIS key. Klein describes him as being "handsome, in a Gothic sort of way."
Between 1955 and 1965, the Doctor helped political prisoners escape the clutches of the Nazis and disrupted the Third Reich's "ethnic cleansing programmes." Consequently, he attracted the attention of the Nazi authorities but nevertheless maintained his liberty.
The Doctor mentions the science fiction series Professor X. He claims that he always thought that it was better in the 1960s than it was later during its run until he actually watched several of the early serials including Vault of the Cyborgs, one of the series' best regarded stories.

Notes

Paul McGann stars as an alternative version of the Eighth Doctor from Klein's timeline in this story.
Unlike previous Big Finish releases of three part/one part story combinations, Klein's Story precedes Survival of the Fittest in this release.
The Doctor's reference to Professor X is a reference to an episode of Steven Moffatt's children's television programme Press Gang, which revolved around one character's relationship with a creaky old television show that he watched as a boy; the show, Professor X, was very clearly patterned on Doctor Who. Coincidentally, Professor X himself was played in this episode by Michael Jayston, who had already appeared in Doctor Who as the character of the Valeyard. Moffatt has joked in interviews that after the end of his series Coupling, the main character, Steve Taylor, is a scriptwriter who now works on a modern revival of Professor X.
The reference also functions as a good-natured poke at the lower quality of earlier Doctor Who episodes, since he says that he thought the show was better in the 1960s until he went back and actually watched the episodes. The title Vault of the Cyborgs is a reference to DW: Tomb of the Cybermen. Lost for many years, all four episodes of The Tomb of the Cybermen were recovered and rushed onto video in the early 1990s, at which point its reputation as a classic underwent radical, albeit temporary, reappraisal.
Along with BFA: Zagreus and BFA: The Four Doctors, this is one of three Big Finish audio dramas in which both Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann appear.
The name Johann Schmidt is a possible reference to the alter ego of the Captain America villain, the Red Skull.
Rupert Wickham (Major Jonas Faber) previously played Captain Dudgeon in BFA: No Man's Land.

Continuity

The Doctor tells Klein that the British Army has arrived in Kenya and that Sylvia O'Donnell and her husband Heinrich will be safe. (BFA: A Thousand Tiny Wings)
The TARDIS' design in this story is the same as in DW: Doctor Who (1996), since Klein mentions that the Doctor has "redecorated" the ship since she last saw it when he was travelling with Ace.
The scene from DW: The Three Doctors in which the Second Doctor voices his displeasure with the new design of the TARDIS is echoed in a similar remark from Klein.
The Doctor mentions the TARDIS' "leopard skin" desktop theme. (DW: Time Crash)
For her second trip in the TARDIS, the Doctor considers bringing Klein to Florana. (DW: Invasion of the Dinosaurs, DW: Death to the Daleks, BFA: The Elite)
In the alternative timeline, the Seventh Doctor regenerated for the same reason as in DW: Doctor Who (1996).
"Johann Schmidt" is a German variation of the Doctor's usual alias "John Smith". The Seventh Doctor had previously referred to himself as "Johann Schmidt" while impersonating a Nazi Reichsinspektor in May 1951 in another alternative timeline (NA: Timewyrm: Exodus). In the proper timeline, the Eighth Doctor would later use the name while posing as a German spy aboard the British airship R101 in October 1930. (BFA: Storm Warning)
Klein claims that she was unaware of the proper name of the TARDIS until she learned it from the Seventh Doctor in Colditz Castle in October 1944. However, she referred to it as such in BFA: Colditz before the Doctor ever used the name.

Timeline

For the Doctor and Klein (Frame story)

Klein's Story takes place after BFA: A Thousand Tiny Wings
Klein's Story takes place immediately before BFA: Survival of the Fittest

For the alternative Eighth Doctor (Flashbacks)

Klein's Story takes place approximately ten years after an alternative version of the events of BFA: Colditz

For Klein (Flashbacks)

Klein's Story takes place before BFA: Colditz

External links

Klein's Story at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
Official Survival of the Fittest / Klein's Story page at bigfinish.com