Nevermore (audio story)

A bizarre manifestation in the Control Room forces the TARDIS onto the Plutonian shores of the irradiated world Nevermore, whose sole inhabitant is the war criminal Morella Wendigo — a prisoner of this devastated planet. But the Doctor and his new companion aren’t Morella’s only visitors. Senior Prosecutor Uglosi fears the arrival of an assassin, after the blood of his prize prisoner. An assassin with claws…

There’s no escape from Nevermore, whose raven-like robot jailers serve to demonstrate Uglosi’s macabre obsession with the works of the 19th century horror writer Edgar Allan Poe. An obsession that might yet lead to the premature burial of everyone on the planet’s surface — wreathed in the mist they call the Red Death!

Plot

to be added

Cast

The Doctor - Paul McGann
Tamsin Drew - Niky Wardley
Morella Wendigo - Fenella Woolgar
Senior Prosecutor Uglosi - Michael J. Shannon
Dr. Berenice Ward - Emilia Fox
Pilot / Edgar Allan Poe - Eric Loren
Ravens - John Banks

References

Astronomical objects

Nevermore was previously called Corinth Minor located in Cassiopeia, which contained volcanoes that showered semi-precious gemstones instead of lava.

The Doctor

The Doctor quotes extensively from The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.
The Doctor met Poe in the autumn of 1849 in Baltimore where his title was mistaken for a medical qualification. He was asked to attend to Poe who was in a bar sitting among a crowd of drunks but was completely sober.

Individuals

Tamsin did a circus arts module in drama school, which included escapology and contortionism.
Uglosi tells the Doctor that a "strange little man" was brought before his court on a vagrancy charge twenty years earlier.

Literature from the Real World

The Doctor recites much of the poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe.

Popular Culture from the Real world

Tamsin sarcastically asks if the "cat" is Bagpuss, before commenting when its sets the TARDIS co-ordinates that "Animals Do the Funniest Things!"; both references to television shows.

TARDIS

The TARDIS has a mile of Margate beach with seagulls, a laundry, a greenhouse and a sauna.
After the black cat appears in the console room, Tamsin refers to Bagpuss and Animals Do the Funniest Things.
The Doctor has a colony of Fledershrews in the TARDIS.

Notes

The story has numerous influences from Poe's canon of work. 'Nevermore' is also the word the Raven caws in The Raven, whilst the robotic ravens derive from the same story; a black cat is the focus of The Black Cat; the mist of the Red Death is a reference to the titular plague of The Masque of the Red Death.
The story was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 9 January 2013.

Continuity

Between this and the previous audio story, Situation Vacant, Tamsin forgets how to open the TARDIS doors from the console.
The Doctor tells Tamsin that cats are very popular on Gallifrey and that it was standard for Lord Presidents to have cats until the incident with the giant mice. (TV: The Mark of the Rani)
The Doctor mentions that he was the protégé of the American escapologist Harry "Handcuff Harry" Houdini. (TV: Planet of the Spiders) His fourth incarnation had previously told the Iceni cook Bragnar that Houdini kept numerous lock picks on his person. (AUDIO: The Wrath of the Iceni)
After regaining consciousness, the Doctor refers to the temporal storm in which his future self was caught and his subsequent arrival at the Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva in Switzerland in June 1816, where he met his former companion Mary Shelley for the first time. (AUDIO: Mary's Story)
The Doctor mentions that he met Edgar Allan Poe three days prior to his death during his second exile on Earth earlier in his eighth incarnation. (PROSE: The Deadstone Memorial)
The Doctor tells Uglosi that he believes that there is only one renegade Time Lord who would manipulate others into wiping out the population of an entire planet and that he is "no longer around." This is a presumably a reference to the Bruce Master, who met his death when he fell into the Eye of Harmony shortly after the Doctor's most recent regeneration. (TV: Doctor Who) The Eighth Doctor would later encounter a Master resurrected by the Time Lords. (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master)
The Doctor would later learn the identity of the "strange little man" who was responsible for the destruction of Corinth Minor on his visit to Ireland in 1006. (AUDIO: The Book of Kells)

External links

Nevermore at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
Official Nevermore page at bigfinish.com
DisContinuity for Nevermore at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide