The Time Museum (audio story)

“This is The Chesterton Exhibition. A series of breathtakingly faithful tableaux, painstakingly detailed to the nth degree. Dedicated to the life of that most extraordinary time traveller, Ian Chesterton!”

Ian finds himself in a shrine to his own past, and on the run with a man named Pendolin.

From Coal Hill School to Jobis Station, from Totter's Yard to the Crusades, Ian's history is unfolding.

And a confrontation with a deadly enemy with a voracious appetite awaits...

Plot

The Cave of Five Hundred Skulls (1)

to be added

The Birth of Ian Chesterton (2)

to be added

Cast

References

Ian awakens to find himself in a recreation of his bedroom, which leads into a recreation of his science classroom in Coal Hill School in the Chesterton Exhibition, dedicated to his travels with the First Doctor, in the Time Museum. One of the oak chairs has "Kilroy" carved into it while there is a burn mark on one of the desks. Ian is reminded of one of the third years spilling sulphuric acid on it years earlier. Pendolin tells him that he is to be the star attraction of the exhibition.
Pendolin tells Ian that he may have been the first human male to travel with the Doctor.
Ian tells Pendolin that one of his students, Susan Foreman, used to look at him as if he were a sample under a microscope, something quaint.
Ian has been removed from his own time through the use of a time scoop.
The Time Museum has been invaded by creatures which feed on memories. They devoured every exhibit except for the Chesterton Exhibition, and killed everyone in the museum except for Ian and Pendolin, who hid. Ian is severely affected by them at first. His memories of his travels with the Doctor become muddled and he cannot even the remember the name of his wife Barbara Chesterton.
The Time Museum featured a exhibit on the Sontaran-Rutan War containing thousands of Sontaran and Rutan Host ships and millions of lives, all of whom were eaten.
Ian grew up in London during the Blitz in World War II.
Pendolin brought Ian to the Time Museum in the hope of luring the Doctor to be his star exhibit. However, he was unable to attract the Doctor's attention.
Ian eventually realises that it is not the creatures outside who are feeding on his memories but Pendolin. He used to occasionally feed on one of the thousands of visitors to the Museum but rumours of mysterious deaths resulted in the number of visitors following off dramatically. Starving, Pendolin devoured the memories of his exhibits, beginning with the occasional Sontaran. He reasoned that, given that the Sontarans are a clone race, they would not be missed. Ian determines that the creatures were attacking Pendolin all along.

Notes

As was the case with AUDIO: Solitaire and AUDIO: The Jigsaw War, this audio drama does not feature any narration. It is a full cast audio drama which only features two speaking roles.
Although the First Doctor is featured on the CD cover, he does not appear in the story itself.
This story features at least one direct reference to every televised story in which Ian appears as well as AUDIO: Farewell, Great Macedon, AUDIO: The Rocket Men and AUDIO: The Masters of Luxor.
This audio drama was recorded on 12 October 2011 at The Moat Studios.

Continuity

After Ian demands to be returned home, Pendolin remarks that he is being extremely consistent as always sought to go home no matter how many wonderful places that he had been visited or wonderful things he had seen. (TV: An Unearthly Child, et. al)
Ian tells Pendolin that Barbara was concerned that Susan did not know how many shillings were in a pound. He remembers that Susan listened to a band called John Smith and the Common Men on her transistor radio. Furthermore, he recalls that he and Barbara followed her home to 76 Totter's Lane, where they met her grandfather who lived in a police call box. Shortly thereafter, he took them to the distant past. (TV: An Unearthly Child)
Ian remembers that he once travelled with a man who sometimes called himself "John Smith." (PROSE: The Witch Hunters, TV: The Vampires of Venice)
The Time Museum contains a recreation of the metal corridors of the Dalek City on Skaro, where Ian encountered the Daleks for the first time. (TV: The Daleks)
Ian refers to his visits to Jobis (AUDIO: The Rocket Men), the Sense Sphere (TV: The Sensorites) and the pyramid of Arbitan on Marinus. (TV: The Keys of Marinus)
Ian mentions that Alexander the Great taught him how to ride a horse. (AUDIO: Farewell, Great Macedon)
Ian remembers suffering from radiation poisoning during his visit to Skaro. (TV: The Daleks)
Ian recalls fighting in the Third Crusade in the 1190s. (TV: The Crusade) However, his memory is muddled as he initially believes that he fought for King John against the forces of Kublai Khan (TV: Marco Polo), who forced him to fight in his arena. (TV: The Romans) After smelling smoke, he claims that Emperor Nero has set fire to the farmhouse (TV: The Romans, The Reign of Terror), that Robomen are following himself and Pendolin (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) and they must flee to the Temple of Yetaxa where Susan is to be sacrificed (TV: The Aztecs) to the Masters of Luxor. (AUDIO: The Masters of Luxor) He also claims that the Doctor is to be married in the Temple. (TV: The Aztecs)
Ian tells Pendolin that, during his travels with the Doctor, he never had time to catch his breath on his trips to Vortis (TV: The Web Planet) and Versailles. (TV: The Reign of Terror)
Ian claims that he, the Doctor, Barbara and Susan were locked in the Cave of Skulls by the Aztec warlord Tegana who wanted them to create the wheel. (TV: An Unearthly Child, The Aztecs, Marco Polo)
Ian was removed from his own time, the late 20th century, using by a time scoop. Pendolin was unable to use the same process on the Doctor due to the fact that he is a Time Lord. (TV: The Five Doctors) He would later be brought to an alternative Death Zone on Gallifrey by Rassilon using a time scoop, where he encountered the Fifth Doctor. (AUDIO: The Five Companions)
Ian refers to the acid seas of Marinus. (TV: The Keys of Marinus)
Ian and Pendolin face a colony of giant ants (TV: Planet of Giants), who the former claims were fighting a war with the giant earthworms and butterflies. (TV: The Web Planet) Furthermore, he claims that he was tied to stakes in the desert and covered with honey to attract the ants. (TV: The Crusade) They fend them off using giant versions of the Doctor's everlasting matches. (PROSE: Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, TV: Planet of Giants)
Ian and Pendolin find a recreation of the TARDIS in I.M. Foreman's junkyard on 76 Totter's Lane. (TV: An Unearthly Child)
Ian recalls visiting the Space Museum on Morok (TV: The Space Museum) and that the Doctor had told him and Barbara that "you cannot change history, not one line." (TV: The Aztecs)
Pendolin shows Ian an Eternal sailing vessel (TV: Enlightenment) and the first Nekkistani vessel to breach the time barrier. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element)
Ian recalls that he prevented the Doctor from killing Za with a rock after they escaped from the Cave of Skulls. He believes that this incident had a profound impact on the Doctor. Prior to meeting Ian and Barbara, he abided by the Time Lords' non-interference policy. Subsequently, he began to actively intervene. (TV: An Unearthly Child, et. al)

External links

Official The Time Museum page at bigfinish.com