The Last Diner (audio story)

	Martha Jones
	Francine Jones, Holly
	Toclafane
	United States of America, The Year That Never Was
	Big Finish Productions
	James Goss
	Scott Handcock
	Howard Carter
	Howard Carter
	1.1
	The Year of Martha Jones
	16 December 2021
	1 Episode on 1 CD (1st of 3 stories)
	ISBN 978-1-83868-242-2 (physical); ISBN 978-1-83868-243-9 (digital)
The Year of Martha Jones
Next →	Silver Medal

The Last Diner was the first story in the audio anthology The Year of Martha Jones, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by James Goss and featured Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones and Adjoa Andoh as Francine Jones.

Publisher's summary

Martha arrives on the west coast of the US and finds an old friend waiting to make contact.

A desperate group gathers for her stories. But when Francine arrives, escaped from the Valiant, she isn't so keen to hear about the Doctor...

Cast

• Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman
• Francine Jones - Adjoa Andoh
• Holly - Serin Ibrahim
• Karen - Marina Sirtis
• Tucker - Ewart James Walters
• Toclafane - Clare Louise Connolly

References

• Francine Jones states that she was able to sneak off the Valiant because the Master has no interest for the prisoners at the moment.
• Martha Jones and Holly went to university together. When Holly's mother passed away, Martha struggled to connect with her and their friendship slowly died.
• According to Karen and Tucker, their diner is the last in the world.
• Among the foodstuffs that the diner manages to find are coffee, crisps, and noodles.
• During one of Martha's storytellings, many of the customers believe the Toclafane invasion to be the first alien invasion of Earth. However, Tucker and Karen argue about the ghosts that appeared in the days before the Battle of Canary Wharf. Karen claims that it was widely accepted as a mass hallucination. Holly also cannot explain how her bed-bound mother somehow managed to leave her bed and climb onto the roof of her building "one Christmas".

Notes

• According to the Behind the Scenes for this story, Freema Agyeman stated to Big Finish that she had no interest at the time in picking up the character of Martha Jones for Doctor Who. However, when they approached her to do a Torchwood script with Eve Myles instead, she said yes. It was at this time that the two parties discussed the plans for the boxset and Freema stated she was interested.
• In the Behind the Scenes, it was further explained that this boxset evolved massively over the space of five years. In fact, in the original plan, all four story were completely different as were their writers. Due to numerous timing issues and new script ideas, the original plan was scrapped altogether and a new boxset was devised.

Continuity

• Leo Jones' location remains unknown. Martha had previously ordered him to go on the run after Harold Saxon had Martha's entire family arrested. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
• Despite being extremely immobile towards the end of her life, Holly remembers how her mother climbed onto the roof one Christmas Day. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
• Karen states that the Ghosts that appeared before the Battle of Canary Wharf was caused by mass hallucinations. She states that this theory is widely accepted by humans. (TV: Army of Ghosts)
• Martha was present when the islands of Japan burnt. (PROSE: The Story of Martha, TV: Last of the Time Lords)
• Francine Jones blames the presence of Harold Saxon on the Doctor. In an alternate timeline where the Doctor drowned underneath the River Thames, Harold Saxon never escaped Utopia and never became Prime Minister. (TV: Turn Left)
• Martha once again struggles to have a conversation with Francine without getting frustrated. (TV: 42)
• Despite Martha keeping up the appearance that she is wandering the Earth giving people simple hope, Francine correctly assumes that there's a secret plan at work. Francine will one day understand the true nature of Martha's meanderings and join in to take down the Master. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)
• Martha is suspicious of everyone around her, claiming that anyone could be an informant. For that reason, she won't divulge any private information to anyone. Later, Martha would be deceived by Professor Docherty, who informed on Martha's location in the hope that would gain help to locate her son. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)
• Human slaves are being used to build rockets. The Master would reveal to the Doctor that these rockets would be part of his plan to start a war with the rest of the universe. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)
• A rocket is used to slaughter hundreds of people inside the diner. Upon rising to power, the Master had previously slaughtered one tenth of the population of Earth with similar callous and disregard of human life. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
  • The Master's disregard for human life on such a grand scale is not a new thing. His next incarnation, Missy, happily incinerated any human that got in her way, including the Doctor's friends. (TV: Death in Heaven, et al)
• Martha tells her audience about the Doctor trapping the Family of Blood. (TV: Human Nature/The Family of Blood)
• The Master told Francine that the Doctor was responsible for sinking Atlantis. (TV: The Time Monster)

External links

• Official The Last Diner page at bigfinish.com