The Jabari Countdown (audio story)

Arriving on a mysterious island, stranded with a group of mathematicians, the Doctor and his companions find themselves on the fringes of the Second World War. Trapped with only each other and an unknown threat, the group must work together to solve a puzzle greater than just one world's war.

Plot

After his boat is wrecked, a man washes up on an island and knocks on the door of a house, asking for Christian charity. There is no answer so he enters and encounters a creature which growls at him. He screams and shouts for help.

Chris tries to make Roz play hide and seek in the TARDIS, but Roz thinks that he is being childish and refuses. The TARDIS is thrown off-course by an alien signal and materialises on a ship in the 1940s where they meet Zsa Zsa Straus, Alpha Wheeler, Eleanor Blake and Lieutenant Fray and determine that a secret operation to defeat the Nazis with mathematics is in place with each of those aboard having followed clues which led them here. Everybody is forced to jump from the ship and swim to shore, abandoning the TARDIS, after which they head for the house.

The Doctor looks around the house with Alpha and, upon finding a corpse in the pantry, has Alpha fetch Roz and Chris. Whilst examining the body, which has 1926 written on his hand, they hear Zsa Zsa scream and go to help her, finding that she has been attacked. Alpha and Wheeler join them, followed by Eleanor, who has solved a puzzle to a numerical lock that she and Chris found. Roz goes outside with Zsa Zsa for fresh air whilst the others open the numerical lock; a timer is activated and the windows are sealed, but not before the Doctor can get a TARDIS key to Roz.

to be completed

Cast

References

Arbuckle calls out to St Peter and St Andrew for help.
Arbuckle has lobster which he says is the best this side of the Devon coast.
Chris tries to get Roz to play hide and seek with him.
The Doctor says that the TARDIS is the best place to play hide and seek this side of the Kravilian Maze Planets.
Zsa Zsa has degrees in chemistry and several years' experience of computation in a munitions factory.
The Doctor claims that Roz can write shorthand.
Alpha knits gloves.
Alpha has several grandchildren, including a grandson called William, who has a temper.
Alpha has arthritis.
Roz finds ham, eggs, milk and cheese in the fridge.
Zsa Zsa is Austrian.
Fray was at the Battle of Jutland.
One of Alpha's sons was in a relationship with a woman called Linda and was going to move to Argentina before Alpha told Linda that she would not allow her to leave with him. Alpha denies calling her a floozy.
Alpha offers to make the Doctor a trifle.
Alpha was a geopositioning expert in World War I.
Alpha's firstborn is called Michael.
Zsa Zsa's father told her to study maths.
Zsa Zsa says that Roz would do well with Chekhov.
Lot's wife is mentioned.

Notes

Despite initially being credited as “Eleanor Burke” in the cast credits, within the narrative, the character is called Eleanor Blake. The error in the credits was later corrected by Big Finish.

Continuity

Another enemy of the Doctor, the Weeping Angels, would later infect Amy Pond, and have her recite numbers in place of some words she intended to say. In that case, it was a countdown. (TV: Flesh and Stone)

External links

Official The Jabari Countdown page at bigfinish.com