The Contingency Club (audio story)

London, 1864 - where any gentleman befitting the title ‘gentleman’ belongs to a gentlemen’s club: The Reform, The Athenaeum, The Carlton, The Garrick... and, of course, The Contingency. Newly established in St James', The Contingency has quickly become the most exclusive enclave in town. A refuge for men of politics, men of science, men of letters. A place to escape. A place to think. A place to be free.

The first rule of the Contingency is to behave like a gentleman. The second is to pay no heed to its oddly identical servants. Or to the horror in its cellars. Or to the existence of the secret gallery on its upper floor... Rules that the Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan are all about to break.

Plot

Part one

The Doctor sets the TARDIS's coordinates for Heathrow, but Nyssa is no longer sure that Tegan wants to leave. After Tegan and Adric join them in the control room, arguing about the merits of Tegan's cassette player which the Doctor goes on to confiscate, the TARDIS shuts down and falls out of the Time Vortex, arriving in the Contingency Club in 1864. They go with Granville Wakefield to the drawing room and are surprised to find that they do not attract any attention and it is staffed by identical men named Edward.

Edward reports the presence of the Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan to Mr Peabody and the Red Queen, the latter of whom suspects that they might be spies and orders them to be gotten rid of immediately. Mr Peabody goes to the drawing room with a number of Edwards and attempts to detain the travellers, but Tegan fights back and manages to free the others and run. Whilst Adric and Nyssa run into Marjorie Stonegood and escape with her, the Doctor and Tegan hide in a bedroom and are found by the Edwards, who prepare to throw them out of the third-storey window.

Part two

to be added

Part three

to be added

Part four

to be added

Cast

References

Tegan explains cassette players to Adric.
Wakefield is a natural scientist.
Augustus is a journalist.
The portraits at the Whispering Gallery of Icaria Beta can talk.
The Doctor reads The Pall Mall Gazette.
The Doctor keeps Adric from drinking brandy.
Tegan's cousins worked in blast mining in Australia.
Tegan refers to Adric as "Pyjama Boy".

Notes

This story was recorded on 13 and 14 June 2016 at the Moat Studios.
This story was originally was released on CD and download.

Continuity

Tegan refers to Adric's home planet Alzarius. (TV: Full Circle)
The Doctor is still attempting to return Tegan to Heathrow Airport in 1981. (TV: Four to Doomsday, Kinda, The Visitation; AUDIO: Psychdrome, Iterations of I, The Star Men, Smoke and Mirrors)
Tegan refers to the bubonic plague outbreak in England in 1666. (TV: The Visitation)
Nyssa refers to Traken. (TV: The Keeper of Traken)
The Doctor once again expresses a fondness for trains. (TV: Black Orchid)
The Red Queen comments that the Doctor plays the fool but is extremely intelligent. Sharaz Jek later made a similar observation. (TV: The Caves of Androzani)
The Doctor says that he "must dash". (TV: Time-Flight, The Five Doctors)
The Red Queen says "You were expecting someone else?" (TV: The Caves of Androzani)
The Doctor refers to perception filters. (TV: Everything Changes)
The Doctor says he had a sonic screwdriver "until very recently". (TV: The Visitation)
Nyssa is mistaken to have the surname O'Traken when she says her name is Nyssa of Traken. (AUDIO: Spare Parts)

External links

Official The Contingency Club page at bigfinish.com