Hothouse (audio story)

Somewhere in the south of England stands the Hothouse. Five vast, state-of-the-art biodomes, all steel and glass. Inside, rock star turned environmental activist Alex Marlowe has a plan to save the world from climate change. By any means necessary...

There's something growing inside the Hothouse. Something that could turn back humanity's tide. A voracious alien vegetable called the Krynoid. The Doctor's going to have to stop it. Stop Marlow. Stop Marlow's fanatical acolyte, Lucie Miller...

Save the world. By any means necessary.

Plot

Part One

In the near future, Britain has been suffering from a drought that has occurred for 20 weeks. As a result of the drought, a series of public disturbances has begun, causing the government to announce a national state of emergency and prosecute anyone who is found exceeding their water standpipe rations. One such demonstration calling for action to stop global warming happens in London and it's organized by a group called the League of Nature, led by a former rock star named Alex Marlowe who has adopted a more militant stance. Alex says that the global situation is slowly becoming more extreme and more species have already gone extinct over the last 5 years and that his group are calling for the abolition of private capital and any other moves they believe are required to save the world. He finishes by saying that if action isn't taken immediately, everyone on Earth will be endangered. Another League of Nature member, Lucie Miller, admits that she is more than willing to use intimidation and violence to save the world, even going so far as to say that she isn't just willing to die for it, but to kill for it.

With no sign of any rain in 22 weeks, and water reservoir levels dropping below 5%, water supplies have now been restricted to hospitals only.

The Doctor is being driven to a top-secret establishment known as the Hothouse by the World Ecology Bureau's representative, Hazel Bright, who briefs him about what the Hothouse is.

Alex Marlowe has begun working in the Hothouse, which is a research facility. Hazel shows the Doctor some aerial photos of the facility. It is in a 10 square kilometer compound and contains five biodome greenhouses. She tells him that Alex Marlowe used to make a name for himself by organizing charity concerts to save endangered species, but he has now retired from music and moved into politics in an attempt to save the world. The Doctor is glad that someone is taking action to save the Earth from global warming, remarking that humans have the most extraordinary capacity for denial and never take responsibility for their actions.

After the incident in Dhaka, the League of Nature's profile has increased dramatically. The Hothouse's money appears to come from the subs of 80 million members who have paid to join the League of Nature. The scientists who work in the facility are in league with GM tech research and the World Ecology Bureau, showing concern about Alex's actions, has contacted UNIT so they can have the Doctor called using the space-time telegraph.

After they arrive at the Hothouse, Hazel tells the Doctor that the reason he was called is because he was highly recommended by Sir Colin Thackeray. At the entrance a guard approaches the car that the Doctor and Hazel are in, prompting the Doctor to introduce himself and tell the guard that he and Hazel are from the World Ecology Bureau. The Head of Administration, Christina Ondrak, arrives to ask why they are here to which Hazel answers that it is a purely random inspection under the St. Petersburg Bio-Protection treaty which allows them to inspect any facility that is used for agricultural research.

The Doctor asks Christina if the inspection will be a problem, to which Christina replies that it won't. She then offers the Doctor and Hazel a brief tour of the Hothouse, adding that visitors must be escorted at all times for their own safety due to some areas of the compound still under construction. Christina leaves to arrange passes for the Doctor and Hazel, leaving them in the care of her assistant, Lucie Miller.

The Doctor seems to recognize Lucie from a news report about the League of Nature's demonstration in London, then asks her how she ended up working in the Hothouse. Lucie dodges the question by asking if she can get them a drink, to which the Doctor answers that he would like an ice tea with a lemon. Hazel would just like some water. As Lucie gets the drinks, the Doctor asks her why there are so many guards around the facility and if they're trying to keep something in or out. Lucie answers that the research is in a delicate state and she has no authority to talk about it.

The Doctor then "unwittingly" spills his drink onto Lucie's skirt, causing her to drop her security pass on the floor. As the Doctor gives Lucie her security pass back, Miss Ondrak returns to tell the Doctor and Hazel to come with her. Watching from his office, Alex Marlowe finds out that the man who spilled his drink onto Lucie's skirt is the famous Doctor that he's heard so much about.

Miss Ondrak leads the Doctor and Hazel into Biodome 1, passing through an airlock as she does so. The purpose of the airlock is to maintain the atmospheric integrity. The biodome contains numerous species of plant which no longer exist anywhere else in the world, and Christina explains that they are conducting research on these plants to find out if they can be used for therapy or sources of nutrition. However, their primary focus is on conservation and they wish to plant new rainforests across the planet.

The Doctor smells ozone, to which Christina explains that they are maintaining an environment that encourages growth in the plants. When the Doctor and Hazel ask to see the other biodomes, Christina tells them that access is restricted due to some of the species being in a vulnerable condition. Noticing that the time is almost 6 o'clock, Christina decides to show the Doctor and Hazel back to reception. On the way, the Doctor asks to see Alex Marlowe, promising that he isn't an autographer, but Christina tells him that he is too busy to see anyone and they'll have to arrange an appointment for another time.

Frustrated that they were shown enough to make them leave and stop asking difficult questions but not enough to answer their questions, the Doctor and Hazel leave the compound. As they return to the car that they arrived in, they figure out that they need someone on the inside.

Lucie Miller informs Christina that she has to answer some emails before she goes home. Christina grants her five minutes but tells her not to stay too long as they don't pay overtime. Once Christina has left, Lucie whips out the security card that the Doctor gave her earlier so he could give her access to all areas of the facility. Activating her hidden microphone, she makes contact with the Doctor who is in the car with Hazel. After briefly chewing him out for ruining her best suit, Lucie begins her investigation of the facility. The Doctor assures Hazel that Lucie is trustworthy and that she volunteered for this mission so she can prove her worth to him once again.

Lucie approaches the airlock for Biodome 4 which is the one that the people who run the Hothouse are the most desperate to keep secret. She uses her pass to enter the dome and, after calling for someone called Dave to check that she's alone, looks around the dome which is less like the rainforest biodome and more like a laboratory. Inside the biodome are a series of objects that resemble green coconuts with veins. The Doctor tells Lucie to get out before she can get killed, but Marlowe appears and holds her at gunpoint. He says to Lucie that he is disappointed that she has betrayed him, remarking that she was very enthusiastic and committed to the cause. Lucie tries to tell him that she was looking for Dave and got lost, but Marlowe doesn't believe her and notices her hidden microphone. He then uses the microphone to contact the Doctor and Miss Bright to tell her that he is holding Lucie at gunpoint and that she has seen too much. He then goes on to say that he has always believed in preserving natural beauty. But in the case of Lucie, it will have to be sacrificed for a higher purpose.

In the car, the Doctor and Hazel hear Lucie scream in terror before the microphone goes dead. Enraged at himself for relying too much on Lucie Miller, the Doctor orders Hazel to drive back to the Hothouse so that he can rescue Lucie. During the drive, the Doctor explains the true nature of Alex Marlowe's research: Krynoids. What Lucie saw in Biodome 4 were Krynoid pods. Hazel is familiar with the Krynoids due to reading the Doctor's file. The Doctor says that if a single one of the pods germinates, every human and animal life form will be dead within hours due to the vegetation fighting back on planets where the Krynoids take root.

He then wonders how Marlowe managed to acquire the pods after he thought they were all wiped out, forcing Hazel to admit that after the incident at Harrison Chase's manor, Sir Colin Thackeray ordered some cuttings to be taken from the Krynoid's remains so they can be studied in an attempt to find new ways to kill them. Unfortunately, a break-in occurred at the bureau five years ago in which the cuttings were taken from the WEB's seed vault and eventually ended up in Alex Marlowe's possession.

Livid, the Doctor states that he needs to get into the Hothouse and that Alex Marlowe doesn't know what he's dealing with. After Hazel tells him that they cannot go in guns blazing through the front entrance, the Doctor tells her to pull over. Despite the Doctor's objections, Hazel insists on going with him so that she can help to stop Alex Marlowe's plans. They then decide to enter the facility through the perimeter fence that surrounds the compound.

When they arrive at the fence, they find out that it is about 12 feet high and there is a huge amount of security on the other side. With the Sonic Screwdriver unable to cut through wire, the Doctor and Hazel have no choice but to wait for the container trucks to arrive and unload some more supplies for the Hothouse. The Doctor believes that they are delivering the supplies at night to avoid spectators. They both climb inside of the nearest one and soon find out that they are not the only ones who are inside the containers.

Marlowe watches from his office as the Doctor and Hazel manage to smuggle themselves into the facility like common criminals. He remarks that it's touching how the Doctor thinks that he's coming to rescue Lucie.

The Doctor and Hazel are sitting in the back of a container truck with a group of people who are half-starved and extremely frightened. Hazel tries to assure the people that they mean them no harm, but the Doctor is adamant to find out why they are being brought to the Hothouse and they won't find out if they get captured too. He and Hazel exit the truck and rush over to hide behind some storage tanks, watching as the lorries stop and the guards remove the people inside them so they can be brought inside the Hothouse. Hazel realizes that the people from the containers are illegal immigrants who were smuggled from outside the Eastern Eurozone.

She then goes on to explain that when the refugee crisis occurred last year, millions of people attempted to escape from North Africa and the Black Sea states, resulting in a decision to shut down the borders so that the Eurozone wasn't overwhelmed by these immigrants. Disgusted, the Doctor admits that he forgot how the human race constantly makes the wrong decisions.

The Doctor and Hazel follow the immigrants into the Hothouse, unaware of Marlowe watching their every move. They sneakily ascend a set of stairs, then go through an unlocked door. As they enter an access tunnel, Lucie asks Marlowe why he hasn't sent any of the guards in to detain them, to which Marlowe answers that he finds it more entertaining to let them believe that they haven't been detected as they sneak into the facility. As the Doctor and Hazel begin to approach Biodome 4, Marlowe decides that it is now time to make his move.

Upon entering the lab in Biodome 4, the Doctor and Hazel examine the Krynoid seedpods inside their incubators. The Doctor notices that they have a different texture and shape from the ones he encountered during the incident at Harrison Chase's manor. Deeper inside the dome, they encounter a group of over 50 chained people who are partway through becoming Krynoids themselves, a fate which is apparently befalling the refugees who have been brought into the facility.

Disgusted, Hazel nearly throws up just as one of the partially transformed refugees leaps towards her. The Doctor explains how the transformation into Krynoids involves human flesh becoming vegetable matter. One of the refugees is a Polish school teacher named Stefan Radek who was lured to the Hothouse by the promise of a new job, leaving behind his wife and two daughters who he is having increasing difficulty remembering. He remembers being injected after being brought into the Hothouse, but the Doctor is more concerned with the rate of infection being quicker than the last time he faced the Krynoids. To Hazel's horror, the Doctor admits that he is unable to cure the refugees.

Panicking, Stefan begins to beg the Doctor to kill him, but there is nothing the Doctor can do for him. As Stefan's transformation begins to near its completion, he attempts to break out of the cage, only to be heavily injured by a gunshot from Alex Marlowe.

Marlowe and Miss Ondrak order the Doctor and Hazel to step back from the cage. Looking at the injured Stefan, Marlowe calls him a failed experiment and kills him with another bullet, considering it an act of kindness that proves to the Doctor how humane he is. The guards drag Lucie Miller into the lab. Marlowe admits that he found Lucie's resourcefulness to be admirable before taunting the Doctor for coming to rescue her. It is revealed that Marlowe always knew that Lucie was working undercover from the first time he met her, but she was useful in bringing the Doctor to the Hothouse.

Marlowe explains that he has been studying the Krynoids for a while, but required some help in the subject from an expert, which is where Hazel, another member of the League of Nature, came in and used her position in the World Ecology Bureau to give him all the necessary information on the Krynoids.

The Doctor is told to give his knowledge of the Krynoids to Marlowe, but the Doctor refuses, prompting Marlowe to tell Miss Ondrak to bring in one of the pods for a new experiment. The guards bring out Stefan's corpse and place Lucie inside the cage so that she can be infected as part of Marlowe's plan to ensure the Doctor's co-operation with him. Miss Ondrak places the pod inside the cage with Lucie as it begins to break open and send out a tendril towards the screaming girl...

Part Two

The Doctor agrees to do Marlowe's bidding so that Lucie isn't infected. Marlowe orders Miss Ondrak to remove Lucie from the cage, but then states that he still needs a guinea-pig in order to carry out the experiment. Hazel is forced over to the opening pod and promptly infected when the tendril wraps itself around her arm. Once Miss Ondrak releases her, Hazel falls to the floor and soon taken to the observation room by Alex Marlowe's guards. Lucie will also be locked in the room with Hazel to ensure that the Doctor co-operates with Marlowe.

Explaining his research, Marlowe tells the Doctor that he knows about the Krynoid's dangerous nature of infecting other life forms and possessing their minds before transforming them into monsters with the ability to communicate with other plant life. Despite the Doctor's warning that all animal life on the planet will be doomed if one of the experimental Krynoids escapes, Marlowe insists that he knows about the dangers and that he is trying to save the world instead of destroy it by using an army of genetically engineered Krynoids. Unfortunately, he still needs to find a way to keep the Krynoids' killer instinct from becoming dominant.

The Doctor calls Marlowe out for kidnapping and torturing innocent humans, but Marlowe rebukes him by saying that it's a preferable alternative to the destruction of Earth. He then says that he'll be able to sleep easier with the knowledge that one day, people will believe that he did the right thing to save the world and that the current earth population isn't viable and children will die of thirst in a world with no hope. According to him, humanity needs to be pruned back to a sustainable level. The Doctor is having none of it and says that he is reducing genocide to the same level as horticulture.

Marlowe talks about his plan to implement a new programme of mass sterilization that will involve reducing the population to 100 million people. Upon hearing this plan, the Doctor admits that he has been away from Earth for a while and now sees the human race as a species that is bent on destroying itself under the belief that it doesn't deserve to survive, but he still refuses to help Marlowe.

In the observation room, Lucie tries and fails to get one of the guards to let her and Hazel out. Hazel regains consciousness to see that the skin on her arm has seemingly been replaced by congealed sap. As Lucie gives her some water, Hazel states that she could murder a steak even though she's a vegetarian. Lucie tries to calm Hazel down, but Hazel almost immediately becomes hysterical as there is no way for a human to be saved once they've been infected by the Krynoids, blaming herself for getting involved with League of Nature despite not knowing what Marlowe's intentions were.

Hazel explains to Lucie that she was in Dhaka during the flood where 10000 people lost their lives. This sight prompted her to want to save the world. As the infection continues to change her body, Hazel advises Lucie to not get too close to her due to her beginning to hear the rainforest's thoughts. Lucie notices that Hazel's face is beginning to turn green as Hazel's voice changes to that of the Krynoid's distinctive rattling sound. Hazel says that Lucie is delicious animal flesh to be consumed.

As Lucie tries to convince Hazel to fight the Krynoid, the Doctor tells Marlowe to let Lucie out of the observation room before the Krynoid kills her, but Marlowe refuses to do it until the Doctor agrees to help him. Hazel begins to influence the plants in the facility, but Marlowe is unconcerned. The Doctor realizes with concern that the Krynoid's transformation is happening too quickly, a result that Marlowe believes is a side effect of the strain that Hazel was infected with. To his horror, the Doctor realizes that due to Marlowe's genetic tampering, the process has been accelerated and the Krynoid will reach its final form in little more than one hour.

As her transformation into a Krynoid nears its completion, Hazel urges Lucie to stay away from her as Lucie tries telling her to fight the infection. With her new ability to reach out to every plant in the building using her mind, Hazel hears the Doctor telling Marlowe that it would take as long as a few months to find a solution, but Marlowe blows off the Doctor's concerns and tells him that he merely has to find a way to preserve the vestigial human consciousness that will allow the Krynoids to keep the human minds inside their bodies. The Doctor insists that the human mind is too weak and their research has come to nothing before telling Marlowe to end the experiment and release Lucie.

Miss Ondrak contacts Marlowe through the intercoms to tell him that the Krynoids in Biodome 4 have gone berserk and are smashing themselves against the cages to twist the metal bars so they can escape from their confinement. Marlowe refuses to believe this as he designed the cages to withstand the strength of a bull elephant. Miss Ondrak orders the guards to shoot the Krynoids, but the bullets have no effect on them. The Doctor tells everyone over the intercom to evacuate the area immediately, but then the intercom goes dead. Marlowe is informed that he has lost and that he's betrayed the world instead of saving it. Upon being told to release Lucie, Marlowe replies that there are now dozens of Krynoids that are heading to the observation room where Lucie is being held.

Hazel calls the other Krynoids to release her before briefly regaining control of her humanity so she can tell Lucie that she is unable to resist the infection for much longer. Lucie tells Hazel to hold onto a memory of someone she loves, but all Hazel can remember is the Doctor saying that Krynoids win in the end. When told to think about Alex Marlowe and her hatred for him for what he has done to her, Hazel is unable to think about him and calls out to the other Krynoids which begin pressing against the glass that separates them from Lucie. As Lucie urges Hazel to fight her transformation, a loud klaxon suddenly activates, causing Hazel to briefly regain enough control to command the Krynoids to let Lucie escape.

To Alex Marlowe's surprise, the Krynoids allow Lucie to escape, an observation that the Doctor believes is caused by Hazel exerting her influence over them. The Doctor thinks that Hazel is still in there, an assumption that pleases Marlowe who thinks that the human part is remaining dominant. Just then, Miss Ondrak who has barely escaped from the Krynoids' attack enters the office to inform Marlowe that the Krynoids are everywhere and the guards have either gone into hiding or been killed. Suddenly, the Hazel Krynoid's voice is heard calling Marlowe's name. As Marlowe expresses amazement at the Krynoid's ability to speak, the Krynoid says that it wants Marlowe before Marlowe orders the klaxon to be switched off so he can hear himself think.

After turning off the klaxon, Miss Ondrak suggests giving the Krynoid what it wants before pulling a gun on Marlowe, only for the Doctor to tell her that she cannot bargain with the Krynoids due to them thinking that humans are just watery bags of minerals. Marlowe takes advantage of the Doctor's distraction by rushing out of the room and deadlocking the door which is strong enough to keep the Doctor and Miss Ondrak in the office, but not strong enough to keep the Krynoids out. Due to the Krynoids being plants, bullets have no effect on them, but anything that is deadly to plants will be harmful to the Krynoids, prompting Miss Ondrak to tell the Doctor about the equipment store where the herbicides are kept. Unfortunately, the Krynoids are gathering in the corridor outside.

The Doctor contacts Lucie Miller who is on top of the roof of one of the greenhouses. He asks her if she can save him from certain death.

Outside the facility, Marlowe calls for a car to pick him up. As the Hazel Krynoid finds him, Marlowe tries to convince it that he can help it and that they are both on the same side and pro-nature. He also offers to feed it a super-enriched bio-feed and expose it to wide-spectrum lights in Biodome 1 so it can grow.

Cast

Crew

Cover Art - Simon Holub
Director - Barnaby Edwards
Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
Music and Sound Design - Martin Johnson
Producers - Barnaby Edwards and David Richardson
Script Editor - Alan Barnes
Writer - Jonathan Morris

References

Britain's water reservoir levels are below 5%. Water is restricted to hospitals only.
Hazel was present during a flood in Dhaka.

Governments

The Eurozone has closed its borders.

Organisations

Hazel Bright is part of the World Ecology Bureau.
Hazel contacted UNIT to use the space-time telegraph to contact the Doctor.
Alex Marlowe runs the League of Nature, an extremist ecology group.

Species

Krynoids are affected by high pitched noises.

Notes

Textless cover art

Krynoids have previously featured on audio in two BBV Productions audio dramas: The Root of All Evil and The Green Man. However, this is their first appearance in a Big Finish audio drama.
This audio drama was recorded on 13 September 2008 at the Moat Studios.
The story was initially released as a download on the Big Finish website on 21 and 28 March 2009.

Continuity

The Doctor is still recovering from the six hundred years he spent on Orbis during AUDIO: Orbis ^[+]Loading...["Orbis (audio story)"]
The World Ecology Bureau has files on the Harrison Chase incident and the Doctor's involvement in that incident, which occured during TV: The Seeds of Doom)
The space-time telegraph was first referred to in TV: Revenge of the Cybermen and was briefly seen in TV: Terror of the Zygons.
The Eurozone is mentioned. (PROSE: Trading Futures, AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks)
By 2060, the Amazon ecosystem had collapsed and the rainforests had turned to desert. (AUDIO: Loups-Garoux)

External links

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