Bloodtide (audio story)

A pseudo-historical story, it dramatised a portion of the studies made by Charles Darwin on the Galápagos Islands. It also marked the first appearance of the Silurians on audio.

Publisher's summary

The prehistoric Earth is dying. Thunderclouds roll across the skies, cloaking the land in darkness. The seas crash and boil as the rain turns to acid. The remnants of the Silurian race place themselves in suspended animation, deep below the surface.

One day they will awaken and reclaim their world...

The TARDIS has landed on the Galápagos Islands, a desolate outcrop of rocks shrouded in mist and fear.

In the settlement of Baquerizo Moreno, there are rumours that prisoners have been mysteriously disappearing from the gaolhouse. A fisherman has been driven insane by something he saw in the caves. And the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn are not the only new arrivals; there is also a young natural philosopher by the name of Charles Darwin...

Plot

Part One

Millions of years ago, a Silurian scientist named Tulok is on trial for experimenting on apes; his sentence is banishment to the planet's surface. On his way there, he encounters a female Silurian named Sh'vak, who offers to sneak him into a stasis pod. He refuses and goes out onto the surface.

In 1835, The Doctor and Evelyn are unsure of where they are until they encounter a giant tortoise, which tells them that they are on the Galapagos Islands. A little later, they meet up with Charles Darwin, who seems to know The Doctor, though it soons turns out that he thinks The Doctor is Albert Einstein. The Doctor, Evelyn and Charles visit the prison on the island. A man named Emilio is on trial because he claims to have seen devils in a cave by the river; his sister, Greta, pleads with the Judge that Emilio is a good man and is just unwell, but the judge refuses to listen to her and gives Emilio the death sentence.

The Doctor Evelyn and Charles have dinner. Later, The Doctor meets up with Greta and they go to the cell block. They discover that all the cells are empty. They go into one of the cells and the door closes and locks behind them. After a few minutes, a wall opens and Silurians come to take them away.

Part Two

The Doctor smashes up the governors equipment so that the Silurians can't contact him. The Silurians infect the governor with a flesh eating virus.

Part Three

Greta is told that the Myrka is tracking her because the Silurians implanted a tracking device in her while she was unconscious. Greta chooses to sacrifice herself to save everyone on the ship. The Doctor rescues Evelyn and Charles; Charles goes back to the surface, while The Doctor and Evelyn go to another part of the cave. The Doctor and Evelyn find the Silurians stasis chambers, there is a deceased Silurian in one of them, someone has smashed up the stasis chambers; Sh'vak is listening, and knows that Tulok must've done it.

The Doctor finds a walk-in freezer full of meat, he deduces that the Silurians have been eating the prisoners. Tulok overhears Charles telling Evelyn his theory of evolution. Later Tulok enters the room and tells Evelyn and Charles that human evolution was the result of his genetic engineering, and that he is their god.

Part Four

to be added

Cast

The Doctor - Colin Baker
Evelyn Smythe - Maggie Stables
Charles Darwin - Miles Richardson
Captain Fitzroy - George Telfer
Tulok - Daniel Hogarth
Governor Lawson - Julian Harries
Sh'vak - Helen Goldwyn
Greta Rodrigues - Jane Goddard
Emilio / Lokan - Jez Fielder
The Myrka - Rob Shearman & William Johnson

Worldbuilding

Scientists

The Doctor goes by the pseudonym "Albert Einstein".

Ships

The Doctor and Evelyn meet Darwin while he is on the HMS Beagle.

Theories and concepts

Monkton's Theorem states that no intelligent species is likely to leave behind fossils.

Gallery

Original CD cover
Illustration by Lee Sullivan from DWM 305
Textless version of the DWM preview art
Review illustration by Roger Langridge in DWM 308

Notes

This story marks the first appearance of the Silurians and the Myrka in an audio drama.
Clayton Hickman's CD cover won the Doctor Who Magazine Best Cover Poll in 2001.
This audio drama was recorded on 31 March and 1 April 2001 at the Moat Studios.
An illustrated preview featured in DWM 305 illustrated by Lee Sullivan.
Alistair Lock's score to this story and Project: Twilight, alongside the score to The One Doctor, was released on the CD Music from the Sixth Doctor Audio Adventures.
This story is set between The Trial of a Time Lord and Time and the Rani.
This story was originally released on CD and download. It is now available as a download only.

Continuity

The Silurians appear. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians, et al.)
The Myrka previously appeared in TV: Warriors of the Deep and PROSE: The Scales of Injustice.
The Third Doctor previously claimed to have met Darwin. (PROSE: Island of Death)
Many years later, the Seventh Doctor and Evelyn would reminisce about meeting Darwin. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family)
The Eighth Doctor later told his companion Charley Pollard that this experience "put [Darwin] off reptiles for life. Well, almost." (AUDIO: The Creed of the Kromon)
In a parallel universe in which the Valeyard killed the Sixth Doctor and acquired his seven remaining regenerations, the Valeyard and his companion Ellie Martin visited a Silurian bunker in the Galápagos Islands. This incident was observed by the Time Lord Vansell, Coordinator of the CIA. (AUDIO: He Jests at Scars...)

External links

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