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Dead London was the first story in the second series of the Eighth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Pat Mills and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Sheridan Smith as Lucie Miller.
Publisher's summary
Someone's playing with us. Manipulating time and space for their own ends.
The TARDIS lands in London. But which one? The Doctor and Lucie find themselves trapped in a maze of interlocking Londons from Roman times to the present day.
But they are not alone in this labyrinth: a killer is on their trail.
Plot
The Doctor is called before a judge, charged with leaving a blue box on a double yellow line. He explains that he was only parked temporarily while Lucie was shopping. A police officer tells the court that he was unable to check inside the box. The Doctor then says he waited two hours, but Lucie didn’t come back. He then detected a localised temporal shift, stepped outside the TARDIS to find Lucie, but when he did so when he was arrested. The judge, finding the Doctor guilty, then sentences him to death.
The Doctor then finds himself in the dock of the Old Bailey in the 17th century, and realises he’s fallen through a temporal shift. He tells the judge there that he is not the horse thief they previously thought was on trial. To his surprise, the 17th century judge recognises the Doctor. The Doctor recognises him as 'Hanging George Jeffries', someone he has never met before, and accuses him of being imposter. Spring-Heeled Sophie, a tightrope walker, then enters the courtroom.
Lucie walks around in the dark, asking if there’s been a power cut. She is then unexpectedly almost knocked over by a tram. A woman helps her up, asking why she was walking on the tram tracks, and suggests that Lucie must be drunk. The woman introduces herself as Beryl, a munitions worker, and mentions that Lucie is in 1917.
In the Old Bailey, Sophie is accused of stealing a valuable tankard and a silver spoon. As the judge berates her, the Doctor asks him to stop, saying Sophie is too young to hang. A guard punches the Doctor, and the judge finds Sophie guilty and sentences her to hang.
In 1917 London a Zeppelin appears in the sky. Beryl, knowing this is dangerous, tells Lucie to follow her to an underground station.
In a 17th century jail the Doctor introduces himself to Sophie. He mentions Lucie, and Sophie offers to help him find her if he helps her escape. She suggests that the Doctor might have something valuable to bribe a guard with. She then reveals she has a cista mystica, an ancient Roman box, and inside the box the Doctor finds some alien technology.
Beryl warns Lucie about the Blackout Killer, who attacks respectable females in Newgate, taking advantage of the blackout for cover. Lucie and Beryl then arrive at the underground station, only to find it locked.
The Doctor, noting the presence of the alien technology, suspects foul play in the temporal shifts. Something is playing with the people in this world.
Beryl and Lucie relax as the Zeppelin leaves. They see a building has been knocked down. Beryl offers to take Lucie to the munitions factory, but Lucie declines and heads off to find the Doctor. As she turns to retrace her steps a river suddenly appears in front of her. Beryl explains calmly that this river appears sometimes and disappears in others. She says it happens whenever “he” wants, and tells Lucie it’s best not to question things. She says that those who don’t willingly believe in the reality of what they see end up going crazy.
The Doctor asks Sophie to think about anything unusual she might have noticed. Sophie recalls once escaping from a workhouse when she experienced a whoosh and weird flash, and says that she felt weird for a few days following. The Doctor tells her that she experienced being transported by a tractor beam. He finds it odd, since tractor beams can transport people through space but not through time. Sophie then says she got the cista mystica in the Temple of Mithras, and tells the Doctor she found the temple at the end of the river.
Beryl causally mentions that Lucie is from another time, and assumes she was “sentenced to transportation”. After Beryl gives Lucie directions to the road the TARDIS was parked on Lucie says she needs to cross the river, but Beryl warns her against going against “his” wishes. Lucie then walks down the river and sees the buildings becoming more modern.
The next day, the billman comes to announce the execution of the Doctor and Sophie. They are put into a horse-drawn carriage to be transported to their deaths. The hangman Jack Kletch introduces himself, and the Doctor accuses him of being an avatar of a shape-shifting alien. He suggests that that’s how he was recognised in the courtroom, and that he was then moved to another time where he could be dealt with more inconspicuously. The hangman then threatens to make the Doctor’s execution slow and painful.
Lucie sees smokers standing outside a pub, and says it must be 2008. She then comes face to face with the blackout killer.
The Doctor speaks Quagreegian, provoking the creature imitating a hangman to reveal itself as a Quagreeg. The Quagreeg’s avatar then identifies itself, and all of the other avatars, as parts of a single Quagreeg named Sepulchre.
The blackout killer tells Lucie she cannot escape, then drops its disguise, saying “we need new blood”.
The Doctor asks Sepulchre if it is trapped on this planet too. The avatar explains that Sepulchre transports suitable humans, those who won’t be missed, and uses them to sustain itself. As the carriage pulls into Tyburn the Sepulchre avatar restores its human guise and prepares for the execution.
Lucie pushes the Sepulchre avatar of the blackout killer into the river and makes her escape.
The Doctor is about to be hung. He tells the crowd he repents a number of offences against fashion. He then tells the hangman he’s not afraid because the situation is not real. The more he denies the reality of the situation, the fuzzier it becomes. Sepulchre’s avatars attempt to silence the Doctor, but the Doctor insists that in this place and time he has the right to make a final speech. With the Sepulchre then distracted, the Doctor and Sophie make their escape.
Lucie, walking further, finds herself again in another time period which she cannot identify.
The Doctor and Sophie head to the river and find Sophie’s boat. The Doctor realises the river is connecting all of the time zone re-enactments. The Doctor asks Sophie to help him put an end to Sepulchre’s rule, and when she refuses he implores her. He says that Sepulchre has deliberately put her down, and that the more she fights back the weaker he becomes. Sophie grabs some ropes from her boat. A stranger approaches, and Sophie lassos her. The Doctor then recognises the stranger as Lucie, and Sophie unties her. When a group of men – Sepulchre avatars – appear in the distance, the three get into the boat and head off.
The Old Bailey judge leaves his time zone to meet the hangman. He warns his Sepulchre counterpart of the Doctor’s movements towards the temple.
The three row the boat into a tunnel, taking out a lantern to see. The Doctor explains that information flows down the river, like in a brain’s neural pathways, connecting and updating all the parts of Sepulchre’s psyche. The Doctor, noting that Sepulchre’s avatars are disposable, explains that he can only defeat Sepulchre by attacking the entity itself.
At the temple, Sepulchre tells its avatars that the Doctor and his companions must be sent back to another time. When Boudica’s Britain is suggested, Sepulchre agrees that this time will be suitably dangerous enough to contain the Time Lord. Sepulchre then realises that the cista mystica has has been stolen, and panics knowing that the Doctor can use it to destroy him.
The Doctor, Lucie and Sophie reach the temple, and the Doctor attempts to tie up the boat. Then, the Doctor, Lucie and Sophie suddenly find themselves flowing off a waterfall. When they land, they find themselves in Roman London, suspended inside a wicker man about to be burned in a ritual of Celtic sacrifice. Lucie sees a man in robes walking towards the wicker man with a flaming torch. He lights the wicker man’s wooden legs.
Sepulchre, at the temple, celebrates the Doctor’s demise, and sends his avatars to attend the Doctor’s death in person. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to weaken the fastenings in the wicker. The three jump out, and when they land they see the wicker man has disappeared – by disrupting the simulation they have undermined its reality. They are then met by Sepulchre, who welcomes them to his neural re-enactment chambers. The Doctor then realises that the re-enactments are taking place inside Sepulchre’s head. Lucie, grasping his meaning, describes Sepulchre’s head as being like a TARDIS, with the same mechanism TARDIS uses to be bigger on the inside being the device inside the cista mystica. The Doctor then confronts Sepulchre, who says humans are like livestock. The Doctor uses his sonic on the cista mystica to destroy the device inside, closing the neural pathways between the different chambers of Sepulchre’s mind.
With the illusions shattered, Sepulchre’s avatars are revealed as monsters to the humans in the 17th century London. The humans in this mental re-enactment turn on the avatars. The mob soon turns towards the Doctor and Lucie. The Doctor, realising that they must now seem alien too since they were not originally part of this simulation, tells Lucie they need to leave.
They walk back along the river to 2008, and find the TARDIS covered in parking tickets. They step inside. The Doctor explains that all the versions of London will continue inside Sepulchre’s head, but without Sepulchre being able to control their realities and prey upon their inhabitants. The Doctor then messes with the TARDIS controls, and he and Lucie set off on their next adventure.
Cast
- The Doctor - Paul McGann
- Lucie Miller - Sheridan Smith
- Sepulchre / George Jeffreys / Jack Kletch - Rupert Vansittart
- Spring-Heeled Sophie - Clare Buckfield
- Clerks - Richard Laing
- Yellow Beryl - Katarina Olsson
- Street seller / Passerby / Herald - Duncan James
Crew
- Cover Art - Grant Kempster
- Director - Barnaby Edwards
- Executive Producer - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
- Music & Sound Design - Simon Robinson
- Producers - David Richardson and Sharon Gosling
- Script Editor - Alan Barnes
- Writer - Pat Mills
Worldbuilding
The Doctor
- The Doctor mentions the bad fashion sense of his previous incarnations, in particular the brightly-coloured clothes of the Sixth Doctor.
- The Doctor mentions once being grabbed by a Sea Devil.
People
- The Prime Minister of 1917 is alluded to, and quoted as having said "we're fighting Austrians, Germans, and drink."
Clothes and fashion
- Lucie Miller wears a Beatles vest top.
Food and drink
- Lucie mentions kebab and chips, as well as veggie burgers.
- Gin is mentioned.
- Avocado is mentioned.
Objects
- The Cista Mystica is a Roman artefact used by the followers of Dionysus.
- Beryl likens Zeppelins to cigars.
Planets
- Quagreeg is a marsh world in the Sirius system inhabited by unpleasant reptilian life forms who are a gestalt being.
Recreation
- Spring-Heeled Sophie is a funambulist.
- Lucie recalls white water rafting in Wales.
Science
Culture
- Judge Jeffreys refers to Don Quixote and Sancho.
- Lucie paraphrases from Richard III.
- Lucie has seen the movie The Wicker Man.
Notes
- This audio drama was recorded on 21 August 2007 at the Moat Studios.
- This story debuts a new theme arrangement for the Eighth Doctor, arranged by Nicholas Briggs and based on the Delia Derbyshire theme tunes. This replaces the David Arnold theme used from Storm Warning through to Human Resources.
- The story was broadcast on BBC Radio 7 on 19 October 2008.
- The audio's title originated as that of a chapter in H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds (1898), where it referred to a London left desolate by the Martian invasion; the title had since been used more prominently for a song in Jeff Wayne's 1978 musical adaptation.
Continuity
- The Doctor mentions the cult of Mithras introduced in the Main Range audio drama Seasons of Fear)
- Different time zones has been created in a similar fashion as in TV: The War Games.
- The Doctor uses his cravat to create a zip wire and slide in a rope from the Wicker Man in the same fashion he does in COMIC: The Forgotten, shouting Geronimo (one of the catchphrases of the Eleventh Doctor).