Point of Entry (audio story)

The 16th Century. Playwright Kit Marlowe is attempting to write Doctor Faustus when a darkness descends on his life, in the cadaverous form of a Spaniard called Velez. The monstrosity is in search of a stone blade that was brought from South America...

After a near-disastrous collision with an asteroid in space, the TARDIS makes an emergency landing in Elizabethan England.

These two events are connected. The Omnim are ready. And the point of entry approaches...

Plot

Part one

Struggling to make any progress with his latest play, Kit Marlowe is visited by Don Lorenzo Velez, whom he had sought out, and is offered a mirror to find whatever it is he desires through astral projection. In return for this, which he intends to use to help him write his new play, he agrees to seek news of a stone blade from the New World which was stolen from a Spanish treasure ship and which Velez claims he will be able to learn of through his friends at court and in Europe.

The Doctor and Peri visit Rogue Asteroid Delta-359XQ2, the latest hazardous cosmic anomaly on their tour, and find that it is acting as an intermediary in the exchange of messages. Deciding to investigate, the Doctor tries to send a signal from the TARDIS and the asteroid changes course, heading straight for the ship. The Doctor loses control and the TARDIS is dragged to a room full of theatrical costumes, one of which Peri puts on to blend in, at the Bell Inn in London in the summer of 1590. They walk around the city and hear one of the voices they heard at the rogue asteroid, a voice which the Doctor believes has used them, so they head back towards the inn.

Seeing Mad Jack in the stocks with his tongue mutilated for stealing bread, the Doctor and Peri take him with them and Kit agrees to help despite Alys being unwilling. Kit introduces them to his friend Tom and they learn that a figure who was watching them outside was Velez, whose influence on the writing of Doctor Faustus Kit is unwilling to elaborate upon. Kit departs and the Doctor leaves Peri and Jack in Tom's care whilst he goes out to investigate, but Jack is discreetly captured by Velez and Iguano and Alys orders Peri and Tom to leave at closing time.

The Doctor goes to the Tower of London to meet Sir Francis Walsingham, the Lord Privy Seal, and asks him about what mission he has given Kit, whom he has sent on missions of espionage in the past. Sir Francis is suspicious of him and has him tortured on the rack by Cullum to force him to reveal what he knows of Kit. The Doctor, only mildly inconvenienced by the rack, tells him of his belief that Kit has been seduced by Velez, whom he had been assigned to investigate, with the promise of ungodly powers and knowledge. He learns from Sir Francis of the Aztec blade and that a spy has been assigned to watch Kit since his reports stopped and offers his own services to find him.

Kit visits the decaying Velez at his home and looks into the mirror again to look for the blade without success. Looking for him and the Doctor, Peri and Tom sneak into Velez's house and find Jack, leaving him behind to rescue later when they hear Kit's voice. They hide in Velez's library of grimoires to eavesdrop as the skeletal Velez explains how he had Iguano transport him to England in a box to track down the blade before a conjunction of powers. Velez senses a presence and declares that he and Iguano must sacrifice Jack as the blade is calling out to him for rescue and the sacrifice will restore him to his full strength. He gives Kit a knife with the hilt of the Aztec blade and orders him to kill Jack.

Peri and Tom are too late to save Jack and watch as Velez is restored to perfect health. Tom attacks Velez so that Peri can grab the blade, but she fails and runs to the Bell Inn to find the Doctor. She hears the sound of the blade's call and Alys experiences pain in her head which makes her violent, attacking Peri until Iguano enters through the tradesman's entrance and takes her back to Velez's home where he and Kit are astral projecting. Whilst the Doctor arrives at the inn to find Peri and speaks with the amnesiac Alys, Iguano forces Peri to look into Velez's mirror and she astral projects, telling herself that she is not dead.

Part two

Peri's mind floats above London with Kit in the astral world and they are joined by Velez, who has been consulting with spirits and learnt that the Aztec blade is being transported to London aboard the Cormorant. She tells Kit not to help Velez, so he keeps her on the astral plane whilst he and Kit return to their bodies and are confronted by the Doctor and Tom. Tom kills Velez, aggrieving Iguano as it was foretold that he would die in Velez's service, and the Doctor uses the mirror, activated by a "spell" memorised by Kit, to go after Peri. He finds that she is being used as a mouthpiece by the Omnim, spirits who projected themselves into Rogue Asteroid Delta-359XQ2 after their planet was shattered.

The Omnim latched onto the TARDIS and sent it to Earth, where a second fragment of their planet landed, as a beacon for them to follow. The blade the Aztecs made from the asteroid was transmitting the energy released by human sacrifices to the Omnim, but it was eventually broken and the hilt found in a vault in Madrid by Velez, whom the Omnim are using to restore the blade so that the human sacrifices can begin again in London. They return Velez to life to continue his mission and he demands Iguano's life to restore him to full health once again. However, Kit comes to Iguano's rescue and kills Velez again, accidentally setting the building aflame.

to be completed

Cast

The Doctor – Colin Baker
Peri – Nicola Bryant
Kit Marlowe - Matt Addis
Velez - Luis Soto
Iguano / Captain Garland - Sean Connolly
Tom - Tam Williams
Alys - Gemma Wardle
Sir Francis Walsingham - Ian Brooker

Worldbuilding

The Doctor has always wanted to hear Tamburlaine.
William Shakespeare has barely started his career. He has written Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 and 3. The Doctor thinks that Marlowe might have script edited them.
Peri mentions Star Wars.
Tom wonders if Master Henslowe will approve of Marlowe's new work.
The Rose is closed because of a plague.
Kit is writing Doctor Faustus.
The Doctor once met Cornelius Agrippa.
Kit was sent abroad by the Privy Council as a spy.
Master Cullum is Sir Francis's keeper of keys.
John Dee is Queen Elizabeth's astrologer.

Notes

Interior art illustrating a scene from the story.

This audio drama was recorded on 4 and 5 November 2009 at the Moat Studios.
As well as released as a CD and download, this story is also available to stream on Spotify.

Continuity

The First Doctor and his companion Steven Taylor previously met Marlowe in Venice in 1609. This encounter will not take place for another nineteen years in Marlowe's personal timeline. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)
Peri previously visited 16th century England in the company of the Fifth Doctor (AUDIO: The Kingmaker) and would later do so again in the company of the Sixth Doctor (AUDIO: Recorded Time)
The Doctor and Peri refer to their recent trip to 19th century England. (TV: The Mark of the Rani)
When Peri goes missing, the Doctor laments the notion that she may have gone on a shopping spree. A previous expedition to that effect occurred in PROSE: Players, during their stay in London, with explosive results.
The Doctor tells Marlowe that he has met demons in his time. Though he does not go into detail, he is presumably referring to his encounters with Azal in TV: The Dæmons and the Mara in TV: Kinda, TV: Snakedance and AUDIO: The Cradle of the Snake. He would subsequently encounter two other self-described demons, namely the Destroyer in TV: Battlefield and the Beast in TV: The Satan Pit.
While exploring London in 1590, the Doctor points out St Paul's Cathedral to Peri, who correctly states that it is the Old St. Paul's, which would be burnt down in the Great Fire of London on 2 September 1666. The Doctor remarks, "Well, let's not go into that," and changes the subject. His fifth incarnation played a major role in starting that fire. (TV: The Visitation)
Both the First and the Third Doctors referred to being imprisoned in the Tower of London (TV: The Sensorites, TV: The Mind of Evil) whereas the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa suffered the same fate in the late 17th century after having charges of forgery levelled against them by Sir Isaac Newton (AUDIO: Summer) Furthermore, the Sixth Doctor would later be imprisoned in the Tower once again in 1554 in the company of Evelyn Smythe as Queen Mary I was under the erroneous impression that they were plotting to assassinate her and place her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth on the throne. (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy) Later still, he and Evelyn would return to the Tower in an alternative 2003 (AUDIO: Jubilee) and 2010 (AUDIO: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster)
The Doctor claims that the Elizabethan era is the earliest point in Earth's history that Peri has visited during their travels in the TARDIS. However, prior to the Doctor's most recent regeneration, she visited Egypt in circa 1400 BC where they met her future travelling companion Erimem, (AUDIO: The Eye of the Scorpion) Nicaea in the Roman Empire in June 325, (AUDIO: The Council of Nicaea) the Principality of Ungro-Wallachia in the Ottoman Empire in June and July 1462 (AUDIO: Son of the Dragon) and resided with Erimem in London from 1483 to 1485 after being separated from the Doctor (AUDIO: The Kingmaker) As such, he may mean travelling in his sixth incarnation.

External links

Official Point of Entry page at bigfinish.com
Point of Entry at the Doctor Who Reference Guide