Immortal Beloved (audio story)

Because Blood of the Daleks was released in two parts, it was the fourth release of the series. It was co-produced with BBC 7. This was the first audio story in which Jake McGann (Paul McGann's son) appeared.

The story was released along with the other stories in Series 1 in the collection The Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller on 3 October 2023.

Publisher's summary

"Theosophy? Ha! Surely you mean theophany? Because we're not talking about real gods here, are we? We're talking about the appearance of gods. Your heavenly powers are a little too mechanical for my liking. And, if I may be so bold, Lord Zeus, your demeanour is not very godlike."

Plot

The Doctor and Lucie Miller land the TARDIS next to a cliff in what appears to be ancient Greece. Two star-crossed lovers, Kalkin and Sararti, have been preparing to kill themselves nearby, but the Doctor and Lucie prevent this, and soon anachronistic helicopters surround them all. One of the soldiers who disembark, General Ares, is gravely injured in the ensuing struggle. The Doctor just about saves his life and he, Lucie, Sararti and Kalkin are taken back to a grand palace, where to their horror they witness the ailing Ares' mind being transferred into the body of another man, one of the soldiers, who has expected this and is entirely willing to so sacrifice himself to his "destiny". The Doctor confronts Zeus, the autocratic ruler of this strange society where guns are labelled as magic wands and the hi-tech mind-transfer device is an "incarnation chamber". Zeus admits that he is not really a god, and reveals that they are on a lost Earth colony planet in Lucie's distant future.

Generations ago, he and his wife Hera, along with many others, some now long gone, landed here and he has gone on to create a society based upon Greek myth. He explains that he was the pilot of the original colony ship, and Kalkin is not his son, but his next-in-line clone, who has rebelled against his fate. (The next clone after that, Ganymede, is by contrast committed to his cruel destiny, but is too young for a transfer.) The ruling class, the remains of the original crew — the "gods" — use their machine, which the Doctor insists has long been outlawed as an abomination – to transfer their minds periodically into their clones, giving them practical immortality. Zeus has appeared welcoming, but lusts after Lucie despite insisting that he and Hera have a thousand-year-old love. He reveals himself to be a madman, and demands that the Doctor use the TARDIS to fetch parts to repair the immortality machine, as it has become worn out and they are now without space-travel capabilities. The Doctor very reluctantly agrees after Zeus threatens to hurt Lucie – even to clone her repeatedly and torture each Lucie to death for all eternity. When Hera suffers a heart attack, her mind transfer into the unwilling Sararti fails, leaving Sararti in control of her body. Pretending all is well, she suddenly stabs Zeus, so that he requires an immediate transfer into Kalkin's body. The Doctor appears to go along with this under pressure from Ares and the loyal soldiers, but ensures that it fails. Though Lucie and Sararti at first fail to appreciate this ruse, the Doctor and the new Zeus — Kalkin, of course — convince them that the lovers can secretly take on his and Hera's roles. They insist that they will stop using the machine as the Doctor and Lucie take their leave. Lucie is optimistic, but the Doctor reminds her that these two are essentially younger versions of the tyrannical pair they have helped to overthrow...

Cast

Crew

Cover Art - Alex Mallinson
Director - Jason Haigh-Ellery
Executive Producers - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
Music - Andy Hardwick
Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Sharon Gosling
Script Editor - Alan Barnes
Sound Design - Gareth Jenkins
Writer - Jonathan Clements
Associate Producer - Barnaby Edwards

Worldbuilding

Helicopters and walkie-talkies still exist.
Remote synaptical kinesis, performed with RSK machines, is illegal across the civilised universe.
The Doctor compares Kalkin to Prince Charming.
Lucie jokes that the Doctor does a Miss Marple routine.
Zeus says to the Doctor "what big words you have", and the Doctor replies "all the better to understand you with", riffing from a famous line from the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
Zeus assumes the Doctor has taken the Hippocratic Oath.
Lucie sings a line from 'When I'm 64', a song by The Beatles.

Notes

This audio drama was recorded on 23 August 2006 at the Moat Studios.
This story had a running time of approximately 60 minutes.
This story was originally planned to be the continuation of WC: Scream of the Shalka. However, only a few concepts and ideas actually made it into Immortal Beloved.
This story was originally released on CD and download. It is also available to stream on Spotify.

Continuity

Lucie asks if the Doctor's got closer to her own time than 1974, in which year he had landed in the previous audio drama Horror of Glam Rock ^[+]Loading...["Horror of Glam Rock (audio story)"].
Lucie refers to herself as "Lucie of the M62." She and the Doctor had landed at Nadir Motorway Service Station off the M62 in Horror of Glam Rock ^[+]Loading...["Horror of Glam Rock (audio story)"].
Lucie mentions that the Doctor is unable to take her to Blackpool.
The Doctor mentions his granddaughter, Susan Foreman, who debuted in the television story An Unearthly Child ^[+]Loading...["An Unearthly Child (TV story)"], with whom he and Lucie would later share adventures from the audio drama Relative Dimensions ^[+]Loading...["Relative Dimensions (audio story)"] until To the Death ^[+]Loading...["To the Death (audio story)"].

External links

Official Immortal Beloved page at bigfinish.com