The Union (audio story)

The Union was the seventh story in the Once and Future audio series, produced by Big Finish Productions in celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who.

The Union

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Doctor:

Eighth Doctor

Featuring:

Fourth Doctor, Susan, River, First Doctor, Second Doctor, Third Doctor, Fifth Doctor, Sixth Doctor, Seventh Doctor, War Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor, Twelfth Doctor, the Two

Main enemy:

The Union

Main setting:

Diamond Array

Key crew

Publisher:

Big Finish Productions

Writer:

Director:

Producer:

Music:

Sound:

Howard Carter

Cover by:

Lee Johnson

Release details

Number of parts:

1

Release number:

7

Release date:

25 October 2023

Format:

1 CD
Download
7th of 8 stories

Production code:

BFPDW60OAFCD07

ISBN:

ISBN 978-1-80240-088-5 (physical)
ISBN 978-1-80240-089-2 (digital)

Official trailer

*Once and Future*
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It was written by Matt Fitton and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Carole Ann Ford as Susan and Alex Kingston as River Song.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Time War. The Doctor has been injured and brought to a Time Lord field hospital. His body glows with energy, but this is no regeneration into a future form – instead, the Doctor's past faces begin to appear as he flits haphazardly between incarnations...

Staggering to his TARDIS, the Doctor sets out to solve the mystery of his 'degeneration'. Who has done this to him? How? And why? From the Earth to the stars, across an array of familiar times and places, he follows clues to retrace his steps, encountering old friends and enemies along the way. Tumbling through his lives, the Doctor must stop his degeneration before he loses himself completely...

The Doctor responds to a distress call from his granddaughter, Susan, taking him to the Diamond Array: a huge multidimensional space station. Once there, his instability increases, as the Fourth and Eighth Doctors discover the Array’s terrible purpose.

Meanwhile, River Song has made a deadly alliance to try to save her husband. And the truth about the Doctor's degeneration will finally be revealed.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Eighth Doctor - Paul McGann
The Fourth Doctor - Tom Baker
River Song - Alex Kingston
Susan - Carole Ann Ford
The Union - Maureen O'Brien
Operator Zero / The Two - Michael Maloney
The Monk - Rufus Hound
The War Doctor - Jonathon Carley
The First Doctor - Stephen Noonan
The Second Doctor - Michael Troughton
The Third Doctor - Tim Treloar
The Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
The Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker
The Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
The Tenth Doctor - David Tennant
The Eleventh Doctor / The Twelfth Doctor - Jacob Dudman

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

Senior Producer - John Ainsworth
Cover Art - Lee Johnson
Director - Ken Bentley
Executive Producers - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
Music and Sound Design - Howard Carter
Producer - David Richardson
Script Editor - Robert Valentine
Writer - Matt Fitton

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

River Song and Susan Foreman are both immune to degeneration energies; River attributes her case as to her not being a Time Lord, but doesn't elaborate on why Susan might be.
- Her immunity doesn't extend to side effects of others' degenerations, as she is able to glimpse future memories with the Twelfth Doctor upon his degeneration.
The Raxas Alliance is made up of a twin system with two suns.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

This story was recorded on 16 November 2021 at the Soundhouse.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Union mentions the Chumblies. (TV: Galaxy 4)
Susan recognises River from when she taught her at Coal Hill School. (AUDIO: An Unearthly Woman)
River sees a future memory of Darillium. (TV: The Husbands of River Song)
River leaves for a date with Jim the Fish. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)
The Fourth Doctor remembers recently meeting the Two, and how he was wearing the Sixth Doctor's coat at the time. (AUDIO: Two's Company)
The Eighth Doctor recalls painful memories from his previous meeting with Susan. (AUDIO: To the Death)
The Tenth Doctor doesn't know what happened to Susan after the Time War. (TV: Gridlock)
The Eighth Doctor accepts that he has to regenerate into the War Doctor, (TV: The Night of the Doctor) and the War Doctor says that he still has the Doctor inside him, despite rejecting it for the war effort, just as the Moment will tell him during last day of the Time War. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
The Eighth Doctor feels that he has more regenerations beyond the Twelfth Doctor. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)
The Eighth Doctor notices that the Union has traces of the Nine's kleptomania. (AUDIO: Relative Time)
The Monk manipulates the War Doctor to help out in one of his previous schemes. (AUDIO: Past Lives)
The Union is capturing renegades to use her degeneration gun on, such as the Master (AUDIO: The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50) and the Corsair. (TV: The Doctor's Wife)
The Union trusts River because she reportedly murdered the Doctor, (TV: The Impossible Astronaut, Let's Kill Hitler) though the Doctor tells her that River lies. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
River sent the message from Susan that the Ninth Doctor received after restoring the Sands of Time. (AUDIO: Time Lord Immemorial)
The First Doctor tells Susan that he is proud of her, and that she has proved that he was not mistaken in his beliefs. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
The Monk was so scared of the Time War that he removed it from the memory of his other selves - this is why the Nun, the successor of the "Hound" Monk, doesn't know what the Time War is. (AUDIO: Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated, The Wrong Woman)