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Naomi's Ark was the second and final story story in the audio anthology Far from Home, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Alison Winter and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Christopher Naylor as Harry Sullivan and Eleanor Crooks as Naomi Cross.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Caught up in a galactic evacuation triggered by a supernova, Naomi is separated from her friends, in the company of some very unusual aliens.
The Doctor and Harry are stranded too - and any attempt to reach Naomi is at the expense of a precious, endangered civilisation - one that rivals the Time Lords for longevity and wisdom...
How far will the Doctor go for his friends?
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]
Receiving a distress call, the Doctor takes Harry and Naomi to an evacuated space station in the Ruby Quadrant, a galaxy full of red giants. He and Harry use the sonic screwdriver to transfer data on the quadrant's civilisations from the station's server whilst Naomi looks around and is captured by robots. The Doctor and Harry are alerted to the preparation of an escape pod and realise that Naomi is being forcefully put inside for her own safety ahead of an imminent supernova nearby, but they are too late to save her and she is ejected from the station. Before they can return to the TARDIS, the robots capture and eject them in escape pods as well.
The Nanmatura of Rakastava, a harness asteroid outrunning the supernovae, save the Doctor and Harry from freezing and suffocation three days later and Dr Thorne puts them into a deep sleep to recover. Naomi's pod, however, was travelling in a different direction and no spaceships were detected in its trajectory. When the Doctor and Harry awaken, Dr Thorne and Queen Maylee inform them of Naomi's presumed death and that the space station will have been destroyed with the TARDIS aboard.
Naomi has been rescued by Captain Rocky and her people, the Immaturi, in Starboat IV and learns from Rocky and Engineer Fixer that, whilst they are centuries old in Earth years, they are still in the process of maturing and require the presence of an elder of their species to begin puberty. However, their planet was destroyed after they stole the ship and they have inadvertently damaged the ship's systems. When the ship nears Opis's moon, Rocky keeps the ship still in the hope that they will not fire upon them, but Opis fire a missile after warning the ship to leave.
Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]
The missile causes significant damage to Starboat IV's shields and, to show that they are not a threat, Naomi has Rocky order the ship's weapons bank jettisoned. With only ten hours of life support, Naomi reluctantly goes to Opis's moon with Fixer to get parts for the ship's generators from Wallam, who deduces from the crystal that Fixer pays him with that the Immaturi are the children of the wealthy Nanmatura. Wallam insists on keeping Fixer to be sold for his abilities until Naomi claims that she is selling all of the Immaturi aboard the ship, after which she and Fixer get the opportunity to run and escape in their shuttle.
Stuck on Rakastava, the Doctor apologises to Queen Maylee for his and Harry's attempts to convince her to prolong her people's journey by going back for the TARDIS and agrees that he and Harry will use their knowledge to contribute to the society, the members of which are becoming increasingly sick. He tries to use his mental powers to get Queen Maylee to return for his ship, but she uses Contact to enter his mind and has him arrested. Because of the strength of the impression of Naomi in the Doctor's mind, Queen Maylee senses her elsewhere in the universe.
Queen Maylee realises that Naomi is with her people's children, and informs Harry of this when he visits her to plead the Doctor's case. She changes course for the Ruby Station Space Station to collect the TARDIS so that her people might be reunited with their children but, upon arrival, the Doctor finds that the TARDIS has been killed by the shockwave of the supernova, leaving him, Harry and the Nanmatura stranded and with no way of reaching Naomi and the Immaturi.
Part three[[edit] | [edit source]]
The TARDIS's consciousness has displaced itself for its own protection, but Queen Maylee is able to communicate with it just as the Doctor hoped and together they use their minds to locate the consciousness and guide it back. With the TARDIS restored, the Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to transfer the Ruby Quadrant evacuation logs to it and then to track Starboat IV with Queen Maylee's powers. She senses that the Immaturi are running out of air and Rakastava receives a transmission from Starboat IV in which Naomi, having evaded attacks from the moon to return to the ship, tells the Opis fleet that the ship is protected and gives her location in the hopes that the Doctor is listening.
The Doctor materialises the TARDIS around Naomi and takes her and Harry to Starboat IV's engineering section to save the Immaturi. Starboat IV is destroyed and the Doctor reunites the Immaturi with their elders, namely Rocky with Queen Maylee and Fixer with Dr Thorne. Queen Maylee publicly thanks Naomi for saving those aboard Starboat IV and awards her with the Nanmatura Medal of Valour, which she renames the Naomi Cross in her honour. In the TARDIS, Naomi tells Harry that she does not intend on returning home any time soon and asks the Doctor to take her to see nebulae like the one she was looking at as she was running out of oxygen.
Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Ruby Quadrant is so named because of the large amount of red giants.
- Dr Thorne is chief medical officer.
- Rakastava is a harness asteroid.
- Fixer gives Naomi a hot chocolate.
- Puberty is a period of change and disruption.
- Wallam runs the Moon Market.
- Osgood told Naomi about smart cities.
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Naomi's Ark was recorded at the Soundhouse in March 2023.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Official Naomi's Ark page at bigfinish.com