Secrets of Telos (audio story)

Professor Parry's expedition to the tombs of Telos was hardly an unmitigated success. The handful of survivors limp home in a spaceship…unaware that the deadly peril they faced from the Cybermen is not yet banished.

Into this situation stumble the Fifth Doctor and his friends Nyssa and Tegan - and they're soon in a deadly fight for their lives.

Except things aren't quite that simple - something odd is happening to the Doctor. He's suddenly in a different part of his own timeline inhabiting his future self with no idea of why or how this has happened.

Who is bouncing him through time? And what could they possibly want?

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]

Nyssa faints after leaving Monarch's ship and the Doctor experiences temporal dislocation, finding himself in his own future, not long after Tegan rejoined him and Nyssa. The TARDIS jumps along its temporal vector in search of a stable time track and materialises on a rocket and Nyssa attempts to find out what has happened without telling the Doctor about his future, explaining Adric's absence by saying that they recently parted ways with him. Upon exiting the ship, they find the unconscious form of Ted Rogers with a cybernetic attachment on his head.

The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan are held at gunpoint by Captain Hopper and Morton. Hopper has Morton clamp the TARDIS and take Nyssa and Tegan in the hold whilst he and the Doctor, who remembers him from Telos, carry Rogers to the medical bay. The Doctor attempts to persuade Professor Parry of his identity before instead claiming that he is the Doctor's right-hand man, but Hopper handcuffs him when an alarm sounds and goes to investigate.

Parry releases the Doctor when he realises that Rogers is a victim of quickly-spreading Cyber-technology and they put him in a cryo-bay. The Doctor opens a cryo-bay containing a dead crewman and attempts to catch a Cybermat, but it eludes him and Parry and they fetch Hopper to show him the technology and prove that the rocket is in danger. They find that Rogers has disappeared, however; Rogers, partially cyber-converted, breaks into the hold and tells the chained Nyssa and Tegan that they will become like him.

Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]

Morton fires at Rogers, but her weapon has no effect and she instead releases him into space through the airlock. She uncuffs Nyssa and Tegan and they join the Doctor, Parry and Hopper and explain what has happened, resulting in a search for Cybermats with frequency modulators during which the Doctor discovers that the Cybermats have upgraded the rocket, apparently to reach Earth faster. Hopper torches a nest of Cybermats, but Nyssa and Morton detect numerous others beneath the rocket's titanium skin and learn that the rocket is flying to a newly-appeared planet in the Telos system.

The Doctor and Parry stop by the medical bay and see dozens of Cybermats carrying metal components to cyber-convert Jim Callum inside his cryo-pod. Callum emerges as a Cyberman and the Doctor attempts to get answers from him about his temporal dislocation before realising that he is not connected to Cyber-Control and instead running with Parry. Rogers gets back inside by ripping holes in the hull which the Cybermats fill, after which they complete his conversion and he and Callum try to stop the six humanoids from getting away in an escape capsule. Hopper sacrifices himself and the other five escape, the crashing capsule making Tegan cry out about Adric.

Part three[[edit] | [edit source]]

The escape capsule lands in a jungle on the new planet, which Nyssa reasons had been camouflaged, and the five newcomers are chased by six-legged creatures. A branch falls on Parry and the Doctor tries to free him whilst Morton gets Nyssa and Tegan to safety, discovering and breaking into an old metal bunker with a stencil of a Cyberman on it. Nyssa is surprised to find that the lights are on and Tegan suggests that they might be trying to herd them somewhere.

The Doctor and Parry are saved from the creatures by Professor Vansom, a colleague of Parry's who explains that most members of her expedition are dead. She demonstrates Remus, one of two supposed cyborgs she claims to have created from cyber-technology, and shows them a map of the planet, which she has named Telos Minor. The nearby conversion factory activates, but Vansom refuses to let the Doctor go to save Nyssa, Tegan and Morton and confirms that her expedition converted Remus and its twin, Romulus, in addition to leaving about sixty failed subjects in the factory.

Part four[[edit] | [edit source]]

Vansom stops the converted creatures in the factory with her controls and takes the Doctor and Parry there, reuniting them with Nyssa, Tegan and Morton. She forces Nyssa and Parry into the cyber-conversion units as her first humanoid test subjects in her mission to create soldiers for the Earth Empire and makes the Doctor assist her whilst Tegan and Morton manage to escape. Cyber-Control begins to take a hold and the Doctor convinces Vansom to let Nyssa and Parry go, after which he gives the creatures a final order: to destroy the factory.

The Doctor reroutes all power to one of the cyber-conversion units to overload it. A Cyberman keeps the group from leaving and kills the fascinated Vansom, but Tegan shoots it with a cyber-gun and they manage to escape to the wreck of Hopper's rocket before the factory's destruction. Parry accepts that the Doctor is the same man that he knew on Telos and the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan leave in the TARDIS with no clue as to what caused the temporal dislocation. Nyssa and Tegan tell the Doctor that Adric is dead and he slips through time once again.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Medicine[[edit] | [edit source]]

Tegan is trained in first aid.
The Doctor states placing Rogers in cryo-sleep will slow the spread of the cyber-conversion.

Time travel[[edit] | [edit source]]

The TARDIS has jumped back along her temporal vector looking for a stable time track. The Doctor believes he's done the same and "infected" the TARDIS, having "skipped a time track" and been displaced along his own personal timeline due to being pulled along his time stream.
The TARDIS needs time to recalibrate.
Nyssa uses temporal telemetry to look for time distortion.

Planets[[edit] | [edit source]]

Earth is six weeks travel from Telos.
Telos Minor is a small planetoid with a jungle inhabited by beasts akin to six-armed bears. It has a cyber-factory connected to the tomb on Telos and with similar symbolic logic puzzles.

Cybermen[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Cyber-Army was at its height five hundred years ago.
Cybermats are always transmitting signals and are capable of replicating themselves, and repairing and sabotaging systems.
Cyber-Control on Telos Minor knows the Doctor is a Time Lord from Gallifrey.

Organisations[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor refers to the Brotherhood of Logicians.

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

Tegan and Nyssa are not aware of Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield.
Tegan refers to her Aunt Vanessa.
Jim Callum and Ted Rogers were converted into Cybermen shortly after leaving Telos by a Cybermat who smuggled itself onboard Hopper's rocket.
John Viner sold Vansom some information on the logic puzzles on Telos.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

From the Doctor's perspective, the story picks up from TV: Four to Doomsday. From Tegan and Nyssa's perspective, TV: Arc of Infinity just recently happened. Nyssa explains she's been onboard the TARDIS for "a while" and that Adric "left" them "a short while" ago.
The Fourth Doctor audio story Return to Telos previously took place during the events of The Tomb of the Cybermen, with the Fourth Doctor and Leela having to avoid the Second Doctor and Jamie while they explore the Cyber-tomb on Telos.
- That story featured Bernard Holley reprising his role as Peter Haydon (a character who does not survive the original serial), whereas this story recasts all the Tomb characters with new actors. Aubrey Richards, who played Professor Parry in Tomb, passed away in 2000.
The Fifth Doctor was previously pulled along his own time stream in AUDIO: The Secret History, the conclusion to the "Locum Doctors" trilogy and Big Finish's 200th Main Range release. That time, he was paired up with First Doctor companions Vicki and Steven, and it was revealed the Monk was behind his and other Doctor's displacements.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Captain Hopper and Professor Parry have just left Telos six hours ago. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)
The Doctor recalls that Parry works with the Brotherhood of Logicians, hired Captain Hopper, and lost several men on the planet below. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)
Just before the Doctor switches into his personal future, Tegan reminds Adric about the Urbankans. (TV: Four to Doomsday)
Nyssa suspects that Tegan's sudden return and the trouble with Omega may have caused the Doctor to forget their recent adventures. (TV: Arc of Infinity)
When the Doctor arrives in his future, Tegan and Nyssa attempt to avoid telling him about Adric's death. (TV: Earthshock)
The Doctor recalls the death of Klieg and Kaftan. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)
Parry recalls Jim Callum being injured on Telos. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)
Tegan recalls Cyber weapons having an affect on Cybermen. (TV: Earthshock)
The Doctor vaguely remembers John Viner. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)
Nyssa recalls encountering several variants of Cybermen on her journeys. (TV: Earthshock, AUDIO: Spare Parts, Conversion)

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

↑ In the credits, Janet Fielding refers to the story as The Secrets of Telos.

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

Official Secrets of Telos page at bigfinish.com

[1] In the credits, Janet Fielding refers to the story as The Secrets of Telos.

[1]