The Screaming Skull was the third full cast audio story in the The Worlds of Doctor Who audio anthology released in 2014 by Big Finish Productions.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Disgraced soldiers Ruth Matheson and Charlie Sato are called back into action by Captain Mike Yates, when the UNIT Vault is mysteriously locked down by a deadly force. Together they must infiltrate the Vault and get those trapped out alive. But what enemy are they facing?
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added
Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Captain Ruth Matheson - Daphne Ashbrook
- Warrant Officer Charlie Sato - Yee Jee Tso
- Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
- Mr Rees - Jamie Glover
- Lieutenant Jane Lucas - Rachel Atkins
- Soldier - Stephen Critchlow
- Soldier - Rory Keenan
- Terravore - Sinead Keenan
- Henry Gordon Jago - Christopher Benjamin
- Professor George Litefoot - Trevor Baxter
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Sato compares Rees's attempt to make a body to a Gunther von Hagens sculpture.
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- This story was recorded at The Moat Studios.[1]
- Although Jane Lucas is a lieutenant, Ruth refers to her as "Captain" several times.
- This is the only story in The Worlds of Doctor Who anthology to not be written by Justin Richards.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Charlie and Ruth refer to once being under the control of the Master, (AUDIO: Mastermind) after which they were sent to Fortress Island, now acting as a retirement home for ex-UNIT operatives who posed a security risk. (TV: The Sea Devils)
- Charlie refers to Yates' subordination in his youth. (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs)
- Yates, Charlie and Ruth prove their identities for entry into the Vault with a DNA test. (AUDIO: Tales from the Vault)
- Yates refers to the fact that the Brigadier lent artefacts to museums. (TV: Terror of the Autons)
- Yates mentions plastic daffodils (TV: Terror of the Autons) and a gargoyle from the Devil's End incident. (TV: The Dæmons)
- The Vault contains the skeleton of an allosaurus, which was carbon dated to only a century earlier, (AUDIO: The Monstrous Menagerie) a chess set (TV: The Curse of Fenric; AUDIO: Tales from the Vault) and a fragment of a Sontaran scout ship. (AUDIO: Tales from the Vault)
- C19 were the forerunners of the Vault, before it was taken over by UNIT in the 1990s. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice; AUDIO: Tales from the Vault)
- Some of the items from the "Black Vault", a UNIT base below the Tower of London, have been moved to the Vault temporarily whilst it's being refurbished. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
- The Vault contains a pipe organ salvaged from the priory that occupied the future site of UNIT HQ prior to being burned down in 1911. (TV: Pyramids of Mars)
- Rees uses the damaged Terravore in the Vault to attack Charlie and Ruth. (AUDIO: Tales from the Vault) It was among the thousands of Terravores which invaded Earth and attacked the London Underground in 2010. (AUDIO: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster)
- Charlie and Ruth hide from the Terravore in Diamond Jack's magic cabinet. (AUDIO: The Magician's Oath)
- Ruth tells Charlie that Sir Toby Kinsella of the Counter-Measures team placed the Reesinger music box in storage in 1964 and it was given to UNIT in the mid 1970s. (AUDIO: The Reesinger Process)
- Yates refers to Corporal Bell. (TV: The Claws of Axos)
- When Rees looks into Yates' mind, he sees the Brigadier, the Dæmons, (TV: The Dæmons) the Daleks, (TV: Day of the Daleks) the Master, (TV: Terror of the Autons, et. al) Karfel, (TV: Timelash; PROSE: Speed of Flight) Hyde Park frozen in July, (AUDIO: The Magician's Oath) stone circles in Scotland, (AUDIO: Vengeance of the Stones) a shining blue crystal, (TV: The Green Death) Operation Golden Age, (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs) Yates' breakdown and rehabilitation, (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Planet of the Spiders) and Nest Cottage and Mrs. Wibbsey. (AUDIO: Survivors in Space, et al.)
- Charlie and Ruth listen to Henry Gordon Jago and Professor George Litefoot's phonograph recording about their encounter with Rees in the 1890s. (AUDIO: Mind Games)
- Jago and Litefoot's records are stored in the Professor Dark collection. (AUDIO: Chronoclasm, Jago in Love, Beautiful Things, The Lonely Clock, The Hourglass Killers)
- Rees refers to the deaths of Charlie's father and sister. (AUDIO: Mastermind)
- Ruth refers to the fact that Terravores have extremely limited vision. (AUDIO: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster)
- Yates has UNIT use the space-time telegraph to contact the Doctor. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, Terror of the Zygons) The message was received by his sixth incarnation. (AUDIO: Second Sight)
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Official The Screaming Skull page at bigfinish.com