The Butcher of Brisbane (audio story)
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The Butcher of Brisbane was the third story in the 2012 Fifth Doctor audio trilogy.
Publisher's summary
Adopting the alias of Weng-Chiang, the 51st century war criminal Magnus Greel will one day arrive in Victorian London by Time Cabinet – only to meet his doom, his plans undone by the Time Lord known as the Doctor.
The Doctor never believed he'd meet Greel again. But when a TARDIS trip to companion Tegan's home town goes wrong, the Doctor ends up in the younger Greel's heyday – in a world on the brink of all-out war.
With the Doctor at the mercy of Greel's alien associate Findecker and his army of mutations, Tegan is about to learn just why they called Greel 'The Butcher of Brisbane'...
Plot
to be added
Cast
- Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
- Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
- Tegan - Janet Fielding
- Turlough - Mark Strickson
- Magnus Greel - Angus Wright
- Dr. Sa Yy Findecker - Rupert Frazer
- Ingrid Bjarnsdottir/Stewardess - Felicity Duncan
- Ragan Crezzen - Daniel Weyman
- Sasha Dialfa/Kaori - Daisy Ashford
- Eugene Duplessis/Chops/Guard/Reporter/Autovoice - John Banks
- Mr Sin - Alex Mallinson
References
- Magnus Greel is the Supreme Minister of Justice of the Supreme Alliance of Eastern States. Presiding over the Star Chamber, he sentences Ragan Crezzen (Prisoner 100742) to life imprisonment in a labour camp for the attempted murder of a government official, namely Dr. Sa Yy Findecker, whom he blames for the fate of his friend Sasha. However, he is immediately placed in Findecker's time chamber for experimentation.
- The Doctor attempts to materialise the TARDIS in Tegan's father's sheep farm in Australia in June during the 1980s in order to witness the sheep shearing. However, the TARDIS encounters turbulence in the Time Vortex shortly before being struck by a Zygma beam, which begins to carve up its dimensions. The Doctor and Tegan remain in the TARDIS' console room while Nyssa and Turlough arrive in a frozen tundra in the early 51st century. However, the Doctor believes that they may have been lost in the vortex.
- Shortly after Nyssa and Turlough's arrival, a portal opens up above them and a dessicated man falls to the ground. He recognises Nyssa and Turlough immediately, telling them that Findecker's time experiments resulted in him being thrown back in time three years. Although he appears to be an elderly man, he claims that he was only 23 years old than he was placed in the time chamber. He dies shortly after telling Nyssa and Turlough that all he wanted was to see Sasha's face one more time.
- According to the Doctor, the 31st century was "all space cities and monorails."
- The Doctor tells Tegan that the 51st century is "justly notorious" for using Zygma energy to conduct time travel experiments. Tegan recognises the lie of the land as Spring Hill in Brisbane.
- While sheltering from the cold, Nyssa and Turlough are discovered by a woman named Sasha Dialfra, a member of the Earth Free Media, who offers them thermal blankets. She recognises the corpse of the man from the future as her friend Ragan, whose younger self is back at their base. She realises that he allowed himself to be a victim of Findecker's time experiments in order to prove his theory that the people appearing in the Brisbane Dead Zone are from the future.
- After being attacked by a mutated creature, the Doctor and Tegan are rescued by Sasha and Ragan. However, the Doctor is captured almost immediately by other mutated creatures in the employ of Findecker.
- Earth Free Media's base, the Correspondence Club, is in close orbit of Earth, 250 cliques above the surface of the planet. On a television monitor, Tegan witnesses Magnus Greel meeting with Ingrid Bjarnsdottir, the Commissioner of the Icelandic Alliance, in Peking, China. Greel introduces Bjarnsdottir to his "devoted bride-to-be": Nyssa.
- Dr. Findecker attempts to hypnotise the Doctor, though his efforts are unsuccessful. Findecker's interest is piqued by not only the Doctor's alien nature but also the fact that he is aware that he has discovered the double nexus particle in spite of this information not being made public.
- Sasha and Ragan tell Tegan that the former discovered Nyssa and Turlough in the Brisbane Dead Zone three years earlier and that the two of them were given new identities. Tegan comments that Nyssa, who uses the alias "Nyssa Traken," has clearly done well for herself.
- Following an attack on Greel's air saloon on his estate, Nyssa has been wounded, though Greel himself is unharmed. Fortunately, it is a merely a slight staser-gun wound to her left arm.
- Findecker, an expert in cybernetics, has augmented various dingoes with advanced technology, substantially increasing their intelligence and giving them the ability to speech. He names one of them "Chops." Having been given a tour of Findecker's laboratory, the Doctor is chained up and offered to the mutated troll which he and Tegan encountered in the Dead Zone as food. However, Findecker spares his life when the Doctor tells him that he is a Time Agent and he therefore knows from personal experience that time travel is possible. While Findecker order Chops to chain the Doctor up elsewhere, the Doctor is able to reprogamme Chops to obey his orders.
- Turlough works on Greel's estate as Nyssa's secretary.
- Greel tells Commissioner Duplessis that he strongly believes in a united Earth but not as a republic.
- Nyssa and Turlough are plotting to reveal that Greel is importing illegal substances to Earth. They are aided in their efforts by Nyssa's cyborg servant Kaori, a present from Greel which she has reprogrammed to work for her.
- The previous month, Findecker sent a cybernetic doll, the Miraculous Mr Sin, to Greel which he gives to Commissioner Bjarnsdottir as a present for her two children.
- Having infiltrated Findecker's facility in the company of Tegan and Ragan, Sasha is captured by the alien scientist. The seriously ill Findecker drains her energy in order to sustain himself, killing her in the process. He plans to do the same to Tegan.
Notes
- Angus Wright (Magnus Greel) previously played Mister Dread in SJA: The Vault of Secrets.
- Felicity Duncan (Ingrid Bjarnsdottir) would later play Ikiria and Corporal Jean Mercer in CC: The Rings of Ikiria.
- Daisy Ashford (Sasha Dialfa) previously played Lizzie Harcourt in BFA: The Renaissance Man. She is the daughter of Caroline John and Geoffrey Beevers.
- This story is both a sequel and a prequel to DW: The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
- This audio drama was recorded on 19 and 20 January 2012.
Continuity
- This is the second time that the Fifth Doctor has faced an old enemy in their early days. The first was Morbius in PDA: Warmonger. Both characters were first encountered by the Fourth Doctor and both were originally played by Michael Spice.
- The Doctor tells Tegan that there was another Ice Age during the 51st century. (DW: The Ice Warriors)
- The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan previously spent several days on holiday in Brisbane in 1983 after defeating Father Thane and the Elite on Florana. (BFA: The Elite, BFA: Hexagora) Later in his personal timeline, the Doctor would return to Brisbane on 22 September 2006 where he was unexpectedly reunited with Tegan, approximately 22 years after she had left the TARDIS following an encounter with the Daleks in London in 1984. (BFA: The Gathering)
External links
- Official The Butcher of Brisbane page at bigfinish.com
