The Magic Mousetrap (audio story)

The Magic Mousetrap
Doctor:	Seventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Ace, Hex
Main enemy:	Celestial Toymaker
Main setting:	Celestial Toyroom, Switzerland, 1926
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Matthew Sweet
Director:	Ken Bentley
Post production:	Richard Fox, Lauren Yason
Cover by:	Alex Mallinson
Release details
Release number:	120
Release date:	April 2009
Format:	4 Episodes on 2 CDs
Production code:	7W/J
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-408-5
Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories
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The Magic Mousetrap was the one hundred and twentieth monthly Doctor Who audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. Originally, this story was meant to feature Agatha Christie during the time of her disappearance in December 1926. These elements were written-out due to The Unicorn and the Wasp providing an alternative take on the same historical events.

Publisher's summary

Switzerland, 1926: the Doctor finds himself halfway up an Alpine mountainside, on his way to an exclusive sanatorium for the rich and famous run by the Viennese alienist Ludovic "Ludo" Comfort. In between bouts of electric shock therapy, Ludo's patients — including faded music hall turn Harry Randall, chess grandmaster Swapnil Khan and Lola Luna, darling of the Weimar cabaret scene — fill their time with endless rounds of Snap!, among other diversions.

But the Doctor soon suspects that someone's playing an altogether more sinister game. Someone with a score to settle...

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
• Ace - Sophie Aldred
• Hex - Philip Olivier
• Ludovic Comfort - Paul Antony-Barber
• Lola Luna - Joan Walker
• Swapnil Khan - Nadim Sawalha
• Queenie Glasscock - Nadine Lewington
• Harry Randall - Andrew Fettes
• Herbert Randall - Andrew Dickens

References

• The Doctor states that the last time that he had a haircut was 1881.

Notes

Illustration from DWM 407.

• This story features the first appearance of the Celestial Toymaker in a BBC-licensed audio play. He had appeared earlier in a charity audio version of The Nightmare Fair, and would return again in late 2009 for the official, Big Finish version of the same story. However, this was the first officially-licensed audio story using the Toymaker that was available for public purchase.
• This audio story was recorded at The Moat Studios.
• This audio also included the first episode of The Three Companions "Polly's Story" by Marc Platt.

Continuity

• The Doctor wears a pair of question mark pyjamas. (PROSE: Question Mark Pyjamas)
• Ace tells Queenie that she knows from personal experience that "burning stuff never resolved anything." (TV: Ghost Light)
• Harry and Lola's song about the Doctor refers to his defeat of the Gods of Ragnarok. (TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy)
• The First Doctor visited the Celestial Toyroom, the domain of the Celestial Toymaker, in the company of Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet. (TV: The Celestial Toymaker) In the interim, the Doctor encountered the Toymaker in Blackpool in 1986. (AUDIO: The Nightmare Fair) He would later return to the Toyroom in the company of Charley Pollard during his eighth incarnation. (AUDIO: Solitaire)
• It is later revealed that the chess sets in the sanatorium were left there by Fenric. (AUDIO: Gods and Monsters)

External links

• Official The Magic Mousetrap page at bigfinish.com
• The Magic Mousetrap at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• DisContinuity for The Magic Mousetrap at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide