Deadline (audio story)

Deadline
Doctor:	Doctor Who
Main character(s):	Martin Bannister
Companion(s):	Barbara, Ian, Susan
Featuring:	Barbara, Philip, Tom
Main setting:	Nursing home, England, 2003, Meta-fiction universe
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Robert Shearman
Director:	Nicholas Briggs
Post production:	Nicholas Briggs
Cover by:	Clayton Hickman
Release details
Release number:	5
Release date:	September 2003
Format:	1 CD
Production code:	DWUN05
ISBN:	ISBN 1-84435-017-7
Doctor Who Unbound
← Previous	He Jests at Scars...
Next →	Exile

You may be looking for the unproduced Torchwood story or the Torchwood audio drama.

Deadline was the fifth Doctor Who Unbound audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. Unlike the previous Unbound stories, this story does not strictly attempt to portray an alternate version of the Doctor, but instead an alternate version of the history of the Doctor Who television show.

The story blurs the lines between a version of the "real world" and a version of the Doctor Who universe. Elements and alternate versions of key sequences from An Unearthly Child, The Daleks and The Masters of Luxor are presented and acted out throughout the story.

Publisher's summary

It's been forty years since Martin Bannister encountered the Doctor. They were different men back then. Martin was young and talented and the Times' seventh Most Promising Writer To Watch Out For. The Doctor was mysterious, crotchety, and possibly Oriental.

It was an encounter that destroyed both their lives.

Pity poor Martin now. His career is in ruins, all forgotten. His estranged wives keep dying in the wrong order. And there's a nasty green stain by the wardrobe that could be an alien footprint. Or possibly just mould.

Martin's life is about to change unexpectedly. Impromptu poetry readings, elephant expeditions, an obligatory Bug-Eyed Monster. And a last desperate chance for love, before it's too late.

Sounds like it's time for the Doctor to come into Martin's life again, and sort him out. Permanently.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• Martin Bannister / Doctor Who - Derek Jacobi
• Amy Bannister / Susan - Genevieve Swallow
• Philip Bannister / Ian - Peter Forbes
• Barbara Wright / Barbara - Jacqueline King
• Sydney/Sydney Newman/Supreme One- Ian Brooker
• Tom Bannister - Adam Manning

References

• Martin was named one of the Ten Writers to Watch in The Times in 1961. He was number seven.
• Martin cannot remember if Sydney Newman was Canadian or Australian.

Notes

• There are references to the elements of the television stories An Unearthly Child and The Daleks as well as The Masters of Luxor, an unmade serial from Season 1 which was later produced in audio drama form by Big Finish Productions as The Masters of Luxor.
• This audio drama was recorded on 12 and 13 June 2003 at The Moat Studios.
• There are many similarities between this story and Auld Mortality, another audio drama in the Unbound series. Both stories are about a struggling writer penning stories about travels in time and space as the Doctor, and being reunited with a family member as they begin to get fiction and reality confused. They also both feature alternate First Doctors. However, in Auld Mortality, the main character actually was the Doctor, whereas Martin Bannister just believes himself to be. In a way, this story could be seen as a dark parody of the other. This story's ending is a dark mirror of that story's, with Martin believing himself to be leaving in the TARDIS with Susan, as the Doctor did in this story, as he in reality suffocates to death in a wardrobe. The TARDIS being disguised as a wardrobe is also mentioned in Auld Mortality as a theoretical possibly.

Continuity

• The creation of the version of history seen in the story is explained in PROSE: All Our Christmases.

External links

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