Tales from the Vault (audio story)

Tales from the Vault
Main character(s):	Ruth Matheson, Charlie Sato
Featuring:	First Doctor, Second Doctor, Third Doctor, Fourth Doctor, Steven, Dodo, Jamie, Zoe, Jo, Romana I
Main enemy:	Kali Carash
Main setting:	The Vault, Gateshead, England, 2011 England, the 1960s England, the 1970s Kensington, 2002 South Africa, 1900
Key crew
Writer:	Jonathan Morris
Director:	Lisa Bowerman
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Alistair Lock
Sound:	Alistair Lock
Cover by:	Alex Mallinson
Release details
Release number:	6.01
Release date:	July 2011
Format:	1 disc
Production code:	BFPDWCC45
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-576-1
Official trailer
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The Companion Chronicles
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Tales from the Vault was the first story of the sixth series in The Companion Chronicles audio range. It was produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Jonathan Morris and featured Steven Taylor, Zoe Heriot, Jo Grant and Romana I.

Publisher's summary

Welcome to the Vault — jokingly known as "the Museum of Terrors" — a high security establishment where UNIT keeps all of its alien artefacts.

New recruit Warrant Officer Charlie Sato is given a guided tour by Captain Ruth Matheson, and the archive reveals some dark secrets. An army jacket, a painting, crystal and a wax cylinder all hold a grave significance, and their stories are told by the Doctor's companions: Steven Taylor, Zoe Heriot, Jo Grant and Romana...

Plot

Warrant Officer Charlie Sato is greeted by Captain Ruth Matheson at the UNIT archives in the Museum of Terrors, also known as "The Vault". After going through an identity conformation procedure in which he is scanned, gassed and given a drug, Captain Matheson takes him for a tour of the museum in hopes of having him join the staff. She explains the job of UNIT Secret Ops, the branch that he would be working for if he decides to take the job. She further explains that the water he had earlier was drugged and if he chooses not to take the job and return to regular duty the drug will simply wipe his memory of the last 24 hours to prevent the secrets from leaking out, whereas if he accepts she will give him the antidote to counteract the drug. He accepts.

They go to get some coffee in the break room and Matheson explains that Sato's job will be as an assistant on night-watch, keeping a close eye that the exhibits in the archive don't break out. She leads him downstairs to the exhibits to show and explain them to him.

Sato sees many different exhibits on his guided tour of the vaults, including Terravores, a Krynoid seed pod (empty husk) and a potential part of a Sontaran Scout Ship. Sato, curious about a jacket, asks Captain Matheson to explain and the Captain decides to play a tape recording of Jo Grant explaining the jacket's purpose. Due to technical difficulties (on Jo's end), Sato accesses the UNIT archives instead and gets a factual account and they discover that a man named Roddie Fletcher purchased a red infantryman's jacket that caused him to go ballistic and UNIT was brought in to investigate. Captain Matheson, trying to get commander Sato to expand his understanding, and engaging his curiosity, manages to find the second tape and goads Sato into listening to an alternative, more "human" account of the event. Jo explains how the Doctor and her cornered Mr. Fletcher, in which he claims he is a soldier from the Battle of Spion Kop named Tommy Watkins. They manage to take him down and remove the jacket, and UNIT surmises that somehow part of his conscious lingered on in the jacket. Whether it can still posess people is unknown as no one has put the jacket on since. They move on to the next exhibit.

Captain Matheson explains that their next exhibit was one of the first assignments she ever had with special ops and it was for an exhibit for a very famous art piece. She plays her interview with Romana. The pair had discovered an important piece of artwork that shows the viewer their own death. They meet with its owner, Hickson, and the Doctor hears him recount what he saw. They explain what the paitning does. In a blind panic, Hickson runs out and is killed by a car, just as the paitning had predicted. Matheson was brought in to replace the painting and they gave the Doctor a fake and kept the real paitning as an emergency, since the Doctor would never know as he could never look at the painting. Romana was brought in for quick questioning and was then released.

Cast

• Captain Ruth Matheson - Daphne Ashbrook
• Warrant Officer Charlie Sato - Yee Jee Tso
• Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
• Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury
• Jo Grant - Katy Manning
• Romana - Mary Tamm

References

• The Vault is located under the Angel of the North.
• Within the Vault is a hunk of what is thought to be a Sontaran scout ship that crashed at Tunguska province.

Notes

• This audio drama features a cast of six actors, more than any other Companion Chronicle release to date.
• This is the second Companion Chronicles release to feature multiple companions from different eras, the first being The Three Companions. There are in fact six companions involved in the story, although only four are heard. This is not an omnibus of stories with linking material, but rather Jo, Romana, Steven and Zoe are worked into the narrative by way of archival recordings.
• The events involving Jo are said to take place "70-odd" years after the death of Tommy Watkins in 1900, placing the Doctor's exile on Earth in the early 1970s. This is consistent with the TV: Mawdryn Undead version of the UNIT dating controversy and the real life broadcasts.
• This audio drama was primarily recorded on 11 November 2010, however according to the interview included on the CD, contributions from some cast members were recorded during sessions for other Companion Chronicles.
• This was Mary Tamm's final appearance in The Companion Chronicles before her death on 24 July 2012.

Continuity

• Alien artefacts in the Vault include the Terravore, (AUDIO: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster) Krynoid husks, (TV: The Seeds of Doom) plastic daffodils, (TV: Terror of the Autons) a chess set, (TV: The Curse of Fenric) and a grandfather clock. (AUDIO: Mastermind)
• Ruth tells Charlie about the Terravore incursion in the London Underground in 2010. (AUDIO: The Crimes of Thomas Brewster)
• References are made to UNIT's involvement with an incident involving a sea monster appearing in the River Thames (TV: Terror of the Zygons) and the disturbances at the turn of the millennium. (TV: Doctor Who; PROSE: Millennial Rites; AUDIO: The Panda Invasion)
• Jo mentions her encounters with the Axons (TV: The Claws of Axos) and the Sea Devils. (TV: The Sea Devils)
• Private Tommy Watkins was killed in the Battle of Spion Kop in 1900 during the Second Boer War, as was the case with Joan Redfern's husband Oliver. (TV: Human Nature)
• The painting that the Fourth Doctor and Romana was investigating was stolen from the Braxiatel Collection two centuries ago, it could show the viewer's death. (AUDIO: Bernice Summerfield)

External links

• Official Tales from the Vault page at bigfinish.com
• Tales from the Vault at the Doctor Who Reference Guide