Spring (audio story)
Spring was the first story in the audio anthology, Circular Time, which comprised the ninety-first release in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Mike Maddox and featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa.
It featured the Doctor meeting another Time Lord who had "gone native" on an unnamed world inhabited by an avian species. It was perhaps most notable for its theme of how to construct a valid system of jurisprudence.
Publisher's summary
In the springtime of the distant future, the Doctor and Nyssa become embroiled in Time Lord politics on an alien world.
Plot
The Doctor and Nyssa land on a planet on instructions from the Time Lords. The Doctor has been tasked with a mission to convince fellow Time lord, the cardinal Zero, to return home and take his place on the high council. The native species on the planet appear to be an avian species. The Doctor and Nyssa stumble onto an ongoing trial for Redklaw who stole food but a child of the species is publicly injured as well because the law dictates that the guilty party as well as one of their closest of kin whom they care about most must be punished and Nyssa impulsively interferes, ignoring the Doctor's warning. While trying to calm the situation, the Doctor discovers that they have been expecting him.
When they are brought to the city in the trees by Carrion, she explains that Zero had concluded that the Time Lords would send the Doctor to persuade him to return. They are brought before Zero and throughout the course of the conversation many surprising facts are revealed to Nyssa about the Doctor. More importantly, the Doctor explains that the Time Lords have sent him because the native avian species on the planet have been developing at an alarmingly unnatural rate and they "trust" the Doctor's judgement to survey and potentially deal with the situation. Zero assures the Doctor that he has not interfered in any direct way in their evolution and attempts to persuade him that he simply lives among them, despite the fact that they refer to him as their "prophet" and that he is trying to help them "return to the sky". He then takes them to the hatchery and explains the intricate symbiotic hatching process of the avian species, including a plant called the Yolk of Darts, a yellow flower that is dangerous and poisonous enough to cause a Time Lord to regenerate and acts as a defense mechanism for the hatchery. He then points out the great city of "Platch" to them, explaining that they will be going there tomorrow because Zero is to act as a judge, jury and executioner because a murder has occurred there for the first time in six years. The Doctor is disgusted with this but there is nothing much he can do for now and so begrudgingly agrees to accompany Zero tomorrow and retires to his sleeping quarters, a nest, for the night.
Cast
- The Doctor - Peter Davison
- Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
- Hoodeye - Jamie Sandford
- Redklaw - Toby Longworth
- Carrion - Lois Baxter
- Snowfire - Teresa Gallagher
- Zero - Hugh Fraser
References
- The Doctor mentions jelly babies and his fourth incarnation's scarf.
- Zero is from the Prydonian Chapter of Time Lords, the same chapter that the Doctor belongs to.
- The Council of the Great Mother is a Time Lord organisation.
Notes
- According to a 20 November 2006 blog post, Mike Maddox wrote this story based on a short story by Paul Cornell.
- This was the first in a series of stories named after seasons.
- Lord Cardinal Zero's regeneration at the end of this story is the only instance of a Time Lord regenerating into a different species.
- This story is set between Time-Flight and Arc of Infinity.
Continuity
- Nyssa suggests the Doctor might be afraid of heights after his fourth incarnation's fatal fall from the Pharos Project's telescope on 1 March 1981. (TV: Logopolis)
- Zero refers to the Doctor's first trial on Gallifrey and his consequent forced regeneration into the Third Doctor. (TV: The War Games)
- Zero sarcastically asks the Doctor if the Time Lords have sent him to stop the creation of the avians' empire or lock them in a tunnel, setting them back over a thousand years. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
- The Doctor wakes Zero up by yelling, "Look out, vampires in the Capitol!" (TV: State of Decay)
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