The Black Hole (audio story)

The Black Hole
Doctor:	Second Doctor
Companion(s):	Jamie, Victoria
Main enemy:	The Monk, Seeth
Main setting:	Research station
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Simon Guerrier
Director:	Lisa Bowerman
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Toby Hrycek-Robinson
Sound:	Toby Hrycek-Robinson
Cover by:	Tom Webster
Release details
Release number:	2.3
Release date:	17 November 2015
Production code:	BFPDWEA07
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-78178-355-9
Official trailer
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The Early Adventures
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The Black Hole was the third story of the second series of The Early Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Simon Guerrier, narrated by Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling and featured the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield.

The story is notable in that it offers an alternate account of the Second Doctor's history with regard to The Two Doctors to the Season 6B theory, explaining why the Doctor was working for the Time Lords and why Jamie was aware of their existence. This puts it at odds with the earlier novel World Game, which takes place, and therefore places The Two Doctors, after The War Games.

Publisher's summary

On a research station near a black hole, time keeps standing still. Investigating the phenomenon, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria discover a power far greater than any of the monsters that have challenged them on their travels... The Doctor's own people.

With the safety of thousands balancing out the need to flee, and a policeman from his home planet working at his side, the Doctor reluctantly finds himself involved in a race against time.

But nothing is ever as simple as it appears. And if you can use the Doctor's compassion against him, you have the makings of a perfect trap...

Plot

Part one

Jamie, Victoria and the Doctor are traveling inside the TARDIS when it is mysteriously drawn off course and lands them in a mysterious space station. Venturing into the station, they find it is packed with people but a mysterious time anomaly, that freezes everyone for a few seconds, occurs but doesn't affect them, mystifying them. They decide to go look for whomever is in charge to find out what's going on. Eventually they stumble on the central control room and meet Commander Flail, who, after the Doctor reveals he is aware the effects must be caused by a near-by black hole, holds them at gun point. After she explains the situation, the Doctor offers his help but is nervous as they discover that the black hole was likely to have been "artificially created", which is supposedly impossible. The Doctor claims he has "specialist equipment" in the TARDIS that he needs to get in order to help them. Flail accompanies them, keeping them at gun-point, when another time anomaly hits partially freezing her and freezing everyone else, but she is still able to move and fires blasts at them as the Doctor makes a run for it and instructs Jamie and Victoria to follow suite.

Inside the TARDIS the Doctor explains to the two that there are people who can control black holes, his own people, and that is why they must leave but after Victoria tries to argue with him about how they would be abandoning all the helpless people on the station, he has a change of heart and they go outside to be greeted by Flail. The Doctor reasons with her after his display and they make a plan for him to find the person responsible for this, whom she knows, on the lower deck laboratories because the three of them are immune to the time dilation. After some protest from Flail whom they leave behind since the dilation affect her as well, they reach the lab and meet Pavo of the Chapter 9 police force, who tells the Doctor that just by being on the station he has already broken a law and reveals that their punishment is death...

Cast

• Jamie McCrimmon/The Doctor - Frazer Hines
• Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling
• Constable Pavo - Rufus Hound
• Commander Flail - Janet Dibley
• The Seeth - Anthony Keetch

Narrated by David Warner

Uncredited

• Pavo - Anthony Keetch

References

• Victoria does not know what a black hole is.
• The Doctor uses parsecs.
• A woman in the library reads Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to a group of children.
• A Stattenheim remote is used on the TARDIS.
• Pavo says he has previously disguised himself as a policeman, an emperor and a TV host over the centuries.
• During the couple of weeks that the Doctor and Jamie travel together without Victoria, they visit the City of Owls and help out the people of Mackenzie.
• The Monk's TARDIS features a chair littered with children's comics and a burnt Van Gogh-style painting.

Notes

Textless cover.

• This story was recorded at The Moat Studios.
• Unusually for an Early Adventures story, it is narrated by an actor who does not appear during the performed elements of the story.
• Coincidentally, Rufus Hound's first appearance in licensed Doctor Who material was in the 2013 documentary The Science of Doctor Who, where he participated in a demonstration on black holes.
• Janet Dibley is married to Tyler Butterworth, whose father Peter Butterworth played Template:Butterworth in TV: The Time Meddler and TV: The Daleks' Master Plan.
• Although never stated in the story, Simon Guerrier intended for Pavo to be an early incarnation of the Master.

Continuity

• The Doctor's companions tease at how he landed the TARDIS the correct way up this time. The console room is still a mess from the previous landing. (TV: The Ice Warriors)
• When Jamie asks why he, the Doctor and Victoria, are unaffected by effects of the black hole warping space and time, the Doctor says that travelling in the TARDIS grants them a "different relationship" with time (TV: Flesh and Stone) along with some immunity (TV: Reset) or sensitivity.
• Victoria recalls encountering evil scientists, including Theodore Maxtible (TV: The Evil of the Daleks) and Eric Klieg. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)
• The Doctor tells Jamie and Victoria that if they encounter his people, it will mean the end of their travels together. The Doctor wonders if he will be arrested by the Time Lords. (TV: The War Games)
• Victoria asks the Doctor if he ran away from his people. (TV: An Unearthly Child, AUDIO: The Beginning et al.)
• After these events, the Doctor and his friends have their memories erased, which is why Jamie does not know of the Time Lords when the Doctor summons their aid. (TV: The War Games)
• The TARDIS' interior is modified to contain a dual control with Gallifrey. (TV: The Two Doctors)
• Victoria is studying graphology in the library. (TV: The Two Doctors, AUDIO: Helicon Prime)
• Victoria talks about how her father was a scientist. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)
• The Monk says he first met the Doctor when disguised as a monk. (TV: The Time Meddler)
• The Monk engineers a Sontaran attack. Jamie mentions meeting the Sontarans a couple of weeks ago, before returning to where they originally landed. (TV: The Two Doctors)
• The Monk thinks Dastari could provide a good distraction for the Doctor and Jamie. The Doctor says that as he was busy with the Sontarans, they will pop back and visit him later. (TV: The Two Doctors)
• Pavo is able to regenerate into a female form. (TV: The Doctor's Wife, Dark Water, Hell Bent, Twice Upon a Time)

External links

• Official The Black Hole page at bigfinish.com