Shada (audio story)

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You may wish to consult Shada for other, similarly-named pages.

Shada was an audio release of an audio/webcast adaptation of the unaired Doctor Who story of the same name. It was adapted from Douglas Adams' original story and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, Lalla Ward as Romana II and John Leeson as K9.

This story, like the previous story (Real Time), was co-produced with BBCi, and like Real Time it included extra scenes that did not feature in the webcast version.

For the adaptation of this story additional scenes were written by Gary Russell that were necessary to adapt the story for audio. This included changing the Doctor of this story from the Fourth to the Eighth Doctor. The added prologue partially explains the footage seen in 1983 television special The Five Doctors where the Fourth Doctor and Romana II are seen punting.

Publisher's summary

The Doctor has a spot of unfinished business. Reunited with his old friends Romana and K9, he answers a summons from Professor Chronotis, a retired Time Lord now living the academic life in a Cambridge college.

But the Doctor isn't the only visitor to Cambridge. Somewhere in the city is the sinister alien Skagra, who is intent on stealing an ancient and mysterious book brought to Earth by the Professor many years before.

What is Skagra's diabolical masterplan? And who or what is the mysterious Shada? To discover the truth, the Doctor and his friends must embark on a perilous journey that will take them from the cloisters of Cambridge to the farthest reaches of deep space, risking deadly encounters with a sentient spaceship, the monstrous Krargs, and an ancient Time Lord criminal called Salyavin. As the Doctor soon discovers, the fate of the universe hangs in the balance...

Written in 1979, the original production of Shada was halted by industrial action, and for many years the story remained unmade – until now. Featuring an all-star cast headed by Paul McGann, and boasting an unforgettable script by the great Douglas Adams, this legendary Doctor Who adventure is lost no more!

Plot

to be added

Cast

Production Credits

References

Books

Foods and beverages

  • Various characters drink tea, with or without milk and sugar.

Planets

  • K9 states that Skagra's home planet was the planet Dronid.

Spacecraft

Time Lords

Notes

  • This is an extended release of Shada containing some lengthened scenes.
  • Gary Russell effected alterations to accommodate the new format and style. He wrote a prologue explaining why it is the Eighth Doctor instead of the Fourth and Romana in this story (and making sense of the footage seen in the television story The Five Doctors). He also changed small scenes which would not work for audio (such as the punting scene and the scene of Skagra stealing the motorist's mind).
  • This audio drama was recorded on 12 November, 13 November and 14 November 2002 at The Moat Studios.
  • This is the first Eighth Doctor audio drama not to feature Charley Pollard.
  • Clayton Hickman's cover art for this release models Romana II's appearance on a contemporary 2003 photo of Lalla Ward, the only departure to date from Big Finish's standard practice of modelling post-Warrior's-Gate appearances of Romana II on reference photos from Ward's original 1979-1981 tenure on the programme.

Continuity

External links