The Zygon Who Fell to Earth (audio story)

The Zygon Who Fell to Earth
Doctor:	Eighth Doctor
Companion(s):	Lucie
Featuring:	Aunty Pat
Main enemy:	Zygons
Main setting:	Kendal, England, 1984
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Paul Magrs
Director:	Barnaby Edwards
Producer:	David Richardson, Sharon Gosling, Barnaby Edwards
Music:	Andy Hardwick
Sound:	Gareth Jenkins
Cover by:	Grant Kempster
Release details
Release number:	2.6
Release date:	June 2008
Format:	1 Episode on 1 CD; Download
Production code:	BFPDWCDMG014
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-309-5
Eighth Doctor Adventures
← Previous	Grand Theft Cosmos
Next →	Sisters of the Flame

The Zygon Who Fell to Earth was the sixth story in the second series of the Eighth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Paul Magrs and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Sheridan Smith as Lucie Miller.

This audio featured "Aunty" Pat who first appeared in Horror of Glam Rock. This was the first audio story to feature Zygons since BBV's 2001 project The Barnacled Baby. Steven Pacey, who plays Trevor in this story, is possibly better known for his role as Del Tarrant in Blake's 7.

Publisher's summary

There are no monsters this time... are there?

Ten years later and Aunty Pat is in her prime. She's snagged herself an ex rock star at the Kendal Folk Festival and now, in the brave new world of the early 1980s they manage together a snazzy hotel on the poetic and shingly shore of Lake Grasmere. However, still waters run deep and friends from the past are returning, intent on milking the old cash-cow...

Featuring the song "Falling Star" sung by Steven Pacey with music by Tim Sutton and lyrics by Barnaby Edwards.

Plot

The Doctor and Lucie are visiting Auntie Pat in the 1980s, where she owns a lakeside hotel and is married to a man named Trevor. Two executives from a record company to convince Trevor, a former folk singer, to make a comeback, but Trevor refuses. That night, Lucie follows the executives to the lake and sees them drinking Skarasen milk before being caught. When Lucie returns to the Doctor she insists that they investigate the cellar, and they find a Zygon body-print machine with the real Trevor inside.

The Doctor and Lucie reveal to Pat that her husband is a Zygon, but she already knows, and loves him anyway. Lucie returns to the executives, and it is revealed that they are all Zygons in disguise. They need to recover a vital control crystal from Warmaster Hagoth – Trevor – but he has given it to Pat as a brooch, and now it's fused to the skin of her throat. When the executives kidnap Pat, the Doctor and Trevor follow her to the Zygon ship, with the fake Lucie in tow. On the ship, the Doctor rescues the real Lucie and outs the fake.

The Zygons rip the brooch from Pat's throat, killing her in the process and allowing them to arm warheads and launch an attack on the Earth. Trevor, distraught over Pat's death and not caring about his own life, allows the Doctor and Lucie to escape and then commands the Skarasen to attack and destroy the ship, stopping the Zygon plot. Lucie is unable to accept that her Auntie Pat is dead, since she knew her in the future. Once Lucie has gone to sleep Trevor returns in his Zygon form. Using the last of his strength he permanently takes the form of Auntie Pat and resolves to live an ordinary life and allow Lucie to believe the real Pat survived.

Cast

• The Doctor - Paul McGann
• Lucie Miller - Sheridan Smith
• Trevor - Steven Pacey
• Urtak - Malcolm Stoddard
• Mims - Tim Brooke-Taylor
• Aunty Pat - Lynsey Hardwick
• Grakus - Katarina Olsson

References

The Doctor

• The Doctor drinks his tea with six sugars.

Music

• Pat first met Trevor at a Folk Festival in Kendal in 1979.

Individuals

• The Doctor is surprised when "Lucie" drinks vodka by the pint, and later brandy.
• The Doctor helped William Wordsworth write some of his poems, and quotes them.
• The Doctor mentions newscaster Trevor McDonald.

Zygons

• The Zygons need to be near a Skarasen in order to feed.
• The Doctor hoped that the Skarasen would be "off visiting his Scottish Pal."

Notes

• The song "Falling Star" is sung by Steven Pacey, with music by Tim Sutton and lyrics by Barnaby Edwards.
• Following its release on CD, this story was broadcast in the UK on BBC Radio 7 on 23 November 2008, the forty-fifth anniversary of Doctor Who.
• This audio drama was recorded on 17 August 2007 at The Moat Studios.
• This was the first Big Finish audio drama to feature the Zygons.
• This story was released on CD and download.

Continuity

• Auntie Pat last appeared in AUDIO: Horror of Glam Rock. This story explains that the Auntie Pat who Lucie knew in her past (before she began travelling with the Doctor) was actually a Zygon copy.
• The Doctor recalls his previous encounters with the Zygons in Scotland in the 1970s and London in 1894. (TV: Terror of the Zygons; PROSE: The Bodysnatchers)

External links

• Official The Zygon Who Fell to Earth page at bigfinish.com
• The Zygon Who Fell to Earth at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• DisContinuity for The Zygon Who Fell to Earth at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide