Parasite (audio story)
Parasite was the first release in the Torchwood Soho audio series. It starred Norton Folgate and Andy Davidson.
Publisher's summary
Enter the world of 1950s Torchwood!
Gangsters are vanishing from the streets of Soho, there's a deadly Nazi secret on the loose, and something's moving in the smog. Norton Folgate should be sorting this out, but the Torchwood agent is in disgrace. Who's going to save London this time?
1. The Man From Room 13
2. Meet Mr Lyme
3. The Mould
4. The Spread
5. The Dead Hand
6. The Liberty of Norton Folgate
Plot
The Man From Room 13
At Room 13, Norton Folgate answers a telephone call concerning another dead Nazi and hands it over to his boss, Lizbeth Hayhoe, who deals with it and lets them know that Norton is "good enough" to speak with them. The Nazi, who had belonged to Project Hermod, had been killed after Norton informed the monastery that he had been travelling to of his arrival in search of a crystal skull. Norton is bored of dealing with petty Nazis, having come close to taking over the Torchwood Institute but ending up stuck in Room 13, and Lizbeth tells him to sit still, behave and celebrate the dead Nazi with crumpets.
Gideon Lyme attempts to catch the attention of a waitress, who ignores him until Norton sits with him and asks for tea and scrambled eggs with no more nasal hair in Lyme's than in his. Norton leaves with Lyme, who says that he is a reporter on Fleet Street, and heads to work where he finds that there is a power cut and Lizbeth is using the fag-end of candles to see. She tells him that something suspicious and likely bound for gangland is being shipped to the UK through the Suez Canal, something that she suspects is extraterrestrial. Norton, however, is flippant and leaves for "dreamland".
Norton goes to Margate and asks Belle Epoch about the Stagnant Pond's activities, learning from her that the Stagnant Pond were aware of the packages and that they intend to steal them before they reach their rivals. Norton sneaks his watch into Belle's pocket and threatens to blow a whistle to attract the attention of plainclothes police officers, forcing her to disclose that the pickup will be happening at Margate Pier.
The two head to Margate Pier and find that the pickup is late. Eventually, the motorboat arrives but is driven by someone other than Konstantin; it is driven by a creature which crashes into the pier and, aflame, chases Norton and Belle, unperturbed when Norton shoots it in the head, heart and major organs. Norton pulls out a disintegrator gun and uses its last shot to kill the creature. He determines that the package has been intercepted and leaves with Belle.
Lizbeth arrives at Room 13 and finds that Norton has arrived early and prepared a bacon roll with which he hopes to keep her from telling him off. She reads him a memo from Reginald Rigsby bemoaning Norton's behaviour and then scolds him herself for getting his hands dirty, having gone beyond Room 13's remit and gaining little to nothing from the excursion. However, Norton theorises that others were interested in the package and that Konstantin had been working with the alien, the other men involved having been shot. He asks Lizbeth to get more resources from Rigsby in order to investigate, which she agrees to do.
Norton returns to the café where Lyme is waiting and tells him that he was recently overlooked for a promotion. When Belle comes in looking for Norton, who is flirting with Lyme, Lyme invites him to his home the following night as he rushes off to speak with Belle. The landlady kicks Belle and Norton out and Belle tells him that there has been no sign of Konstantin.
Norton tells Lizbeth what he has learnt and asks Miss Clarke for a report on Konstantin, whom they believe to be in possession of the package and likely to be a target of the Stagnant Pond. A whistle heralds a delivery which Norton hopes to be Konstantin's location coaxed from the Metatraxis by Miss Clarke, but it turns out to be the forms that they have to fill in and a message that she is going home and can action it tomorrow. Lizbeth tells him that he should be nicer to the clerks and that they have to find Konstantin before anyone else in London does.
Meet Mr Lyme
to be added
The Mould
to be added
The Spread
to be added
The Dead Hand
to be added
The Liberty of Norton Folgate
to be added
Cast
- Norton Folgate - Samuel Barnett
- Andy Davidson - Tom Price
- Gideon Lyme - Joe Shire
- Lizbeth Hayhoe - Dervla Kirwan
- Rigsby - David Troughton
- Foreman - Stephen Critchlow
- Gerta - Ellie Darvill
- Gondry - Christopher Harper
- Creature - Alfie Shaw
- Landlady - Liz Sutherland-Lim
- Belle Epoch - Franchi Webb
References
- A Nazi has been killed in the Ganges, downstream from a dark monastery where Norton heard on the grapevine that he would be searching for a crystal skull.
- Torchwood used to send keen ex-Wrens to Lizbeth before becoming wise to her sexuality.
- Lizbeth intends to stay at Room 13 long enough to get a pension, a cottage in Hebden Bridge and "a bitter old bull dyke called Marjorie" to "bicker out [her] twilight with".
- Lizbeth suggests that she and Norton toast some crumpets.
- Norton asks for two teas and two scrambled eggs with no more nasal hair in Lyme's than in his. He later orders two teas, two ham sandwiches and no bogey in the pickle.
- Lyme's aunt has a London biscuit tin with Tower Bridge, Big Ben and a guardsman.
- Some say that the smog is caused by Battersea Power Station.
- Lyme jokes that Norton has solved racism and the smog.
- Lyme says that there would be rioting in the streets after one day without the BBC and electrical lighting.
- Lyme works on Fleet Street.
- Norton mentions Lady Chatterley's Lover.
- Norton mentions Princess Margaret.
- The packages are being shipped to the UK through the Suez Canal.
- Norton knows of a Project Hermod member in Panama.
- Belle used to eat jellied eels at Margate Pier as a girl.
- Norton blew up Leicester Square, but "saved the other half".
- Norton uses the last shot of a disintegrator gun and says that doing so always feels like finishing off a duty-free bottle of crème de menthe.
- Norton makes Lizbeth a bacon roll and notes that it is proper bacon with no bits. He says that it has "more sauce in it than Danny La Rue".
- Rigsby's memo says that he was having dinner at Chequers and that writing it meant that he missed out on the Lord Chancellor's recitation of Gilbert and Sullivan.
- Norton says that Rigsby learnt his management style from Emperor Ming.
- Rigsby attended Eton College and had a fag. He was head boy.
- With the end of rationing, Norton has found that he does not enjoy having so many sugars in his tea.
- Lyme lives in Room 3 at 14 Lancaster Gardens.
- Norton calls Lizbeth "Joan Littlewood".
- Miss Clarke is a clerk. Norton says that he would kiss her bunions if she managed to coax Konstantin Gregor's location out of the Metatraxis.
- Norton's heater requires sixpences to power the meter.
- Andy's vortex manipulator has a "psychic mode" which can locate people.
- Norton is aware of Quatermass.
Notes
- As has been the case for numerous audio spin-offs of Torchwood set in different eras, this set introduces a 1950s Torchwood theme. Previous themes have been the Victorian theme for adventures set in Victorian London, and a 1970s disco theme for The Dollhouse.
Continuity
- Norton Folgate tries to persuade Lizbeth Hayhoe to investigate the "living fog", to which she responds that Torchwood is leaving well alone, especially since the event in 1952. The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble had previously defeated the Fumifugium in London, 1952. (AUDIO: The Creeping Death)
- Lizbeth states that Norton's previous attempt at seizing leadership of Torchwood One failed miserably. (AUDIO: Goodbye Piccadilly)
- Andy Davidson claims to be "sort-of working for Torchwood". (AUDIO: Red Base et al)
- Andy claims he was sent to Norton's time by Jack Harkness to stop him from dying early and creating temporal instabilities. Andy is working for Jack following Torchwood Three's second downfall. (AUDIO: Thoughts and Prayers)
- Norton recalls saving Andy from the "martians" and the "vats". (AUDIO: Goodbye Piccadilly)
- Andy is using a vortex manipulator to travel through time. Jack Harkness of Torchwood Three regularly used a vortex manipulator. (TV: The Empty Child, Everything Changes et al)
- It is noticed by numerous members of Torchwood that the taxis and their drivers are acting suspiciously. Similar events happened during the Christmas of 2007, (TV: The Runaway Bride) and the electric carriages investigated by the Paternoster Gang. (AUDIO: The Cars That Ate London)
- Before her time working with Folgate, Lizbeth Heyhoe had been investigating those who had had their faces stolen before the coronation. These people's faces had been stolen by an alien known as the Wire. The Wire was later defeated by the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler in 1953, and the faces of the victims were restored. At the time, the Doctor was unaware that those "kidnapping" the victims were Torchwood. (TV: The Idiot's Lantern)
- While in their final moments, Reginald Rigsby is of the opinion that if the right woman can run an Empire, then perhaps the right woman can run the Torchwood Institute. One day, Yvonne Hartman will be one of the most successful and well-known leaders of Torchwood. (TV: Army of Ghosts et al)
External links
- Official Parasite page at bigfinish.com
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