The Miniaturist (audio story)
The Miniaturist was the second and final story in the audio anthology The Outlaws. It was written by Lizzie Hopley and featured Stephen Noonan as the First Doctor and Lauren Cornelius as Dodo Chaplet.
Publisher's summary
Coulton Salt Mine: a rare environment for geological exploration on the North Yorkshire coast. The Doctor is fascinated by the experiments of Professor Medra on the Zechstein seabed, but Dodo is distracted. Didn’t her family settle in this part of Yorkshire?
As the Doctor delves deeper into the work of Professor Medra, Dodo is helped by security guard Mick Huff, who is concerned about the strange happenings in recent weeks. Who are the children that keep appearing around the mine workings? Why are local landmarks vanishing? And how can the bedrock of a geological ‘quiet place’ be screaming?
Plot
Part one
Mick Huff watches the North Yorkshire News, which covers a string of missing persons as well as the disappearance of Beggars Bridge, supposedly because of refurbishment. When there is a knock at the door, Mick finds nobody there and is unable to get in contact with his colleague by walkie-talkie. He investigates and finds that the Zechstein shaft has been opened and that a boy is trespassing near the edge; Mick recognises the child as his son, Simon, before he falls and disappears.
The Doctor and Dodo arrive nearby in the TARDIS and meet Mick who, disturbed by his encounter with Simon, takes them indoors and tells them about the people and landmarks which have been disappearing and reappearing in strange places. The Doctor and Dodo meet Professor Medra and descend into the mine with her, travelling to the laboratory in a geological quiet space free of any sort of noise pollution.
Mick calls Shel to hear her voice and tells her that he might have been seeing things in the dark.
At the lab, Dodo notices a sound which Medra cannot hear. The Doctor realises that this is why Medra has brought them down: to determine what energy they are picking up in the quiet space. When Dodo mentions the boy that Mick said he saw, she sees a girl walk past and goes after her despite the Doctor and Medra's protestations. The Doctor, using an oscilloscope, determines that the sound is a scream coming from a ten-foot fossilised shell and collapses when it seems to reach inside his being.
The Doctor refuses medical attention and tells Dodo, who recognised the girl but had to leave when she heard the Doctor scream, that the sound he heard was a dimensional disturbance. Mick elaborates on the disappearances, explaining that it started with farm animals, a post box and an ice cream van disappearing and reappearing before Saltburn Funicular vanished. It started happening to people, some of whom returned in a state of confusion whilst others stayed gone. He confides in them that he thought that the boy he saw was Simon, his deceased son. There is another knock on the door and Dodo sees the girl, whom she goes after.
to be completed
Part two
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Stephen Noonan
- Dodo Chaplet - Lauren Cornelius
- The Miniaturist - Annette Badland
- Professor Medra - Yasmin Mwanza
- Mick Huff - Paul Copley
- Child Voice - Benedict Briggs
- Child Voice - Caroline Hrycek-Robinson
References
- Mick makes himself a cup of tea. After collapsing, the Doctor says that hot sweet tea is all he needs as first aid.
- Beggars Bridge is a bridge over the River Esk.
- Ian Grunning is a farmer.
- McCluckie works with Mick.
- Brian McGee goes fishing with Mick. He has disappeared.
- Zechstein is sedimentary rock from the late Permian Era, at least 260 million years before the 21st century.
- The Pocket Rocket is a steam train which disappeared from Moors Railway and was found in a field.
- Mick's postman disappeared before turning up in the bay at Whitby two weeks later.
- Dodo thinks that she has family in North Yorkshire from before she was taken in by her great-aunt.
- Mick believes that the Doctor and Dodo are at the mine because of dark matter.
- Whilst it gets hotter as one descends a cave on Earth and many other planets, it is not the case on Neptune.
- The Zechstein mine goes under the North Sea.
- The mining teams extract polyhalite, which can be used as fertiliser.
- Coulton is the deepest and quietest mine in Britain.
- Mick is married to Shel.
- Medra prepares a nitro chamber.
- Medra has a fossilised shell which she initially thought was a subclass of amenite.
- Dodo does not have a very good sense of direction.
- Saltburn Funicular disappeared.
Notes
- Brief clips of Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman and Maureen O'Brien as Vicki Pallister are used when the Miniaturist tries to persuade the Doctor.
Continuity
- Dodo mentions visiting the Ark (TV: The Ark) and the tricks of the Celestial Toymaker. (TV: The Celestial Toymaker)
External links
- Official The Miniaturist page at bigfinish.com
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