Kaleidoscope (audio story)
Kaleidoscope was the story comprising the tenth release in The Third Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Alan Barnes and featured Tim Treloar as the Third Doctor, Sadie Miller as Sarah Jane Smith, Jon Culshaw as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Christopher Naylor as Harry Sullivan.
Publisher's summary
His name is Kaleidoscope. He claims to have travelled halfway across the universe to warn all humankind that it stands on the brink of extinction. And a certain tenacious young journalist has got an exclusive interview with this alien messiah...
But it's not Sarah Jane Smith who's got the out-of-this-world scoop - it's her rival, the unscrupulous Jenny Nettles. Sarah's busy helping the Doctor and UNIT work out if Kaleidoscope is for real or a fake when RAF Phantoms scramble to intercept an unidentified something homing in on a top-secret missile base.
It seems like Kaleidoscope's apocalyptic predictions might all be about to come true.
Plot
Part one
On Around and About, Jenny Nettles interviews supposed-alien Kaleidoscope and asks him about his home planet. He places his fingers on her temples so that she can hear the Music of the Cosmos and speaks to the viewers, claiming to have travelled halfway across the universe to warn them that humanity stands on the brink of extinction and should follow him to change the future.
The Brigadier shows the Doctor and Sarah a recording of the interview and informs them that, following broadcast, hundreds of teenagers swarmed the TV studios on the South Bank and begged to be taken into space. Whilst Sarah does not believe Kaleidoscope, the Doctor wonders if he is connected to the hovering octagon found by UNIT at Hampstead Heath three nights earlier. The Brigadier tells them that they have Kaleidoscope in custody and leaves to discuss the matter with the Home Office.
Whilst the Doctor and the Brigadier interview Kaleidoscope, Sarah and Jenny watch from the gallery and argue about their respective news pieces. Kaleidoscope claims to have travelled to Earth through a space-time tunnel, but the interview is cut short when the Brigadier is informed that Air Commodore Hurley at RAF Weatherton has sent out Phantoms to identify and intercept an unidentified flying object. The object seemingly disassembles itself before it is struck by a missile and the Brigadier, irritated by Hurley's lack of communication, quickly arranges a salvage mission.
The Doctor asks Sarah to continue to investigate Kaleidoscope whilst he follows the Brigadier in his new car. She witnesses Kaleidoscope use his telekinetic powers to open the locked interview room door and put a soldier to sleep.
Using his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor finds that the debris is mildly radioactive but will disable radio contact. Jenny takes photographs of what looks like a silver man until the Brigadier orders her arrest and she runs to it. The Doctor determines that the silver man is not an alien but the pilot of one of the Phantoms, infected by whatever was in the flying object and now speaking strangely and unintelligibly. When the Doctor tells him that he has come to help, the pilot chokes him.
Part two
to be added
Part three
to be added
Part four
to be added
Part five
to be added
Part six
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Tim Treloar
- Sarah Jane Smith - Sadie Miller
- Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Jon Culshaw
- Harry Sullivan - Christopher Naylor
- Sergeant Major Roach / Air Commander Hurley / Norwegian Radar Controller / Nanobots - Mark Elstob
- Kaleidoscope - Gerran Howell
- Jenny Nettles / Lieutenant Kuznetsova - Jasmin Hinds
- WRAF Controller - Imogen Church
- Daphne Green - Helen Goldwyn
- Solokov / Keith Hazel / Fairford / Phantom Pilot / Nanobots - Stephen Noonan
References
- Jenny uses an autocue.
- Kaleidoscope and Jenny met in Hampstead Heath.
- The Brigadier is amazed by a video recorder.
- The Doctor mentions the Daleks.
- Sarah calls the Doctor "Brutus".
- The Doctor tells Kaleidoscope that Euclid, a friend of his, used to say "quod erat demonstrandum".
- Jenny once claimed to have found the Titanic off the coast of Argentina, that Stonehenge was a giant radio, that the Bermuda Triangle was a square and that the Mona Lisa was a fake.
- UNIT once mistook a flock of Canadian geese for a spacecraft.
- The Brigadier says that his authority is invested by UNIT, the United Nations, Downing Street and Her Majesty The Queen.
- The Doctor drives his new car which has a communication system inside.
- The silver man looks, to the Brigadier, like a new kind of Cyberman.
Notes
- Chronologically this is Harry Sullivan's first appearance in a Big Finish audio, the character had appeared before in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures novel The Face of the Enemy.
- This audio drama was recorded on 9-12 May 2022 at Audio Sorcery and remotely.
Continuity
- Jenny mentions Sarah's stories on scientists being taken to the Middle Ages (TV: The Time Warrior) and dinosaurs in London. (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs)
- The Brigadier mentions the Cybermen, whom he fought alongside the Second Doctor. (TV: The Invasion)
External links
- Official Kaleidoscope page at bigfinish.com
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