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 Flight Lieutenant Waxman, 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, Waxman chokes him.
Part two
Waxman lets the Doctor go when Hurley, using a megaphone, orders him to. When Waxman reaches the RAF convoy, Hurley has the medics subdue him and put him on a stretcher to be taken back to base, believing him to have been afflicted by a Soviet invention. He ignores the Brigadier, who promises to take his complaint of the RAF's involvement to the highest level. The Doctor takes samples of the debris and heads to RAF Weatherton with the Brigadier, accompanied by Jenny, whose photographs have been ruined by the Brigadier. On the way, the sample is fund to contain nothing.
Sarah helps Kaleidoscope escape outside to her car and takes him to the UNIT site, but they are stopped by a barrier which Kaleidoscope raises with his powers. When they arrive and find the place deserted, Sarah plans to head to a pub to make a few calls and find out where Weatherton is, but Kaleidoscope is able to point out its location on a map thanks to the voices in his head.
Hurley arrives at Weatherton and hands Waxman over to Fairford. Fairford observes that the metal parts that were attached to Waxman have apparently moved inside his body and is ordered to remove them.
The Brigadier arrives shortly before the Doctor and Jenny and is harrassed by the female protestors, one of whom, Daphne Green, he knew when he was a captain. Her husband, Major Johnny Green, died as result of exposure to unsafe atomic tests, leading her to become a peace campaigner. Due to Hurley's no-fly zone, the letter that the Brigadier requires to get access to the base cannot arrive by helicopter and he sends Sergeant Major Roach to collect it. Sarah arrives with Kaleidoscope, who helps the Doctor confirm that the debris containing the essential matter is inside Waxman.
Kaleidoscope uses his powers to open the gates and leads the protestors inside, after which the Brigadier alerts the security detail to a journalist taking photographs. This gives the Doctor the opportunity to sneak inside, followed by Jenny, and reach the medical centre where Fairford is preparing to operate on Waxman under duress. The nanobots within Waxman emerge and swarm.
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 Commodore 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 presents Around and About in a television studio on South Bank.
- 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.
- Sarah has a car which she accepts is impractical. She covers it to protect it from the rain.
- Sarah has sherbet lemons in her glove compartment.
- Sarah mentions Uri Geller.
- The Doctor has an entire field laboratory, including an X-ray spectroscope, in his car's dashboard.
- Rather than get a D-notice for Jenny's photographs, the Brigadier ruins the film.
- According to the Doctor, speed limits apply only to cars, motorcyles, buses, coaches, minibuses and goods vehicles.
- Jenny asks if the Doctor's car can fly like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
- The Brigadier likes his tea hot, dark and sweet.
- Daphne was married to Major Johnny Green. He ended up in Tactical after the Brigadier's promotion and died after being exposed to unsafe atomic tests.
- The protestors sing "Kumbaya".
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)
- The Whomobile cannot fly, but the Doctor is working on it. (TV: Planet of the Spiders)
- The Brigadier mentions that he has fought Yeti, (TV: The Web of Fear) Cybermen, (TV: The Invasion) Daleks, (TV: Day of the Daleks) Autons (TV: Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons) and Axons. (TV: The Claws of Axos)
External links
- Official Kaleidoscope page at bigfinish.com
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