Blood of the Time Lords (audio story)

Blood of the Time Lords
Doctor:	Fourth Doctor
Companion(s):	Elanora
Main enemy:	The Master
Main setting:	The Recusary
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Timothy X Atack
Director:	Nicholas Briggs
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Jamie Robertson
Sound:	Jamie Robertson
Cover by:	Ryan Aplin
Release details
Number of parts:	4
Release number:	11.1
Part of:	Solo
Release date:	16 March 2022
Format:	2 CDs Download
Production code:	BFPTOMCD080
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-83868-061-9
The Fourth Doctor Adventures
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Blood of the Time Lords was the first story of the eleventh series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Timothy X Atack and featured Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and James Dreyfus as The Master.

Publisher's summary

The book known as The Dischord Grimoire is an incredibly powerful tome, believed capable of altering the true passage of time itself. And the Doctor has it in the TARDIS.

Wanting to look into this mysterious opus further, he decides to take it to an old friend in The Recusary – a monastery-like retreat on a moon of Gallifrey.

But he’s chosen an inauspicious time to arrive. Something else is visiting the Recusary. And this something hasn’t brought a book with it...but death.

Plot

Part one

The Doctor walks around the TARDIS reciting poetry and, three miles from the console room, comes across a miscellaneous room and finds the Dischord Grimoire, a book supposedly capable of altering the true passage of time. He takes it to the smallest moon of Gallifrey for a second opinion as he is concerned about keeping objects of immense power on board and is led to the Recusary by Honourable Haku.

In the Shriving Chambers, the Master, disguised as a Cohort, chokes Honourable Ailgen and kills her with his Tissue Compression Eliminator. Ansillon dictates a testament for the High Council, Keeper and Chief Librarian Elanora informing them of her sudden disappearance and resulting panic given that she is the third to vanish. He is interrupted by Elanora and told of the materialisation of an unauthorised TARDIS, which he tells her to investigate and move.

A fire breaks out in the library and the Doctor and Haku find themselves running in circles trying to flee. They run into Elanora and the Doctor knocks over the shelves like dominoes to dampen the flames, after which the Cohorts are able to put out what flames remain with buckets of water. Ansillon is forced to arrest the Doctor for abduction, murder and arson and send him to Gallifrey, but Haku suggests exposing him to the time winds in the meditation chambers to ensure that he tells the truth. Meanwhile, Elanora has the Cohorts deal with the damage caused to the books and the library.

The Doctor is escorted to the precipice by Cohorts and confesses that he is completely responsible for what has happened; he admits to starting the fire and killing the missing people by rewinding their timelines, all with the aim of destroying the cosmos.

Part two

to be added

Part three

to be added

Part four

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Tom Baker
• The Master - James Dreyfus
• Elanora - Emma Noakes
• Ansillon - Adrian Lukis
• Eminent Sedanya - Annette Badland
• Codal Thark - Susan Kyd
• Cohort 1 / Honourable Ailgen - Jane Slavin
• Cohort 2 / Honourable Loric - Christopher Naylor

References

• The Doctor quotes Jabberwocky.
• In the miscellaneous room, the Doctor finds an etching by Michelangelo and the Dead Sea Scrolls, which he means to return at some point.
• Ansillon is Provost of the Recusary.
• Ansillon needs four copies of the testament: one for the High Council, one for the Keeper of the Matrix, one for Elanora and one for himself.
• Ansillon has had several identities, including: the solitary guardian of the Caves of Perdition; Ku'an Impe, Watchman of the Dark; Uba Danth, High Priest of the Riven Temple of the Splice.
• Honourable Ailgen was a temporal engineer.
• Elanora has not piloted a TARDIS since she was 403.
• The Cohorts wear blank wooden face masks.
• Councillor Mantron was found in possession of his own parallel dimension.
• Ansillon mentions Hendric the Improbable.
• Elanora finds a fragment of Wider Manifestations of the Mirror Universe as Discovered Through Fault Lines in Folded Space.
• Fall from the precipice is impossible thanks to Rassilon's Belt.
• The Doctor speculates that the Master is currently in his second or third regeneration.
• Gibbons are only native to Earth.
• The Recusary has grown extensively over the moon.
• In their youth, the Doctor and the Master removed their birth names from time, all but them two forgetting them.

Notes

Alternate cover.

• This story was recorded on 8 and 16 May 2017 at Audio Sorcery, several years before Big Finish severed ties with James Dreyfus due to controversial remarks Dreyfus had made on Twitter regarding trans rights.
• The Doctor says Ansillon has gone by many names and originally knew the Doctor when he lived as a hermit on a mountain, and Ansillon notes that he's familiar with the circumstances of the Doctor's previous regeneration, implying he is K'anpo Rimpoche. Ansillon also identifies himself as having been the guardian of the Caves of Perdition.

Continuity

• The Doctor calls out to Sarah Jane Smith (TV: The Hand of Fear) and mentions saving Gallifrey mere hours ago, (TV: The Deadly Assassin) noting it's not the first time he saved it. (TV: The Three Doctors)
• He remembers his last time in front of a Codal Office inquiry brought about regeneration and exile. (TV: The War Games)
• The death of a Time Lord is meant to be preceded by confessions in which they make their peace. (TV: The Witch's Familiar, Hell Bent)

External links

• Official Blood of the Time Lords page at bigfinish.com