The Wanderer (audio story)

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The Wanderer was the tenth story of the sixth series in The Companion Chronicles audio range. It was Big Finish Productions. It was written by Richard Dinnick and featured the First Doctor, Susan, Barbara and Ian. It was told from Ian's perspective.

Publisher's summary

Siberia at the end of the 19th Century, and the TARDIS arrives just as a shooting star hurtles to the ground.

With it comes an illness that affects the Doctor and Susan, and knowledge that must not fall into the wrong hands.

With his friends either dying or lost, Ian Chesterton must save the future and win the ultimate prize — a way home to 1963...

Plot

The Dark Pilgrim (1)

Ian starts by telling that, while an errant life could seem fascinating, sometimes being on your own can make you lose perspective on the world and what it means being part of a community. He himself was a normal man, content to live a normal life, before he and Barbara met the Doctor - and started travelling with him. At first, they felt like intruders, but Ian admits they gradually came to behave more like the Doctor, intervening in the places they found themselves and developing a taste for adventure.

At some point, they landed in Russia, in 1903, in a forest. Immediately after landing, they saw something coming down on Earth from the sky, which the Doctor conjectured being an alien ship. The TARDIS readings on the subject were difficult to read, so they went outside in search of it, trying to prevent it affecting Earth and the timeline. They reached a village, where they met Grigori, a travelling monk who the people regarded as a healer, an holy man, and assisted him as he went to visit the house of a local hunter, Michail, whose sons fell ill.

As soon as they reach the place, the Doctor also falls ill, and Ian and Grigori go back to the village to gather medicine. On the way, Grigori tells Ian that he survived drowning with his brother years ago, and that he is convinced to have been appointed by God to do something great; he even says he can have some perceptions regarding the future. When they come back to Mikail's house, they found the place trashed, Barbara and Susan gone and the Doctor almost unconscious, holding what is clearly an alien object; before passing out, he manages to whisper Ian he and Susan have been affected by Chronon particles. Barbara comes back, and tells Ian Susan found the object and started acting violent (it was her to trash the place) before running into the forest: Barbara followed her, only to see four shapes coming out of the woods and taking Susan with them.

After resting a while, Barbara and Mikail once again venture into the woods in the hope of finding Susan, while Ian reads the Doctor's notes about the object. Apparently, it's a sort of device sent to Earth to gather evidence on the planet, but, due to a malfunctioning, he is now registering not only Earth's past, but also its future. The men fell ill when they touched it, but his influence is only fatal to time travellers, and increases as long one has been in contact with the Time Vortex. Grigori, understanding the machine can give him actual visions of the future, elects to touch it and indeed sees images of Earth's future - including Hitler, men on the Moon, alien invasions and the Doctor's future selves.

The Scorpion Men (2)

to be added

Cast

References

  • Ian refers to the Arabian Nights.
  • Ian describes the Doctor as "the ultimate wanderer."
  • Ian remembers listening to John Arlott.
  • As their travels in the TARDIS continue, Ian notes that the Doctor's influence is rubbing off on himself and Barbara. Recently, they have become increasingly likely to embroil themselves in events outside of the ship.
  • Nicholas II is the Tsar of Russia at the time of the TARDIS' arrival.
  • Grigori describes himself as a strannik, a religious pilgrim, whereas Mikhail Kropyn refers to him as a starets, an elder of the Church who is believed to be a faith healer. However, he is not a priest.
  • Zarechny is on the River Tura.
  • Grigori tells Ian that he spent much of his youth carousing around the village where he grew up. His sister Maria and his brother Dmitri both drowned in separate accidents. He himself almost suffered the same fate on the latter occasion but managed to survive. He believes that God gave him a special purpose to fulfil and that he was not able to save his siblings as he was not destined to do so. He subsequently named his two children after them.
  • Grigori claims to know the future. He tells Ian that he does not experience visions but instead possesses an ingrained certainty that events will follow a particular course.
  • The Doctor tells Ian that the chronon particles emitted by the alien device have a deleterious effect on time travellers and are also damaging to the health of ordinary humans if they come into physical contact with it, though not to the same extent. It affects the Doctor and Susan more seriously than Ian and Barbara as they have travelled through time far more extensively.
  • The alien device was designed for the purposes of information gathering. It was seriously damaged either in transit or when it fell to Earth. Due to the emission of chronon particles by its damaged power source, it began to detect and record humanity's future at a rate of approximately 1,000 years per day. Once it has reached the limit of its information retention capabilities, it will vent its information around the Earth and every human will gain precise knowledge of the future.
  • When Grigori makes contact with the device, he gains knowledge of Tsaritsa Alexandra, Kaiser Wilhelm II, a great war, a revolution, an armistice, another world war, Adolf Hitler, the Blitz, the Holocaust, television, computers, spaceflight, Yuri Gagarin, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Wall, a tenth planet, alien invasions, a lunar space station, men on Mars and the Doctor.
  • Grigori received only glimpses of his personal future. However, he is aware that he will have a role to play at the highest levels of government in St Petersburg.
  • Grigori gives his full name as Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin.
  • Grigori tells Ian that the Doctor's presence is woven throughout the tapestry of human history.
  • The information gathering device, the ranger, was created by the Dahensa. They have yellow, glowing eyes and four arms. Two of their arms end in scorpion-like pincers whereas the other two end in humanoid fingers. They will attempt to invade Earth at least once more at some point in the next 1,000 years.
  • By connecting the ranger into the telepathic circuits of the TARDIS, the Doctor is able to remove the knowledge of the future from Grigori's mind. The Doctor tells Ian that he may still be able to remember these events, though probably only in the form of dreams.

Notes

  • While the synopsis stated that the story takes place at the end of the 19th century, within the story it is stated that it is the turn of the century or perhaps a bit later. Grigori Rasputin, who became a journeying pilgrim in 1901, arrived in St Petersburg in 1903, dating this story with more specificity. As the story states that Rasputin (1869-1916) is in his early 30s, the story must also take place after 1899.
  • This is the first Companion Chronicle to feature the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan since AUDIO: The Transit of Venus in January 2009.
  • Richard Dinnick's original draft was based in 16th century France and involved the alleged prophet Nostradamus rather than Rasputin. However, he was forced to abandon this idea when he learned that Nostradamus was due to appear in AUDIO: The Doomsday Quatrain in the main range.
  • This audio drama was recorded on 10 March 2011 at the Moat Studios.
  • In reference to Rasputin, Ian comments that "most people looked at him with terror and with fear." This is a line from the Boney M song "Rasputin".
  • This story is set between The Reign of Terror and Planet of Giants.

Continuity

External links

v • e
The Companion Chronicles
 
First Doctor
Susan
Susan, Barbara, Ian
Barbara, Ian
Barbara, Ian, Vicki
Vicki and Steven
Steven, Sara
Steven, Oliver
Steven, Dodo
Steven
Polly, Ben
 
Second Doctor
Polly, Ben
Polly, Ben, Jamie
Jamie, Victoria
Jamie
Jamie, Zoe
 
Third Doctor
Liz
The Brigadier
Jo
Yates
Benton
Solo travels
 
Fourth Doctor
Leela
Leela, K9 Mark I
Romana I
Romana II
Romana II, K9 Mark II
Romana II, Adric
 
Fifth Doctor
Adric, Nyssa, Tegan
Tegan, Turlough
Peri
 
Sixth Doctor
Peri
Evelyn
"Jamie"
Jason, Crystal
 
Seventh Doctor
Ace, Zara
Bernice
Sally, Lysandra
 
Eighth Doctor
Charley
Iris Wildthyme, Jo Grant
 
Other adventures
Jago and Litefoot
Polly, the Brigadier, Brewster
Ian
The Master
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