The Library of Alexandria (audio story)
The Library of Alexandria was the tenth story of the seventh series in The Companion Chronicles audio range. It was produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Simon Guerrier and featured Ian Chesterton.
Publisher's summary
The port of Alexandria, 5th Century AD.
The Doctor, Ian, Susan and Barbara have taken a break from their travels, and are enjoying a few weeks in the sunshine — and the chance to appreciate the magnificent Library of Alexandria.
Ian also takes the chance to enjoy friendship with the philosopher Hypatia — but things here will not last forever.
The time travellers know that the library will soon be lost to history.
What they are about to discover is the terrifying reason why...
Plot
The Library of Alexandria (1)
At Alexandria's harbour, a group of guards led by Ian Chesterton boards a ship and finds a cargo of scrolls. They confiscate them, because the law of the town establishes that every scroll has to be handed over at the local Library, so that it can be stored. A woman, Hypatia, assists to the raid and starts scraping throughout the books, catching Ian's eye, and insisting on a quick peek before the books are handed over to the authorities of the Library.
Ian recalls the arrival of the travellers at the Library some weeks earlier, and their decision to stay awhile to enjoy a holiday and admire the greatness of the Library and the amount of knowledge stored there, which in the future will allow humanity to travel to the stars. Ian had started working for the Library to pay for the rooms, and while the others spend their time watching plays or talking science, he ponders and reflects upon scientific problems and what their travels showed them of humanity's future. He'd like to talk with Barbara about it, but he is not sure she'd understand. So, some days later, he goes to assist to one of Hypatia's lessons of science and spends the afternoon with her, talking about science and even exposing her, if only as theories, some of the knowledge of the future.
When he comes back to their lodging their night, he is received with coldness and anger by his companions. Barbara is jealous of Ian's attention towards Hypathia, also because she knows she will shortly die by the hands of an angry mob. This also means that they arrive at a time shortly before the destruction of the Library, and they cannot interfere to prevent it - even though, as Susan reminds them, nobody knows how exactly the Library was destroyed, to the point that one of the accounts even says it was attacked by "sea monsters". The travellers unanimously decide it is time for them to leave, and the next day Ian comes to say goodbye to Hypatia. The scientist, however, has time to show Ian a book she found among the scrolls he confiscated some time ago: a leaather-bound book like the one of Ian's time, which nobody can read except Ian himself (due to his connection with the telepathic circuits of the TARDIS). Ian is alarmed by what he reads: the book contains a detailed description of Earth by an alien race for an invasion.
He and Hypatia bring the book to the Doctor and the other travellers, which has already reached the TARDIS in the Library's garden. The Doctor recognises it as written by the Mim, but also states that the book concludes there is nothing of value on Earth for them, so an invasion is not actually happening. However, to prevent a damage to history, he decides to bring the book with them, which causes Hypatia to call the guards to stop them to retrieve it. Before the Doctor can open the TARDIS, or the guards reach them, some creatures emerge from the sea of the harbor, moving towards the Library.
The Pathway to the Stars (2)
to be added
Cast
Characters
References
- The Rosetta Stone is located in the Library of Alexandria, and will one day be found in Khito, by then known as Rosetta.
Notes
- This story was recorded on 3 and 4 December 2012.
Continuity
- Ian remembers the Doctor saying "Our destiny is in the stars." (TV: The Reign of Terror)
- Alexander the Great is referred to as an old friend. (AUDIO: Farewell, Great Macedon)
- This will not be the last time that the Doctor, Ian and Barbara visit the library during peculiar happenings. (PROSE: The Book of Shadows)
- Ian recalls seeing the Transit of Venus in 1770. (AUDIO: The Transit of Venus)
- Following the library's destruction, the Fourth Doctor was ejected from the premises and had his lending privileges suspended because they did not trust him after he misshelved the Dead Sea Scrolls. Nevertheless, he still had one of their books, Ptolemy's Treatise on the Structure, Position and Medicinal Nature of Celestial Bodies out on loan some 2093 years and four months after it was due back. (PROSE: Eye of Heaven)
- At some point prior to his seventh incarnation, the Doctor saved two of Aristophanes' plays from the flames. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Apocalypse)
- The Eighth Doctor would later tell his companion Tamsin Drew that he was present for the burning of the Library of Alexandria but could not prevent it from happening due to the Web of Time. (AUDIO: The Resurrection of Mars)
- Being able to read the Mim's reconnaissance report without any problem, Ian explains to Hypatia that he has a gift for being able to read and understand languages without even knowing them. (TV: The End of the World et al.)
- By the time of his sixth incarnation, the Doctor had rescued several scrolls from the Library of Alexandria during the fire. (AUDIO: The Carrionite Curse)
External links
- Official The Library of Alexandria page at bigfinish.com
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