Power Game (audio story)
Power Game was the second of two stories comprising the two hundred and forty-eighth release in Big Finish's Main Range. It was written by Jamie Anderson and featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka, Mark Strickson as Vislor Turlough and Jon Culshaw as Kamelion.
Publisher's summary
Welcome to the Incredible Power Game, in which three brave Earthlings enter the Void Pit in search of strange gems to help return the alien Hostess to her home dimension. Today's contestants include Graham, Sadia... and Tegan, an air stewardess from Brisbane!
Plot
Part one
Three weeks after arriving in York in 1984 instead of New York and losing Kamelion, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are still looking for their android companion without success. Tegan is transported onto the Incredible Power Game gameshow as a contestant and Turlough goes looking for her, carrying a communicator so that the Doctor does not lose him as well, and soon learns from Una where she is. She explains that the Incredible Power Game is unlisted and appears on television in the middle of other programmes.
Turlough takes Una to the Doctor and the three of them go to her house to view her recording, in which Tegan is on a giant chessboard and retrieves a Power Gem with Sadia's help whilst avoiding a duplicate of herself. She wins no prizes beyond being invited to take part in the next episode, which Turlough finds unusual, and the Doctor suggests that any one of the other contestants could be Kamelion. The Doctor's tracker picks up a signal from Kamelion and gets Una's friend, Richard, drive them to its source: Richard's flat. Kamelion has, the Doctor deduces, become the Hostess of the show and is kidnapping Stuart, but she instead takes Turlough.
Part two
The Doctor has Una, Richard and Stuart flick between BBC1, BBC2, Channel 4 and ITV in anticipation of a new episode of the Incredible Power Game. In the episode, Tegan and Turlough help Sadia navigate a pod to an island on an alien planet, but she is attacked by an alien bird and loses the game. Turlough is then tasked with shooting at the birds and the Doctor, recognising the planet as an alternative Earth, returns to the TARDIS with Richard and flies there. The Hostess reveals that she is a Psionem and has taken control of Kamelion. The TARDIS dematerialises after the Doctor and Richard exit and Sadia, having survived the crashing of her pod, Sadia joins them.
The Hostess kidnaps Turlough and the remaining members of the group fly to the Psionem spaceship to take the Power Gems, which the Doctor recognises as dragasis crystals, capable of creating a destructive beam in his universe. The Hostess admits that she intends to create and sell weapons, unaware that the Doctor has redirected her signals to her homeworld. Her people arrive and take her back with them, returning Kamelion's control over his body. They are all teleported back to Earth and the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Kamelion return to the TARDIS and take off, discussing the trouble caused by the android. He picks up a signal from his homeworld, calling him back.
Cast
- The Doctor - Peter Davison
- Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding
- Vislor Turlough - Mark Strickson
- Kamelion - Jon Culshaw
- The Hostess - Harriet Kershaw
- Una - Natalie Winter
- Richard - Richard Popple
- Stewart - Dougie McMeekin
- Sadia - Alex Tregear
References
- Graham lives in Wakefield.
- Sadia works in Micklegate.
- When Turlough complains that the TARDIS landed in York rather than New York, the Doctor replies that he should be happy they didn't end up in New New York.
- The Doctor says that the TARDIS swimming pool has been back for months, but then wonders if he has ejected it again.
- Una attempted to record Delia Smith.
- Stuart works at a hospital.
- Turlough drinks his tea with milk and sugar. The Doctor has his without sugar.
- BBC1, BBC2, Channel 4 and ITV are TV channels.
- Turlough is introduced on the show as a student from Middlesex.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- The Doctor was trying to pilot the TARDIS to New York. (AUDIO: Black Thursday)
- Turlough is introduced on the show as a student from Middlesex. (TV: Mawdryn Undead)
- Kemelion thinks he is not fit to travel in the TARDIS as the Doctor's companion, because of his tendency to get under the hostile influence and present danger to those around. (AUDIO: Devil in the Mist, Black Thursday)
External links
- Official Power Game page at bigfinish.com
