Cobwebs (audio story)

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Cobwebs was the one hundred and thirty-sixth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Jonathan Morris and featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka and Mark Strickson as Turlough.

Released in 2010, it began the first season of Fifth Doctor stories for that year. It was the first new story to feature Davison, Sutton, Fielding and Strickson together since the television story Terminus in 1983, thus beginning a "series" of 15 audio dramas for that TARDIS team across five years, finally reaching a conclusion with the audio story The Entropy Plague in 2015.

Publisher's summary

"You know what cobwebs mean. Spiders..."

In search of a cure for a sickness that's so far claimed six billion lives, scientist Nyssa arrives at an abandoned gene-tech facility on the toxic planet Helheim. "Hellhole", more like.

Nyssa's not alone. The TARDIS has also been drawn to the Helheim base — and in its cobweb-coated corridors, she soon runs into the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, her travelling companions of half a century past. But who, or what, has engineered this strange reunion? The Black Guardian, perhaps?

The answer's here, in the dark. With the Cractids. In the cobwebs.

Plot

Part one

In 3530, Nyssa lands on Helheim with Loki, a robot, to investigate the work of a research base quarantined forty years ago. The base is without contamination, but covered in cobwebs made by maintenance spiders as a protective sealant to combat leaking insulation. After activating the backup solar stack and restoring power, Nyssa is attacked by crustaceans which Loki is unable to see or detect and thus unable to neutralise.

Tegan argues with the Doctor about Turlough's presence aboard the TARDIS given his actions, but relents when Turlough visits her bedroom and tells him that he does not have to return to his planet on her account. The ship is dragged down a temporal spiral to Helheim where they are reunited with Nyssa, for whom it has been fifty years since she last saw them, and learn that the base was researching Richter's Syndrome, a deadly strain of which has now killed six billion people and for which Nyssa hopes to find a cure. Whilst Tegan, Nyssa and Loki go to the control room and learn from the computer EDGAR that they will go back in time forty years, the other two explore the ruins below.

Turlough collapses after hallucinating being shot and, when he comes to, he and the Doctor join the others. The Doctor deduces that Turlough and Nyssa have both experienced telepathic memory projection thanks to EDGAR, who then shows them a projection of themselves in the past before the Doctor stops him, not wanting to create a fixed point. EDGAR tells them that the crew are in the medical bay where they find four skeletons wrapped in cocoons, wearing the clothes of the Doctor and his companions.

Part two

Loki's scan, a spectographic examination and a test by cutting the lining of Turlough's jacket seem to confirm that the skeletons are those of the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Nyssa. Loki begs to leave, saying that he knows that they will all die because of something in his head, but maintenance spiders sent by EDGAR destroy Nyssa's ship to ensure that nobody can leave. After Tegan experiences a memory projection of being suffocated, EDGAR asks them to go back in time to save the crew and activates the base's self-destruct.

The Doctor and Nyssa fetch Loki from the control room and EDGAR wipes his own mind, but the self-destruct cannot be countermanded. They travel back in time to 3490 with Tegan and Turlough, who elect to stay in the TARDIS, and convince Director Cardell, Enforcement Officer Bragg and Bio Technician Valis that they have come to inspect their progress. They have been trying to replicate the antivirals of Cractids, who are uniquely immune to Richter's, without success and Nyssa suggests that they instead adapt the antigen to function as part of the human immune system. Cardell agrees and explains how the team have had their memories removed and will not be returned until the cure has been found.

Tegan and Turlough leave the TARDIS in an attempt to change history and are captured by Bragg, who has asked Echelon about the supposed inspection and shot Loki. He interprets Tegan and Turlough's warnings about the team's deaths as threats and straps the two of them, the Doctor and Nyssa to beds in the medical bay to be executed as spies by lethal injection. Nyssa reminds the Doctor of the four skeletons in the medical bay and, as Cardell prepares to inject them, the Doctor remarks that the future has caught up with them.

Part three

Valis stops the execution as the modified antivirals work and she wants to begin tests, starting with Nyssa, but EDGAR restores Cardell's memories and displays a recorded message from her addressing the base's true objective: to engineer a new strain of Richter's incurable by anybody but the Company. Valis makes the new strain more transmissable, but does not want to be an accomplice to murder nor have her memories back. Meanwhile, a scheme by Turlough leads Bragg to take the Doctor and Tegan to the ruins to show them patterned symbols which he has interpreted as the names of the team, making him believe that there is no world other than this one.

Upon returning to the medical bay, Cardell takes the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough to be tested on and Bragg is given his memories back, making him realise that he actually belongs to the Independent Biodevelopment Group and has been tasked with stealing a sample of the new strain and the antiviral solution. He makes EDGAR obey only him and shoots Valis, forcing Cardell to hand the samples over and then enter an isolation chamber with the Cractids. He soon releases her and has EDGAR upload her and Valis's memories of their near-death experiences to make it look as though they died, after which he takes Valis with him and leaves Turlough, Nyssa and Cardell locked in with the Cractids.

EDGAR knows that the crew supposedly die on this date as his future self came back in time inside Loki and is fighting for supremacy inside EDGAR's mind. Bragg has EDGAR erase all data on the antidote, destroys Valis's memories and fakes his death in the airlock before drawing fuel for a ship to escape and leaving Valis to die. The Doctor, separated from the others with Tegan, is able to get Turlough, Nyssa and Cardell out of the lab but is unable to close the door, giving the Cractids free rein of the base. Cardell goes to talk with EDGAR and the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Nyssa run to the medical bay and are sealed inside, apparently doomed to die there.

Part four

Nyssa gets Loki to sent maintenance spiders to cut the feed of power to Bragg's ship and to release a sonic burst to stun the Cractids. Bragg has EDGAR erase Loki's personality and restore power to his ship, but Cardell knocks him out when the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Nyssa arrive and goes to the ship with Tegan and Nyssa to find the samples, ordering them to hand over the phials upon doing so. Tegan runs away with the cure, but Nyssa drops the phial containing the virus in a scuffle and it is released into the air. She warns the Doctor.

The Doctor, Turlough and Bragg meet Tegan in the medical bay, soon joined by Nyssa, and EDGAR locks the door of the control room behind them. Whilst everybody else takes the cure, Bragg refuses as he wants to take his infection back to the Independent Biodevelopment Group and takes Tegan hostage before activating EDGAR's self-destruct. He heads towards the ship with her, followed by the Doctor, but Cardell rigs the airlock and blasts a hole in the wall which sucks her and the Cractids out onto the planet's surface. Bragg manages to escape, however, and cryogenically freezes himself aboard the ship. The Doctor and Tegan are unharmed, having put on space suits, and Turlough and Nyssa get EDGAR to delay the self-destruct until they arrive in 3530.

The Doctor and Tegan return to the TARDIS and pilot it to the medical bay. Before they leave they ask how their bodies can be there. The Doctor says he will show them. Before they leave the doctor promises EDGAR they'll be back. EDGAR is left pining after his new "crew".

Inside the TARDIS the Doctor tells his companions to look at the screen and shows them the medical bay at a rate of one second per day. They watch as the spiders enter and try and rebuild the Doctor and his companions. The Doctor explains that the bodies weren't decomposed they were being built up by EDGAR as a replacement crew before EDGAR went into hibernation prior to their original visit. Nyssa orders to be taken back home. The Doctor seems put out that she won't travel with him more. She states it is her mission to cure Richter's Syndrome and she has the information she needs now. The Doctor agrees but Tegan points out that, knowing the TARDIS it might be a while before they find themselves back in Nyssa's time. Nyssa agrees with this and goes to look for her old bedroom.

Thirty years in the future Bragg is unfrozen. He finds himself on a crowded passenger ship. He orders the ship to be quarantined but his finder informs him it is too late. The passengers have all already left — taking Richter's Syndrome with them.

Cast

References

to be added

Notes

Continuity

Footnotes

  1. ↑ LATEST AND UPCOMING RELEASES - Archived on 23 July 2010

External links

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Big Finish Main Range
 
Fifth Doctor
Adric, Nyssa, Tegan
Nyssa
Nyssa, Brewster
Nyssa, Hannah
Nyssa, Tegan
Nyssa, Tegan, Marc
Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough
Tegan, Turlough, Kamelion
Tegan, Leela
Turlough
Peri
Peri, Erimem
Amy
Vicki, Steven
Solo travels
 
Sixth Doctor
Peri
Evelyn
Evelyn, Brewster
Frobisher
Charley
"Jamie"
Flip
Constance
Constance, Flip
Mel
Jamie, Zoe
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Mel
Ace
Ace, Hex
Ace, Benny
Sally
Ace, Hex, Lysandra, Sally
Ace, Hex, Sally
Ace, Mel
Mags
Klein
Klein, Will
Jo
Solo travels
 
Eighth Doctor
Mary Shelley
Charley
Charley, C'rizz
Solo & other travels
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