The Lost Resort (audio story)

Reunited with his companions, the Doctor's plans to travel home to Gallifrey are cast aside when the TARDIS materialises on the Soresia: a planetoid with an unusual temporal atmosphere, home to the Welkin Sanatorium; seemingly an ideal place to recuperate. But the patients – like the Sanatorium – are mere shadows of their former selves. Decay has taken hold... yet their secrets remain as strong and healthy as ever.

Plot

Part one

The TARDIS materialises on Callanna. Nyssa surprises Tegan by not being excited by its arrival, as she believes that they could have been happy on Callanna, and she and Marc bemoan all of the upcoming danger, running and things that will go unsaid. The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS and says that they should talk.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor says that they will talk when the time is right, prompting Marc to leave for his bedroom and Tegan to complain that they were all falling apart. He sets the coordinates to take them to Gallifrey to talk in a council room with an arbitrator, but they land in the wrong place.

Dr Aether Beauregarde worries about what will happen to Nora Edgecastle when she dies and refuses to allow her to die with her. Fabrico, a robot, arrives and suggests that Aether goes for a walk to deal with her aggression, which Nora encourages her to do.

Tegan cannot bear the smell of sulphur where they have landed and commands Marc, who wishes to stay in the TARDIS, to join her, the Doctor and Nyssa. The Doctor suggests that they are beneath a lagoon where the water is in the air due to technology affected gravity, which Aether confirms when she makes her presence known; they are on Soresia, a planetoid which is home only to the Welkin Sanatorium. The Welkin is a shadow of its former self but Marc wishes to stay to see if he can be cured following his partial cyber-conversion and the Doctor, after being advised to leave by Aether, cannot resist but have a look.

On a jetty high above the lagoon, the travellers admire the view. Aether tells them how dangerous the marsh can be and, when asked, says that she was out foraging due to how crowded the Welkin can get, following the marsh lights. Tegan says that she does not like being above the lagoon and, when Nyssa says that one can trust mathematics (specifically statistics indicating that they are safe), she asks how mathematics worked out for Adric. The Doctor and Nyssa are shocked.

The five board the ferry to the Welkin and are greeted by Fabrico. Fabrico advises them to hold onto the handrail as they travel so as not to be lost to the vapours, a mysterious phenomenon that causes temporal relief and allows the Welkin to treat their patients with more efficacy. Fabrico says that she can detect dis-ease in each of the travellers and indicates that she knows a lot about them, as well as the TARDIS, and that she has the memories of all of the Welkin's patients. When Tegan says that Fabrico's metal face is "creepy", Marc asks if she thinks that he is as well. The Doctor breaks up the bickering.

Luchino, who talks in the third person and calls himself "the Viscount", is exercising in the gymnasium with Fabrico when he is put off by his brother, Franco. Luchino inherited the Welkin and does not listen to Nora when she criticises his manner of speaking; she has joined them in the gym because her walls looked to her like they were melting to the floor. Fabrico tells everybody of the new arrivals and that it is possible that the Doctor will be able to find a cure to a virus that is troubling them. If he cannot, Luchino says, he and his companions will die just as everyone else will.

The five disembark the ferry, where Fabrico remains as is her job, and see that the building is falling apart. Sylvie and her robot son Thad come looking for Aether and invite her to play a card game, which she agrees to after she has seen Nora. Tegan asks Sylvie she is a ventriloquist and Thad her dummy, prompting the Doctor to quickly apologise for her rudeness. Sylvie invites everyone to tea.

Fabrico welcomes the group to the Welkin, the Doctor surmising that there are multiple Fabricos with shared memories, and shows the Doctor to his room whilst the others wait for other Fabricos to do the same for them. In the Doctor's room is a Wolf-Star Trance Machine, which he says is the next best thing to a Zero Room, and when he hears someone call out to him Fabrico prescribes an hour of Soresian trance. Wanting to close his eyes to everything, he agrees and enters the Trance Machine.

Tegan knocks on Nyssa's door, having spotted water running down it. Aether asks her to be quiet as Nora is asleep and informs her that Nyssa left to analyse the atmosphere some time ago. She makes an offer of tea, but Tegan declines and asks about the source of what sounds like a wailing woman coming from an abandoned part of the hospital, but Aether can provide no explanation. Tegan then asks about Thad and learns that Sylvie lost a son to disease and has been travelling with Thad ever since, bringing him to the Welkin after coming to believe that he too was sick.

Wanting equipment from the TARDIS to analyse the vapours, Nyssa asks Fabrico to take her back to the lido, which she agrees to. Fabrico says that she has seen faces in the vapours before, which Nyssa says is simply pareidolia, something which she would not expect an android to experience. Fabrico finds this rude and says that she might have caught it from the patients or seen faces because she is without one and wants one.

Fabrico prepares to leave Marc in his room, inviting him to croquet on the lido later in the day, when he confronts her, having picked up that there is more going on in her mind that she lets on. He angers her by saying that they both have hearts of metal, a comparison which offends her as he has friends, choices and freedom whilst there are thirty of her and none have any power. She leaves, having a party to prepare.

The Doctor relaxes in his machine and begins to enter a trance before demanding that he be allowed out.

Nora wakes up to find herself alone and asks to speak to Fabrico over a communicator.

Fabrico switches off the Doctor's machine and he asks her if she heard what he had, but she says that the trance must have made him think that his hallucinations were real. She suggests that a bed might be better than the machine, which he says might be the case, and begins to hypnotise him into deep trance.

Nora screams.

As he enters trance, the Doctor lets go of all that haunts him and says that there is no such thing as ghosts. Adric's voice tells him that he is quite wrong about that.

Part two

The Doctor jerks awake and demands to know what Fabrico has done to him; he can see Adric, who fades in and out and passes through things like a ghost. Adric insists that he really is an apparition but the Doctor refuses to engage with him, believing that Fabrico has produced a facsimile or injected him with something. Fabrico insists that she has done nothing and Adric suggests that something is responsible rather than someone. The Doctor accidentally breaks the machine, believing that it might have done something to his mind.

Tegan has found Nora, dead, and keeps Aether from entering the room. When Marc arrives, having heard the screams as well, Tegan tells him what she has found and he goes to collect the Doctor. Fabrico advises the Doctor that this would not be good for his stress and that he should remain and communicate with Adric, which Adric agrees with. The Doctor tells Adric not to go anywhere and goes to speak with Marc.

Fabrico has separated Aether from Nora, which Tegan disagrees with. However, Fabrico insists that Aether accept Nora's death, which she initially refuses to do, suggesting that she might be able to bring her back. The Doctor argues that Aether should be allowed to see the body and, when Fabrico refuses to allow it, he tells Marc to take Aether away whilst Fabrico explains herself to him.

Luchino and Franco are playing a game when Fabrico informs them of Nora's death. Franco offers Fabrico his condolences as he knew that she and Nora were close, something that Luchino scoffs at given that she is a robot. They argue.

Nyssa asks Fabrico to stop the ferry where the gases seem particularly turbulent. Fabrico advises her to return to the Welkin due to the possibility of a storm and Nyssa shows concern in return, which Fabrico finds unusual. They analyse the readings together and Nyssa says that they are friends.

The Doctor and Tegan speak with Fabrico, who had been in Nora's room when she died, in the sluice room. Sworn to secrecy, Fabrico tells them only that Nora had died of a cardiac arrest due to a shock and keeps dropping clues about the Doctor seeing Adric. The Doctor refuses to tell Tegan at this point what Fabrico is hinting at and asks Fabrico for hints on what caused Nora's death. She says that they should question others at Welkin and leave her alone.

Marc and Aether are in the conservatory, looking outside. Aether does not drink the marsh tea that Fabrico serves her and tells Marc that she cannot comprehend eating, drinking or doing anything normal since Nora's death, and tells Marc that she will be fine on her own. He departs, but tells her that he will be around if she needs to talk.

The Doctor takes Tegan to his room to tell her about Adric but finds that he has disappeared. Tegan is sceptical when the Doctor says that he was there.

Marc goes to the kitchen looking for Fabrico and asks her to keep an eye on Aether whilst he finds the Doctor. She is angered by this as everybody is allowed to live their lives but her and, very soon, there will be nobody at the Welkin for her to serve. When he suggests that she resign, she says that she is like a slave of Roman times and that her creators are dead; there is nobody who will give her her liberty. Marc says that he would free her and she raises a knife.

Fabrico has been called back to the Welkin from the ferry. Nyssa collects data which suggests that there is a virus in the vapours, which Fabrico was aware of, and they head back to the jetty in the storm.

Luchino and Franco tidy up their chess set, which fell over whilst they fought, and Franco says that he had hoped that they would grow closer at the Welkin after Luchino inherited it. Luchino accidentally refers to himself not in the third-person but as "I", which Franco points out. The Doctor enters with Tegan, hoping to question them, but Luchino attacks.

Nyssa falls over the side of the ferry in the storm.

Fabrico tells Marc that she is "converging" and says that she has an idea of how he can free her; if she infects him with her personality, she will be able to leave.

As Luchino goes to kill the Doctor, Adric appears and stops him. He says that he is back and that he is not going anywhere.

Part three

Adric cannot hold Luchino and, as they struggle, they both disappear. Tegan asks for an explanation from the Doctor, but he cannot offer one.

In the swamp, Nyssa calls out to Fabrico to fetch Marc. The Fabricos in the kitchen all stop and, knowing that they would not be able to save Nyssa, they tell Marc to go and save their friend, Nyssa. Marc goes with Fabrico and launches himself into the vapours, attaching a rope to the ferry's mast to keep him from being pulled by the temporal tide.

The Doctor and Tegan go in search of Adric, Marc and Nyssa but cannot find anybody anywhere in the Welkin. The Doctor says that he does not have to show or express his feelings about seeing Adric again and that it is and has been his job to protect his companions, but Tegan argues that they are responsible adults and that he does not have to be so paternalistic. Thad, who has been looking around since Sylvie went to see Aether, shows up and joins them, holding Tegan's hand.

Tegan hears the floorboards make a sighing sound and says that it seems like people are stuck in the building. According to Thad, Sylvie says that the building is decaying along with the patients. Whilst the Doctor and Tegan seem to think that they still have ten or so steps to climb, Thad says that they have reached the top of the stairs and disturbs Tegan when he replays her voice.

Marc finds Nyssa in the vapours and goes to save her.

The Doctor and Tegan hear a cat which Thad cannot and he tells them that Sylvie said that a stray cat used to play there, scaring Tegan. They go into Nora's room and find that her body is gone. The Doctor examines a machine which Thad tells him not to touch; he does not want to tell him what it does, but does say that it had something to do with the lights going out earlier.

Aether, Luchino, Franco and Sylvie are in the ballroom, deciding what to do about the Doctor. They want to keep something secret from him and need Aether's machine, but they are also aware that the Doctor might take the virus with him if he were to leave. Luchino suggests that they trap the Doctor and his companions in the Welkin with them, which they all agree to but Aether.

Hearing the clapping, Thad shows the Doctor and Tegan towards the ballroom.

In the vapours, Nyssa sees and hears ghosts which she is unable to fight. Marc takes a hold of her and starts to pull her out of the clouds, but she does not believe that he is real and says that they have the virus.

The Doctor, Tegan and Thad arrive at the ballroom. Aether says that she has been trying to keep them out of it, but it is time for them to know the truth.

Marc and Fabrico save Nyssa, who thanks them. Nyssa and Marc are feeling ill and looking pale and head off to find the Doctor. They enter the ballroom to tell the Doctor about the virus, but he already knows that they are seeing things because of a virus. The residents of the Welkin say that all of them bar Aether are dead and Adric says that the Doctor and his companions will soon join them.

Part four

Adric remembers being on Briggs' freighter and Nyssa suggests that, even if he is not really Adric, the Doctor might benefit from talking to him. Aether says that there is no time and that they must all drink her marsh tea, which she has been using to keep the virus at bay since Nora's death; although Nora stopped existing only yesterday, her physical death was actually long ago. The machine in Aether's room is a variation on an engram machine and the residents are all holograms that it has created from Fabrico's memories and Nora ceased to exist after wiping her own engram from it.

Nyssa has found out the vapour's properties and was saved by Marc, which she remarks is proof of what Tegan has told the Doctor: that his companions are all capable and do not need to be treated like children. Spluttering and falling to the floor, she tells the Doctor to have faith in them. Luchino has Nyssa taken for palliative care whilst the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, Marc and Aether are locked away.

Luchino and Franco are getting stronger. Franco calls for Fabrico to clean the windows in the conservatory and asks Luchino not to hurt the living, saying that he has long been a coward but will now stand up for what he believes is right, being unafraid of Luchino's threat to wipe his engram. Franco was viscount before Luchino and felt sorry for how he was treated as his spare, later renouncing his title and signing it over to Luchino. Had Franco known how Luchino would turn out, he says, he would not have done so.

Tegan asks Fabrico to let them go, but she says that she cannot go against her programming. Adric suggests that they turn off the machine for good, but the Doctor is against getting rid of all of the holograms; however, Adric says that he is not alive. According to Aether, the machine does not provide physicality for the holograms and thinks that they might have been corporeal due to the Soresian atmospherics. Nora seemed to gain more form with emotion, which the Doctor sees as proof of the holograms being alive. He refuses to shut down the machine and kill Adric, Luchino, Franco and Sylvie.

Adric points out that Nora ended her half-life as a hologram and that people living on in such a form would thus not mean that people would stop being lost. He says that he does not want to exist like this; he had his adventures with the Doctor and saw entropy, teaching him how all things must end and that which survives must continue on until its own. He has had his reprise and now asks the Doctor to give him his coda.

Sylvie realises that she has been selfish and not given Thad the life that he deserves to have. Thad reveals that he knows about her lost son, Simon, whose engram Aether had been unable to find and says that they should help the Doctor and his friends. Sylvie agrees.

Luchino is worried that the Doctor will leave the Welkin and bring others who will experiment upon the holograms or shut down the machine. He tells Franco that he will have him and his friends killed to prevent this. Fabrico prepares to give the living lethal injections of sedative and Adric leaves to switch off the machine, the Doctor refusing to say goodbye to him. Fabrico, recording for Luchino, goes to make the injections as Tegan begs her not to.

Luchino switches off the video and Franco says that he too is a coward, leaving to see to the bodies. In truth, Fabrico has injected them with a harmless solution of saline and B12 and sets them free. The Doctor asks her to get some marsh tea and departs, bumping into Sylvie and Thad and asking them to take him to Aether's room. There, he asks Adric to leave the machine as Luchino believes that they are dead, but Adric says that he will find out that they are not. He tells the Doctor to say goodbye, but the Doctor says that he has so much more to say.

The Doctor apologises to Adric for his death and says that he wishes that he were still travelling with him, flying the TARDIS and being annoying. He says that he was "the best stowaway a traveller can have". Adric tells the Doctor to say goodbye and to let him die this way, dying in a way which will mean something, unlike his actual death on the freighter. He switches off the machine and disappears.

Luchino disappears, saying that he is much too important to die, and Franco says that it is probably for the best that this happens. Thad comes looking for Sylvie, who disappears wondering who will look after her son, and the Doctor says that he will have to have a talk with him. The Doctor collects plants with Fabrico and creates a cure which has an almost immediate effect. He suggests that Fabrico, Aether and Thad come with him in the TARDIS to find a new home away from Soresia.

After five false starts, the TARDIS materialises outside of Pelan IX on Rahn where all species have the same rights. Aether, Thad and all of the Fabricos go to start a new life, Aether telling the Doctor that his grief will never go away but has become part of him, just as love has. The Doctor tells Nyssa, Tegan and Marc that he will not be taking to Gallifrey as he does not need an arbitrator to say that he is sorry for avoiding his emotions and not trusting them all to do the right thing. Tegan asks what Adric's last words were. The Doctor tells her that his last word was "Doctor".

Cast

Worldbuilding

Arts and entertainment

Sylvie asks Aether if she would like to play a hand of Rialto.
Luchino and Franco play chess.

Food and drink

Aether likes humbugs, which she describes as a "mint that never lets you down".
The Doctor says that he is seasoned with sea salt and thyme/time.
Fabrico pours Aether some marsh tea. Aether makes it out of three strands of dessicated legume grass, sky lavender and marsh rosebuds and describes it as a "most perky brew".
Nora's favourite drink is coffee made from mercurian highland beans.
Fabrico cooks marsh turnip and nettle soup for Aether.

Locations

The Doctor intends to take Nyssa, Tegan and Marc to Gallifrey to talk in a Council Chamber with a Time Lord Arbitrator.
Nyssa is reminded of the sunset on Traken.
Tegan says that the canals of Venice have never rocked so much.
The TARDIS lands in the sulphur lido.
Fabrico says that the Doctor's synapses will "fire like the Lalatusian Sun as it dies".

Religion and folklore

Aether follows will o' the wisps, which she calls fool's fire, Marc calls ignis faatus and the Doctor calls marsh lights.
Marc describes the hospital as a temple to Asclepius.
Before Marc goes to save Nyssa, he says "may Fortuna's rudder guide me".

Science and logic

Nyssa explains Margyle's knife, which the Doctor likens to Occam's razor. The Doctor claims that he once met William of Ockham.
Nyssa mentions pareidolia, the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.
Tegan compares the colourful clouds to the lights of the aurora borealis.
Aether is a doctor of esoteric thanatology.

Species

Aether says that she was once like a cat but is now more of a snoxfrom. The Doctor says that the last one he met was not as spritely as Aether. Fabrico lets Thad ride around on her back like a snoxfrom.

Technology

The marsh is full of marsh traps which cause the ground to give way.
The Doctor uses a Wolf-Star Trance Machine, Third Class. He compares it as the next best thing to the Zero Room.

Notes

The Lost Resort was recorded at Moat Studios in January 2020.

Continuity

The Doctor has recently returned for Nyssa, Tegan and Marc following the events of Madquake.
Marc mentions his cyber-conversion. (AUDIO: Warzone, Conversion)
The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan mention Adric's death. Adric mentions that the last thing he remembers was that he was on a freighter. (TV: Earthshock)
Adric recalls the Fourth Doctor's regeneration and seeing the effects of entropy. (TV: Logopolis)
The Doctor initially refuses to say goodbye to Adric as a final farewell, only relenting at the end. He would again refuse to say goodbye to River Song in his eleventh incarnation, saying it was too difficult, before finally saying goodbye. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
The Doctor states that a Time Lord will always lie when asked their age, potentially explaining the inconsistency with his age over the years. The Eleventh Doctor made a similar observation in The Day of the Doctor.
Adric notes that he has never heard the Doctor not to go to someone's aid. The Thirteenth Doctor would similarly state "When people need help, I never refuse." (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
The Twelfth Doctor would also see 'ghosts' of his deceased former companions Clara, Bill and Nardole, who turn out to be avatars of the Testimony. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)
The Doctor tells Tegan that he is responsible for his companions, especially after Adric's death. He would also swear that he would not allow any of his other companions to die during his fifth incarnation, (PROSE: Goth Opera) and would later assert to Clara Oswald in his twelfth incarnation that he had a duty of care which he took very seriously. (TV: Under the Lake, The Girl Who Died, Hell Bent)
The Doctor hated it when people ask him what he is a doctor of, which notably occurred in his third (TV: Spearhead from Space) and twelfth incarnations. (TV: Mummy on the Orient Express, Flatline)
This was not the first nor last time that illusions of Adric would appear to the Doctor or his companions:
- An illusion of Adric appeared to Nyssa and Tegan to dissuade them from entering Kalid's inner sanctum. (TV: Time-Flight)
- The Seventh Doctor found what appeared to be Adric, along with other former companions, alive again and desperate to leave in the TARDIS. He learned that these were actually Gwanzulums, a race of shapeshifters. (COMIC: Planet of the Dead)
- While in a Hell-like world composed of the Seventh Doctor's mind, Ace met an eerie, ghost-like recreation of Adric along with other companions of his who had died because of him. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation)
- In the Divergent Universe, the Eighth Doctor was shown an illusory version of Adric by the Kro'ka. (AUDIO: The Last)
- The Tenth Doctor watched Adric die again as a manifestation of the TARDIS Matrix. (COMIC: The Forgotten)

External links

Official The Lost Resort page at bigfinish.com