Albie's Angels (audio story)
Albie's Angels was the third and final story in the audio anthology Connections, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Roy Gill and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, Nicola Walker as Liv Chenka and Hattie Morahan as Helen Sinclair.
Publisher's summary
When the Doctor and friends hunt down time anomalies in 2020s Soho, Helen steps into the past and meets the brother she thought she’d lost forever.
But there are Weeping Angels in London - and one of the stone assassins wants something from the Doctor and Liv...
Plot
The Doctor, Liv and Helen arrive in Soho around 2025 in search of a temporal weak spot. Helen, with the Doctor's spare sonic screwdriver, tracks the weak spot to a record shop where she meets Jase Harper and is given some order forms to give to Al. The sonic screwdriver leads her to a booth which she is unable to escape due to a containment field; a Weeping Angel sends her back to 1963 and the Doctor detects the displacement with his own screwdriver.
Helen meets her brother, Albie, who was disowned by their father and whose whereabouts she was unaware of, and introduces herself as "Helen Chenka" to avoid affecting the timeline. She leaves a message for the Doctor and Liv on a notice board, complete with a drawing of the TARDIS, and goes to stay with Albie. In St James's Park, a Weeping Angel chases them and they cause it to sink beneath the ice where it is trapped by its own reflection. Helen goes back onto the ice to pick up the sonic screwdriver, but Albie talks her out of risking her life and they head to the boarding house, where Helen gives Mrs Denny her silver necklace as a deposit for a room.
The Doctor and Liv find Helen's note at the record shop and go to speak with the elderly Mrs Denny, who claims not to know Helen or Albie but is wearing Helen's necklace, which Liv bought for her from Arturodon. Upon going back into the house, Mrs Denny is sent back in time by an Angel. The Doctor and Liv enter and encounter the Angel, taking Helen's necklace back from it, and return to the TARDIS where they use the telepathic circuits to find Helen.
In Albie's room, Helen asks about his partner, Bailey, and, after she shows that she accepts his sexuality, he takes her to meet him at band practice. Later, Bailey goes to the record shop and sees the Weeping Angel; Jack Harper tells him how he controlled it using Helen's screwdriver and gives him a letter to give to Jack's ancestor, informing him of where the Angel can be found. The Angel sends Bailey back in time and Jack promises it more food if it behaves. At the boarding house, Helen learns that Mrs Denny has found Albie and Bailey's love letters and contacted the police. Helen goes to save him.
The Angel knocks on the TARDIS doors and uses the telepathic circuits to speak with Helen's voice and tells them that it wants to free the Angel in 1963. The Doctor refuses to help by taking it with them, but it holds onto the ship's exterior. The three of them arrive in 1963.
Helen finds Albie waiting for Bailey and deceives the sergeant when he comes after him. Albie realises that she really is his sister but is confused by how she is older than him, so she tells him that she is a time traveller. They go to Harper's to leave another message for the Doctor and Helen realises that the shop receives "special orders" from the future letting them know which records to keep in storage to be sold decades later for a greater profit. Jack enters and locks Albie in with the Angel to be sent back in time; Helen goes into the booth to be join him, but the Angel does not touch her. The Doctor arrives with Liv and disables the machine that the Harpers use to torture the Angels.
The two Angels send Jack back in time and embrace, using the time energy to heal the 1963 Angel's damage before disappearing. The paradox of, among other things, Jase Harper never having existed causes the shop to collapse. The travellers return to the 21st century and the Doctor and Liv head back to the record shop, Helen being unable to enter the building without time reasserting itself and making it so that she was never reunited with Albie. They bring back a Albie and Bailey's demo, called Song for Helen, and the Doctor says that they are unable to return for Albie.
The Doctor tells Helen that he tracked Albie to London in the 1890s where he and Bailey were taken in by Professor George Litefoot. He gave them a tape recorder and batteries and tells them to send anything that they record to 107 Baker Street, which is what they did with Song for Helen. Helen is no longer sad when she thinks about Albie and, in a way, is thankful to the Angels for giving him back to her.
Cast
- The Doctor - Paul McGann
- Liv Chenka - Nicola Walker
- Helen Sinclair - Hattie Morahan
- Albie Sinclair - Barnaby Jago
- Bailey / Sergeant - Alex Mugnaioni
- Jack Harper / Jase Harper - Robert Whitelock
- Denny - Anjella Mackintosh
Worldbuilding
- The Doctor lends Helen his spare sonic screwdriver.
- The Doctor tells Helen that she is reversing the polarity by holding the screwdriver upside down.
- The Doctor suggests going to Baker Street to make sure that Robin Bright-Thompson has not burnt the place down. Liv says that she is not ready.
- Harper's is less than a mile from the National Museum.
- Albie lives at Denny's Boarding House in Pimlico.
- Albie met Bailey thanks to a note on a notice board.
- Helen and Albie cut through St James's Park.
- Liv has a mobile phone.
- Liv has a photograph of Helen eating ice cream on Chasca Major.
- The Enchanted Castle is a book that scared Helen and Albie as children.
- Freddie used to live at the boarding house.
- Liv bought Helen a necklace at a marketplace on Arturodon.
- One of Jack's relatives learnt of Weeping Angels from a libretto.
- Jack's father knew sonar from his days in the army.
- Ada Warren lives nextdoor to the boarding house.
- Albie drinks coffee.
- Helen kept searching for Albie online during lockdown year.
- Helen goes to her room.
- Albie and Bailey live with George Litefoot.
- Eppona is a planet of waterfalls.
Notes
- Albie's Angels was recorded remotely and at the Soundhouse in June 2022.
Continuity
- Liv asks if they have not already done enough damage to the 2020s and vice versa. (AUDIO: The Keys of Baker Street)
- Liv remembers how the Monk locked her and Helen with a projector screen through which a Weeping Angel emerged. (AUDIO: The Side of the Angels)
- Albie and Trevor are taken in by Professor George Litefoot. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang, etc.)
External links
- Official Albie's Angels page at bigfinish.com
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