The Cloisters of Terror (audio story)
The Cloisters of Terror was the sixth story in the fourth series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Jonathan Morris and featured Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Louise Jameson as Leela and Rowena Cooper as Emily Shaw.
Publisher's summary
St Matilda's College, Oxford is haunted. The building was formerly a convent and, so the story goes, three ghostly nuns wander its passages during the hours of darkness. The story goes on to say that anyone who sees the "three sisters" will not be long for this world.
When one of the students mysteriously disappears, the Dean of the College, Dame Emily Shaw, has no option but to call in the police. Her call appears to be answered when a Police Box arrives in her study; the Doctor and Leela have come to investigate and uncover the dark secret that has lain buried beneath the college for almost a thousand years...
Plot
Part one
to be added
Part two
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Tom Baker
- Leela - Louise Jameson
- Emily Shaw - Rowena Cooper
- Sister Frances Beckett - Richenda Carey
- Megan Matthews - Claudia Grant
- Lynn Pickering - Allison McKenzie
- Ancient Nun / Brenda - Jane Slavin
Worldbuilding
- Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is investigating an Inca pyramid in South America.
- Several nuns have mysteriously disappeared from St Matilda's College during its long history. Novice Eleanor in 1481, Sister Blanche on 3 January 1729, Sister Mary Lovell in 1853 (who was believed to have run away with John Sayer of Abbington) and others in 1915, 1945, 1961, 1969, 1973, 1975 and 1976.
- Emily was an ambulance driver during World War II.
- In 985, Matilda witnessed an alien spaceship crash in Oxford. After she disappeared, she was made a saint.
- Emily compares the interior of the TARDIS to something out of Dan Dare.
Notes
- This story was recorded on 6 June 2013 at Audio Sorcery.
- Jonathan Morris set story in a college setting because he felt it was a novel setting for a ghost story, and also allowed there to be some youth among the characters. The choice of setting consequently influenced the all-female supporting cast. (BFX: The Cloisters of Terror)
- Nicholas Briggs advised that Morris make a number of additions and alterations to tidy up the script. In one example, Briggs insisted that there be a line addressing Leela's clothing, reasoning that her usual warriors skins would inevitably draw attention in a convent in 1977. Morris therefore added the Doctor's throwaway line, "resplendent in her nineteenth-century bicycle suit", when introducing Leela. Briggs found the line very amusing, and opined it was Morris' way of saying "Shut up, Nick." (BFX: The Cloisters of Terror)
- This is one of two stories from Series 4 in which K9 is absent, the other being Suburban Hell.
Continuity
- Liz Shaw's mother Emily Shaw previously encountered the Third Doctor during the incident with the Apocalypse Clock. (AUDIO: The Last Post)
- Liz is working for the British Rocket Group. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks; PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) They are considering building a moonbase. (TV: Death of the Doctor) The Doctor tells Emily that he once visited the Moonbase. (TV: The Moonbase)
- Leela recalls that she had previously been inside a church in Staffham, Devon in 1977. (AUDIO: The Foe from the Future)
- Leela refers to the Sevateem. (TV: The Face of Evil)
- Emily refers to St Hugh's College. (AUDIO: The Last Post)
External links
- Official The Cloisters of Terror page at bigfinish.com
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