The Children of the Future (audio story)
The Children of the Future was the second story in Sontarans vs Rutans, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Tim Foley and featured Tim Treloar as the Third Doctor, Sadie Miller as Sarah Jane Smith and Jon Culshaw as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
It was released in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Sontarans and the first mention of Rutans.
Publisher's summary
The war between the Sontarans and the Rutans has been going on for Millennia. And is likely to continue for millennia more.
The Brigadier is used to the Doctor acting strangely, but this time there’s something decidedly different about the whole affair. As he looks into the Time Lord's odd activities outside of UNIT, there's a mystery that'll take Lethbridge-Stewart to a site very familiar to Sarah Jane Smith.
Can the Brigadier trust his old friend? Who are his mysterious new allies? And is the future of humanity really at stake? A Sontaran threat could spell the end of their long-standing friendship...and the entire planet!
Plot
Sarah answers the telephone for the Brigadier and is told by Private Larkins that the Doctor is being held up at the gate as the Brigadier requested. She realises that the Brigadier means to follow the Doctor incognito and joins him, agreeing that the Doctor has been acting strangely recently and wanting to know where he is sneaking off to in Bessie. In addition to the Doctor being secretive, the he has been ordering equipment similar to that that he had been using to fix the TARDIS during his exile which he has been taking off-site and looking at old maps of Hampshire, towards which he is driving. The Doctor speeds up, apparently having realised that he is being followed, and disappears.
Inquiring about Bessie at a petrol station, Sarah sees a postcard of the ruins of Lindsay Castle, which she recognises as the castle where she met Linx. They find that the castle is surrounded by soldiers led by Sergeant Moss, who demands that they leave until the Doctor shows up and has her lower her gun. The Doctor and Moss take the two of them to Captain Saint and they explain that they belong to the Earth Defence Force and are survivors of a Sontaran invasion in 1994. Saint recounts the invasion and how they managed to travel back in time thanks to the battery of Linx's osmic projector leaking into the castle's walls, creating a time tunnel which the Doctor detected when the first group arrived.
to be completed
Cast
- The Doctor - Tim Treloar
- Sarah Jane Smith - Sadie Miller
- Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Jon Culshaw
- Stanley - Jeremy Ang Jones
- Captain Saint - Nicholas Boulton
- Sergeant Moss - Lucy Goldie
Crew
- Cover Art - Sean Longmore
- Director - Ken Bentley
- Executive Producers - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
- Music - Joe Kraemer
- Producer - David Richardson
- Script Editor - John Dorney
- Sound Design - David Roocroft
- Writer - Tim Foley
- Senior Producer - John Ainsworth
Worldbuilding
Fashion
- The Brigadier wears a flat cap.
Food
- Sarah buys the Brigadier some gumdrops.
History
- Captain Saint claims he and his soldiers were agents of the Earth Defence Force from 1994, who fled from a major Sontaran invasion through a time tunnel.
- Many are said to have tried to flee to the Moonbase, but never made it beyond the atmosphere.
- Sarah has a dictaphone made in 1997, in Taiwan.
Individuals
- Private Barry Larkins works at UNIT's front gate.
- Sergeant Benton told Sarah that the Doctor had organised a wine and cheese evening for which the Doctor did not show up.
Locations
- Irongron's castle is named Lindsay Castle, and its ruins are now a tourist attraction featured on local postcards.
- Lindsay Castle is near Wessex Castle.
Organisations
- Sarah mentions Galactic Heritage.
Rutans
- The Rutans belong to the Twenty-Seventh Fleet.
Science
- The Doctor promises to explain quantum osmosis, and has experienced time quakes.
Technology
- Sarah has a dictaphone from the future which the Doctor gave her.
- The Brigadier has binoculars.
- Linx used an osmic projector to capture scientists.
Notes
- This story was recorded on 17 May 2023 at the Soundhouse.
Continuity
- The Doctor and Sarah recently came back from the end of the world in The House That Hoxx Built [+]Loading...["The House That Hoxx Built (audio story)"].
- Sarah recounts the events of The Time Warrior [+]Loading...["The Time Warrior (TV story)"].
- Sarah describes the Sontarans as "nasty, brutish and short", a description the Doctor gave in The Time Warrior [+]Loading...["The Time Warrior (TV story)"].
External links
- Official The Children of the Future page at bigfinish.com
Footnotes
Notes
- ↑ The Brigadier's birthday is tomorrow, which PROSE: Blood Heat [+]Loading...["Blood Heat (novel)"], No Future (novel [+]Loading...["No Future (novel"] and The Forgotten Son [+]Loading...["The Forgotten Son (novel)"] establish as 22 February, with nothing contradicting this in other DWU sources.
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