The Creeping Death (audio story)
The Creeping Death was the third and final story in The Tenth Doctor Adventures: Volume Three, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Roy Gill and featured David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble.
Publisher's summary
London, 1952, and a deadly smog envelops the capital. But something even more dangerous - and alien - is hiding within the mists.
When the Doctor and Donna get lost in the fog, they find a motley group of Londoners trying to make their way home.
Soon the stakes are raised, as death creeps along fume-choked streets, and not everyone will make it out alive....
Plot
The Doctor and Donna land in Earls Court, London in 1952 during 'The Great Smog'. They get split up and The Doctor ends up in a theatre where he meets Ivy Clark, an usherette. She is in shock as she explains to him that everyone has died.
Meanwhile, Donna meets up with Terry Hopkins. He mistakes her for a man and as she begins to walk away he pushes her out of the way from a moving lorry.
Back at the theatre, Ivy explains to The Doctor that everyone started to choke on the 'yellow air'. That she heard a swarm of insects flying right past her as she was selling tickets, dancing in the projector beam. As she ran to get Lucy- the other usherette, she wouldn't wake up. No one would. Suddenly, Ivy notices the swarm back again flying away through the vents. The Doctor adds that it's the same way they got in.
Terry says he has to meet his friend, Richard, and Donna jokingly replies "Is he your boyfriend?" Terry tells her to quieten down as it's against the law. Meanwhile, Ivy says she also has to meet Richard, where the Doctor says "Is he your boyfriend?" Ivy says he's a sweetheart and hopes they get together soon. As Ivy and the Doctor leave the theatre, they encounter the swarm again. The Doctor pulls out his sonic screwdriver to inspect them. He states that they're an intelligent life-form as they are able to move together.
REST OF PLOT TBA
Cast
- The Doctor - David Tennant
- Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
- Ivy Clark - Lauren Cornelius
- Terry Hopkins - Theo Stevenson
- Richard Cooper - Kieran Bew
- Malcolm Wishart - Stephen Critchlow
- Alice Aiken / Fumifugium - Helen Goldwyn
Worldbuilding
- The musical film Singin' in the Rain was released in 1952.
- Ivy mentions the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.
- In England, it is illegal to be homosexual in 1952.
- Alice claims to be the star of West End theatre.
- Richard says he only goes to pantos.
Notes
- On 24 May 2019, this story was re-released on vinyl in a limited run of 1000 copies at selective Asda stores.
- This story was recorded on 28 September 2018 at the Moat Studios.
Cover gallery
Original cover.
Alternate cover.
Vinyl cover.
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Continuity
- The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane were also in London during the Great Smog (although they remained for the whole experience, while the Tenth Doctor and Donna departed after the first day). (PROSE: Amorality Tale)
- This is a rare instance of two separate stories, involving two different incarnations of the Doctor, taking place at the same time, in the same place, and involving the same historical events, without making any reference to each other.
- The Doctor and Donna discuss Pompeii when the Doctor initially tells Donna about the historical inevitability of the coming Great Smog, with the Doctor assuring Donna that he will try to save as many lives as history will 'allow' him to save. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii)
- Ironically, The Fires of Pompeii and The Fires of Vulcan are perhaps the only other instances of two separate stories occurring at the same time and amidst the same historical events. They both featured the eruption of Vesuvius, but the Seventh and Tenth Doctors never met and made no reference to each other, similarly to the Third and Tenth Doctors during the Great Smog.
- The Doctor says that he and heights didn't always end well. The Fourth Doctor fell off the Pharos Project tower, causing him to regenerate. (TV: Logopolis)
- The Doctor tells Ivy that the moon is full of "angry space rhinos". (TV: Smith and Jones)
- Ivy tells Donna "there's something on your back". (TV: Turn Left)
- The Doctor mentions his respiratory bypass system. (TV: Spearhead from Space et al)
- When stealing a bus, Ivy mentions to the Doctor that he might be starting a trend of stealing buses. The Tenth Doctor would later help Lady Christina de Souza to steal the 200 bus after escaping San Helios in Easter 2009. (TV: Planet of the Dead)
- The Fumifugium animate a dinosaur skeleton at the Natural History Museum. The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa previously encountered animated dinosaur skeletons in Alaska in 1994. (AUDIO: The Land of the Dead)
- Norton Folgate of Torchwood One was fully aware of the "living smog" but his boss Lizbeth Hayhoe refused to investigate due to the 1952 incident, referring to the Tenth Doctor's involvement in the defeat of the Fumifugium. (AUDIO: Parasite)
External links
- Official The Creeping Death page at bigfinish.com
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