Run (audio story)

Run
Doctor:	Ninth Doctor
Featuring:	Alpha Centauri
Main enemy:	Bellatrix Vega
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Robert Valentine
Director:	Helen Goldwyn
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Howard Carter
Sound:	Iain Meadows
Cover by:	Caroline Tankersley
Release details
Number of parts:	1
Release number:	2.3
Part of:	Travel in Hope
Release date:	3 August 2023
Format:	1 CD Download 3rd of 3 stories
Production code:	BFPDW9TH09
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-80240-130-1 (physical); ISBN 978-1-80240-131-8 (digital)
The Ninth Doctor Adventures
← Previous	The Butler Did It
Next →	A Theatre of Cruelty

Run was the third and final story in the audio anthology Travel in Hope, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Robert Valentine and featured Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Jane Goddard as Alpha Centauri.

Publisher's summary

When heinous demagogue Bellatrix Vega threatens the stability of the Galactic Federation, the Doctor convinces newly elected representative Alpha Centauri to run against her for president.

As Vega’s team mount a campaign of dirty tricks, the Doctor and Alpha must thwart a murderous conspiracy or see the galaxy’s greatest democracy become a brutal dictatorship.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Christopher Eccleston
• Alpha Centauri - Jane Goddard
• Bellatrix Vega - Jane Asher
• Kramp / Tau Ceti - David Langham
• Zzargol - Nicholas Briggs
• Speaker of the House / Cartel boss - Philip Pope

Worldbuilding

• Just as Alpha Centauri is the representative of the planet Alpha Centauri, Tau Ceti is the representative of the Tau Ceti system.
  • It is claimed by Alpha Centauri that their name is common on their homeworld.
• Whilst conversing with a figure in the shadows who seems to disappear without a trace, the Doctor compares the shady figure to Batman.

Notes

• The cover art shows an Ice Queen, a class of Ice Warrior leader introduced in Empress of Mars, however, none is present in the audio. This is probably a misunderstanding between Ice Queen and Ice Lord.
• Robert Valentine explained that the Ninth Doctor referring to Alpha Centauri as "A.C." is a reference to the real world United States representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as "A.O.C."

Continuity

• The Doctor meets Alpha Centauri before their involvement as a representative to the Galactic Federation. Earlier, in his third incarnation, the Doctor knew Alpha Centauri as a firm member of the Federation, having been on the Committee of Assessment, (TV: The Curse of Peladon ^[+]Loading...["The Curse of Peladon (TV story)"]), Peladon ambassador, (TV: The Monster of Peladon ^[+]Loading...["The Monster of Peladon (TV story)"]) and as a liasion between Peladon and the Federation during their semi-retirement, the latter being witnessed by the Sixth Doctor and Melanie Bush. (AUDIO: The Death of Peladon ^[+]Loading...["The Death of Peladon (audio story)"])
  • Fully aware of the effect of meeting them so early in their timeline, the Ninth Doctor simply avoided introducing himself. The Eleventh Doctor would face a similar issue with the newly regenerated River Song. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler ^[+]Loading...["Let's Kill Hitler (TV story)"])
• A news item refers to a criminal from Raxacoricofallapatorius being arrested. Later in this incarnation, the Doctor and Rose Tyler would foil a plot by the Raxacoricofallapatorian crime family the Slitheen. Firstly, they would thwart their plan to reduce the Earth to slag, thus allowing them to sell it off as fuel, (TV: World War Three ^[+]Loading...["World War Three (TV story)"]), and later they would stop Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen from opening the Cardiff rift and destroying the planet. (TV: Boom Town ^[+]Loading...["Boom Town (TV story)"])
  • The Doctor and Rose found themselves regularly encountering the Slitheen family, and other rogue members of the Raxas Alliance, including the Blathereen in the Justicia penal star system, (PROSE: The Monsters Inside ^[+]Loading...["The Monsters Inside (novel)"]), and a union between rogue Jingatheen and Slitheen on the planet Gharusa Prime. (COMIC: Doctormania ^[+]Loading...["Doctormania (comic story)"]) The Tenth Doctor and Rose would also go on to meet a rogue Abzorbaloff, using the guise of Victor Kennedy, from the planet Clom, one of Raxacoricofallapatorius' three sister planets. (TV: Love & Monsters ^[+]Loading...["Love & Monsters (TV story)"])
• Among the members of the Federation are representatives of Mars, namely the Ice Warriors, and Draconia. (TV: The Curse of Peladon ^[+]Loading...["The Curse of Peladon (TV story)"], Frontier in Space ^[+]Loading...["Frontier in Space (TV story)"])
• The Doctor outright states to Bellatrix Vega that he has witnessed a future where she became, not only president of the Federation, but also a ruthless, evil dictator. The Thirteenth Doctor and her fam also visited a similar timeline, which showed a potential future of Earth's if climate change was not curbed. This showed Earth being reduced to an Orphan planet, inhabited by the devolved forms of humans, known as the Dregs. (TV: Orphan 55 ^[+]Loading...["Orphan 55 (TV story)"])
• The Doctor finishes a bag of jelly babies, a favourite snack of the Doctor's throughout their incarnations. (TV: The Dominators ^[+]Loading...["The Dominators (TV story)"], Robot ^[+]Loading...["Robot (TV story)"], Doctor Who ^[+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"] et al)

Cover gallery

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  Textless cover

• 

  Alternate cover

External links

• Official Run page at bigfinish.com