Dark Universe (audio story)
Dark Universe was the two hundred and sixtieth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Guy Adams and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace, Mark Bonnar as the Eleven, Carolyn Pickles as Cardinal Ollistra and Damian Lynch as Rasmus. It was the first in a trilogy of stories pitting the Seventh Doctor against another rogue Time Lord.
Publisher's summary
The Eleven has a plan. A grand plan. An appalling plan. A plan that endangers all life in the cosmos.
With Ace working for the enemy, the Doctor must rely on scheming Time Lord Cardinal Ollistra for help. The stage is set for an epic confrontation.
Because the Doctor has a plan to stop the Eleven. A grand plan. An appalling plan. A plan that endangers all life in the cosmos.
Whichever one of them wins, the Dark Universe won't want to lose...
Plot
Part one
After infiltrating and stealing something from the Capitol, McShane and the Eleven meet with arms-dealing and people-trafficking tour guide Gabriel in Brazil to reach coordinates in Vale do Javari where the Eleven expects they will find Hell. As they near the location, McShane explains to Gabriel how the Eleven broke into her office at A Charitable Earth and offered to help her make the Doctor pay for how he treated her if he used her charity's connections to the Ministry for Indigenous Peoples to get him access to Vale do Javari. There, the trio are surrounded by an indigenous tribe in possession of laser weapons.
The Eleven uses a weapon that leaves the tribespeople unconscious, allowing him, McShane and Gabriel to escape and continue to search for the Dark Gate, something that he could not safely materialise his TARDIS near. They pass through the tallest tree on Earth, which was invisible until they neared it, into a bubble environment and and are forced to wait for a stellar alignment to allow them to continue onwards. The Eleven enters a trance to pass the time after telling Gabriel how opening the Dark Gate will end the universe and McShane secretly meets with the Doctor, who has been listening with an earpiece and tells her to help the Eleven open the gate.
Part two
The Eleven leaves his trance just before the celestial convergence causes the bubble environment to become bigger and McShane returns to him and Gabriel from outside, claiming to have been checking on the tribe rather than speaking with the Doctor, who has befriended the tribe leader and convinced him to leave the group alone. They have, the Eleven explains, arrived on a now-nameless planet where the Time Lords hid the Dark Gate upon creating it so that it could not be used whilst still remaining accessible if their need was great. The Eleven pushes both Gabriel and McShane through a sense barrier ahead of him, beyond which McShane sees the Doctor asking for her help after not seeing her for twenty years.
Gabriel confides in McShane that he saw the Eleven feeding him to something when he passed through the barrier, but she promises that she will not allow it to happen. They reach the Dark Gate, which resembles a massive mirror, and the Eleven tells the story of how a group of Time Lords were investigating other universes and found one where all other species had been destroyed by the Dark Citizens. When the Doctor arrives with the tribesmen, the Eleven feeds Gabriel to the Dark Citizens and asks them for their help in dominating the universe. They accept and the Doctor regrets thinking that the Eleven would never do such a thing, agreeing with the tribe leader's assessment that it is the end of everything.
Part three
Cardinal Ollistra and Captain Rasmus, the last remnants of the High Council, meet with McShane on Rox to discuss how the Eleven has taken over half the universe and decide to save the captive Doctor from Gallifrey. The Eleven continues to refuse to fully release the Dark Citizens so as to avoid being killed himself but uses them to wipe out the Daleks and Sontarans, allow him to reprogram the Cybermen and move his other personalities into robots. He keeps the Doctor alive and dressed up as a jester and refuses to kill him, promising to do so only once he is desperate for death's release.
McShane, Ollistra and Rasmus travel to Earth and steal a Battle TARDIS from the Nine to get through Gallifrey's transduction barriers before the planet is destroyed with a planet-splitter, something that the Doctor mourns. Although they manage to get away, Rasmus is shot by the Nine with a staser and is injured. The three of them are immediately detected when they arrive on Gallifrey thanks to their need to breathe, which is conspicuous thanks to the Eleven surrounding himself with robot staff for, the Doctor believes, his own safety. The Eleven's droids go to kill the three intruders.
Part four
The Eight uses a scouring agent to burn through the attacking droids and joins McShane, Ollistra and Rasmus in entering the Panopticon Vault where the Dark Gate has been moved, only to be killed by a Dark Citizen. Although the Eleven denies the Dark Citizens' their request to be fully unleashed upon the universe even when they inform him that his rule will end today, he impulsively decides to release them when the Doctor accuses him of taking out his frustration at not being able to be happy on the universe. The Doctor, however, informs him that the Dark Citizens were once Time Lords and that the Eleven could use the Matrix to cause destruction just as they did.
The Dark Citizen confirms McShane's belief that they had made it easy for the three of them to get to Gallifrey, but to serve as a threat to somebody other than the Eleven. It freezes them in time and sounds an alarm to bring them to the Eleven's attention, unfreezing them once he and the Doctor arrive. The Eleven realises when his droids are nice to him that the Doctor trapped him in the Matrix as he headed to the vaults and finds himself captured and with his other selves back inside his mind. He gets free briefly and opens the Dark Gate to destroy the universe, but the Doctor made the Dark Citizens a better offer and the gate is closed; the Dark Citizens reverse most of the damage they did and the Eleven is imprisoned to await freezing.
to be completed
Cast
- The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
- Ace - Sophie Aldred
- The Eleven / Eleven Droids - Mark Bonnar
- Ollistra - Carolyn Pickles
- Rasmus - Damian Lynch
- Gabriel / Time Lord 2 - Owen Aaronovitch
- Dark Citizen - Lin Sagovsky
- Guard / Tribe Leader / Time Lord - Glen McCready
Worldbuilding
- Vale do Javari is one of the most guarded areas on Earth.
- Ace enjoys the science fiction film The Time Bandits.
- The Eleven refers to a Quantum Possibility Engine as a "pocket calculator".
- During his time in control of the universe, the Eleven destroys the Daleks and the Sontarans and reprograms the Cybermen.
- The Eight said he didn’t last too long.
- The Eleven said if the Four was clever he would still be wearing his Face.
Notes
- Serving as a prequel to the Doom Coalition audio series, events from this story were previously remarked upon in the Eleven's introductory story, The Eleven, which primarily featured the Eighth Doctor.
- This story was recorded on the 20th and 21st March 2019 at the Sounthouse.
Continuity
- The Seventh Doctor is wearing his final costume. (TV: Doctor Who)
- Ace is running A Charitable Earth. (TV: Death of the Doctor, AUDIO: In Remembrance)
- The Doctor mentions the Master, the Rani, and the Player. (AUDIO: The Plague of Dreams)
- When talking about timeline altering incidents in the past, the Doctor refers to the Quantum Possibility Engine. (AUDIO: The Quantum Possibility Engine)
- The Darkness also mentions the Heavenly Paradigm. (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm)
- Ace was supposed to find Romana II, whom she knew whilst at the Celestial Intervention Agency. (AUDIO: Enemy Lines)
Cover gallery
Textless cover
Alternate cover
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External links
- Official Dark Universe page at bigfinish.com
