Flatpack (audio story)

Flatpack
Doctor:	Ninth Doctor
Companion(s):	Liv, Tania
Main setting:	London, 2020s
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	John Dorney
Director:	Ken Bentley
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Howard Carter
Cover by:	Caroline Tankersley
Release details
Number of parts:	1
Release number:	3.3
Part of:	Hidden Depths
Release date:	23 November 2022
Format:	1 CD Download Vinyl 3rd of 3 stories
Production code:	BFPDW9TH07
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-83868-760-1 (physical); ISBN 978-1-83868-761-8 (digital)
The Ninth Doctor Adventures
← Previous	Lay Down Your Arms
Next →	The Colour of Terror

Flatpack was the third and final story in the audio anthology Hidden Depths, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Lisa McMullin and featured Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor, Nicola Walker as Liv Chenka and Rebecca Root as Tania Bell.

Publisher's summary

Liv Chenka and Tania Bell are spending Sunday afternoon on that most traditional of couple activities. Furniture-shopping!

But just how long has London's newest Flatpack store been open? Who is its mysterious manager? And is it even Sunday? Liv is about to run into a very old friend...

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor/The Manager - Christopher Eccleston
• Liv Chenka - Nicola Walker
• Tania Bell - Rebecca Root
• Fraser / Colleague One - Jeremy Swift

Worldbuilding

• The Doctor mentions Baker Street.
• The Doctor obliquely refers to the fate of his eighth incarnation.
• Liv suggests the Master as a potential culprit. The Doctor rejects the notion, telling her it can't be him, nor the Monk, the Rani or the Eleven, as he knows it can't be a Time Lord.
  • For the same reason, the Doctor knows the shop can't be a TARDIS.

Notes

to be added

Continuity

• Liv double checks the Doctor's identity due to "that business with the Nine", who posed as him in AUDIO: The Crucible of Souls.
• It is roughly one year since Liv and Tania saw the Doctor. (AUDIO: Best Year Ever)
• Unbeknownst to Liv, Tania is actually investigating Flatpack. She has been sent here by her "contacts". During the Doctor's period of being stranded on Baker Street, Tania's "contacts", which included regular visits from Andy Davidson, would give her the task of keeping an eye on the Eighth Doctor. (AUDIO: Must-See TV)
• The Doctor states that the enemy can't be a Time Lord. From the Doctor's perspective, Gallifrey and the Time Lords were destroyed during the Time War. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
  • The Doctor would later find himself mistaken. Not only did his rival Time Lord The Master survive, (TV: Utopia) but the Monk also survived. (AUDIO: The Wrong Woman et al)
  • Numerous incarnations of the Doctor would later save Gallifrey from the end of the Time War into a painting. However, the pulling of the War Doctor out of his time stream would cause him to forget the true outcome of the War, thus keeping the timeline intact. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) The Twelfth Doctor would later find Gallifrey and return it to the universe. (TV: Hell Bent)
• The Doctor realises that Flatpack, much like the TARDIS, is spatially dimensionally transcendental. Unlike the TARDIS, it was also temporally transcendental too, meaning that all of time was happening almost at once. (TV: An Unearthly Child et al)
• Liv asks the Doctor to find a companion soon. After seeing who a misguided Doctor could turn into, she advises him to find a friend. The Ninth Doctor would one day find a companion called Rose Tyler, who would "make [him] better". (TV: Rose, Journey's End) However, once again companionless, the Tenth Doctor would refuse to allow the deaths of numerous people in a fixed point and would bestow himself the title of "Time Lord Victorious", beginning a dangerous journey causing him to travel back to the Dark Times and causing the genocide of the Kotturuh. (TV: The Waters of Mars, PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead, All Flesh is Grass et al)
  • The Doctor himself had seen similar occasions where this alter-ego of his manifested or reared its head. During his sixth incarnation, the Doctor became aware of the Valeyard, who the Master described as an amalgamation of the darker sides of the Doctor. (TV: The Ultimate Foe) The Seventh Doctor was infamous for manipulating those around him for what he deemed to be the greater good. It included manipulating his companions, (TV: Ghost Light et al) as well as manipulating other "less important" people into giving their own lives. (PROSE: Love and War) Even the Ninth Doctor temporarily caved in when faced with, what he assumed to be, the last Dalek. (TV: Dalek)
  • Perhaps the most famous pre-cursor to the Time Lord Victorious was the War Doctor himself. This incarnation gave up his title of "the Doctor" and his code of non-violence, and fought as a nameless warrior in the Time War. (TV: The Night of the Doctor, PROSE: Engines of War et al)
  • Before allowing Rose Tyler to travel aboard the TARDIS with him, the Doctor did trial a companion named Ali. However, she was far too violent and rejected her proposal to join him. Before departing, Ali convinced the Doctor to go back for Rose Tyler. (PROSE: The Beast of Babylon)

Cover gallery

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  Textless cover

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  Alternate cover

External links

• Official Flatpack page at bigfinish.com