Face of the Apocalypse (audio story)

Face of the Apocalypse
Doctor:	Ninth Doctor
Companion(s):	River
Main enemy:	Abel
Main setting:	Keesper Cluster
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Lizzie Hopley
Director:	Helen Goldwyn
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Howard Carter
Sound:	Iain Meadows
Cover by:	Caroline Tankersley
Release details
Number of parts:	1
Release number:	4.2
Part of:	Star-Crossed
Release date:	29 May 2024
Format:	1 CD Download 2nd of 3 stories
Production code:	BFPDW9TH12
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-80240-134-9 (physical); ISBN 978-1-80240-135-6 (digital)
The Ninth Doctor Adventures
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Face of the Apocalypse was the second story in the audio anthology Star-Crossed, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Lizzie Hopley and featured Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Alex Kingston as River Song.

Publisher's summary

After locking onto an unusual algorithm, the TARDIS lands in a hi-security Intergalactic Bank where the computerised system only recognises one face - River Song. The Doctor discovers River dismantling the main computer and immediately suspects her of something dodgy…

But a case of stolen identity becomes far more serious as River's face starts to appear throughout history and the Bank vaults start filling up with Temporal Prisoners. Is River the victim of a sting or a bored computer nerd? One thing's for certain, the 'glitch' is no longer a glitch and is on its way to destroying all of spacetime, starting with Prisoner Number One.

Plot

The TARDIS detects that Lukito Bank is repeating the number 1.619 and the Doctor uses it as a PIN, unwittingly accessing the entirety of the bank's accounts. He accepts the offer of a visual representation when he realises that the number is almost the golden ratio and finds that the image is that of River's face. Trapped in a cell after being Time Scooped, River learns from a voice, which chooses the name "Abel" from the name of the alarm system company, that her face is programmed into the systems and gets out by showing her face to a security camera. She runs into the Doctor, who explains how he came to be at the bank and takes her and one of the system's motherboards, and he takes her to the Louvre where it becomes clear that everyone's perceptions of beauty have been affected by the bank system's glitch; the Mona Lisa and all other paintings now depict River.

On the TARDIS's screen, Abel shows images from River throughout her adventures and confirms that he has been following her throughout history. He Time Scoops people across history to the bank to be detained as criminals, but the Doctor traps him in a loop in the TARDIS and disables the Time Scoop. The Doctor and River visit the cells and deduce that people are being arrested in chronological order given that one of the prisoners is Spore, one of the universe's earliest beings and the equivalent of Adam in the Keesper Cluster. They take him back to the cluster, only to find an anachronistic warzone from which the TARDIS is unable to escape due to its confusion over multiple time paths. The Doctor eventually manages to get around it and they arrive at Spore and his mate Keetree's farm.

Keetree is unhappy with Spore and the Doctor and River try to head back in time with him to fix things, but the TARDIS will not depart and River states that they will have to give Spore and Keetree marriage counselling. The counselling does not go well and River learns from Abel that he is part of the Matchmaker's program which downloaded itself onto her vortex manipulator and that he believes that he is in love with her. He creates a temporal matrix by connecting all of the places that she has visited to tear through the universe, but River convinces him to download himself back into her vortex manipulator and shows him the destruction he is causing. After River tells Keetree that every picture that Spore draws in the Chronicle of Keesper is based on her face, the couple reconcile and Spore destroys the vortex manipulator.

Part of Abel remains in the TARDIS and attempts to take the Doctor away inside it. The TARDIS switches off in the Time Vortex, however, and the Doctor defeats Abel by getting him to try and create a second temporal matrix using the adventures that he has had with his previous faces and that he will have with his future ones, a calculation which is too difficult for him to make. The timeline is restored, although the Chronicle of Keesper has been blanked and may never return. The Doctor returns to the farm and leaves with River so that Spore and Keetree can pass on their stories to the pilot of a crashing spaceship just as legend dictates, albeit leaving the two time travellers out at the Doctor's request, whilst he and River return the other prisoners captured by Abel.

Cast

• The Doctor - Christopher Eccleston
• River Song - Alex Kingston
• Abel - Charlie Tighe
• Spore - Paul Reynolds
• Keetree - Nadia Albina

Worldbuilding

• The Doctor likens Lukito Bank to Fort Knox.
• The Doctor mentions pi, Euler's number and Boltzmann's constant.
• Abel gets his name from Abel Alarm Systems.
• River was arrested by the Transtemporal Security System.
• River uses a mini matter exploder.
• The Doctor mentions Anne Boleyn and Genghis Khan.
• River claims that Genghis Khan still has her shoes.
• Keetree and Spore are the equivalent of Adam and Eve in the Keesper Cluster, a neutral galaxy.
• The Treaty of a Thousand Flags was signed in the Keesper Cluster. River was present.
• River believes that there is a problem with the helmic regulator. The Doctor disagrees.
• Keetree resembles a dormouse.
• Spore is excited by snowboarding.
• Napoleon and Josephine could not stand each other.
• River's biggest fight with a future incarnation of the Doctor was in Begonica Market.
• Maygreen went north.

Notes

• Face of the Apocalypse was recorded in March 2023.

Continuity

• The TARDIS shows a picture of River at the Stormcage. Her imprisonment there was first mentioned in TV: Flesh and Stone ^[+]Loading...["Flesh and Stone (TV story)"].
• The TARDIS shows a picture of River in New York. She was in New York in AUDIO: Carnival of Angels ^[+]Loading...["Carnival of Angels (audio story)"] and TV: The Angels Take Manhattan ^[+]Loading...["The Angels Take Manhattan (TV story)"]
• The TARDIS shows a picture of River at Luna University. She was first seen to be studying there in TV: Let's Kill Hitler ^[+]Loading...["Let's Kill Hitler (TV story)"].
• The TARDIS shows a picture of River at Coal Hill School. She taught there in AUDIO: An Unearthly Woman ^[+]Loading...["An Unearthly Woman (audio story)"].
• The TARDIS shows River underwater. She was submerged in water at Lake Silencio to assassinate the Eleventh Doctor in TV: Closing Time ^[+]Loading...["Closing Time (TV story)"].
• Abel is part of the Matchmaker's system. River encountered the Matchmaker in AUDIO: Swipe Right ^[+]Loading...["Swipe Right (audio story)"].
• River believes that she can pilot the TARDIS better than the Doctor can. She first demonstrated this in TV: The Time of Angels ^[+]Loading...["The Time of Angels (TV story)"].
• Keetree and Spore were introduced as historical figures to many in AUDIO: The Box of Terrors

Cover gallery

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  Textless cover

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  Alternate cover

External links

• Official Face of the Apocalypse page at bigfinish.com