The Four Doctors (audio story)

The Four Doctors
Doctor:	Eighth Doctor
Featuring:	Fifth Doctor, Sixth Doctor, Seventh Doctor
Main enemy:	Dalek Prime
Main setting:	The Vault of Stellar Curios London, 1854 Pejorica Sovavevanti
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Peter Anghelides
Director:	Nicholas Briggs and Ken Bentley
Producer:	David Richardson
Music:	Steve Foxon
Sound:	Steve Foxon
Cover by:	Alex Mallinson
Release details
Number of parts:	1
Release number:	IX
Release date:	16 December 2010
Format:	1 CD
Production code:	BFPDWCDSUB08
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-501-3 (physical) ISBN 978-1-80240-249-0 (digital) ISBN 978-1-80240-681-8 (Promo digital)
Bonus Releases
← Previous	An Earthly Child
Next →	The Five Companions
Classic Series - Special Releases
← Previous	The Veiled Leopard
Next →	The Five Companions

You may be looking for Four Doctors (comic story) or the graphic novel.

The Four Doctors was the eighth Doctor Who bonus story released 16 December 2010 by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Peter Anghelides and featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor.

It was originally one of only two bonus releases which weren't available for general purchase, the other subscription exclusive being The Five Companions, and could only be obtained by purchasing a subscription to the Main Range which either included The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories, or had this release selected as a free gift with that subscription.

More than a decade later, however, it was made widely available for free as part of a promotion on 17 October 2024.

Publisher's summary

The fifth incarnation of the Doctor has been allowed access to the Vault of Stellar Curios, where the biomechanoid Jariden are at least prepared to consider his warnings about dangerous temporal leakage. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the Daleks attack, unleashing a temporal maelstrom that will not only threaten the Jariden race, but will have dire consequences for the history of the Doctor himself.

Plot

Travelling through the Time Vortex, the TARDIS detects a leak of chronon particles, which are causing temporal distortions in local space. The Fifth Doctor believes that it is being caused by whatever is stored in the inner vault of the Jariden Vault of Stellar Curios.

At the vault, he speaks to Professor Kalinda Ulrik, the facility director. According to Kalinda, the Fifth Doctor is fully versed in every detail of the Vault of Stellar Curios' top secret temporal research. Kalinda's elder brother Colonel Ulrik arrives in the Vault in order to conduct a military inspection. Their grandfather, who is long dead, had fought in the Jariden war against the Daleks decades earlier. A Dalek assault vessel, which is under the command of the Dalek Prime, is on its way to the Vault, looking for its mysterious contents.

The Eighth Doctor's TARDIS materialises in the Vault, intending to land at the Petrachi Collection. He recalls his fifth incarnation's encounter with Kalinda, but does not immediately recognise her. His TARDIS likewise detected the emission of chronon particles.

Colonel Ulrik is collaborating with the Daleks and has deactivated the station's defence shields. Ulrik forged a deal with the Daleks to allow them to have the contents of the inner vault on the condition that they withdraw from Jariden space immediately.

The Eighth Doctor tells Kalinda that he was present at the Battle of Pejorica in a "former life." By wiring Kalinda's personal communicator into the station's communications system, the Eighth Doctor contacts his fifth incarnation in the laboratory wing. He claims that he is a Time Lord agent working on behalf of the High Council. The Fifth Doctor intends to use a light comb generator to create a highly localised disturbance in space time. The Eighth Doctor tells him that this will create a temporal whirlwind and that he must contain the temporal instability. He has Kalinda instruct his younger self to create a time loop to contain the Daleks by forming a temporal bridge between their two TARDISes.

Colonel Ulrik is sent back through time to the laboratory of Professor Michael Faraday in the Royal Institution in London in 1854. Ulrik denigrates Faraday's position and equipment, smeering that the technology of 19th century Earth is sub-Level 4 technology. He informs Faraday that the unknown device he has been trying to reverse-engineer since it appeared in his lab a week ago is actually the destroyed casing of a Special Weapons Dalek, and he mocks Faraday's inability to comprehend its significance.

Shortly after Ulrik's arrival, the Seventh Doctor's TARDIS materialises in Faraday's home, which contains one end of an unstable time-space corridor that he intends to seal to prevent anything else from falling through. On being introduced to Ulrik, the Seventh Doctor tells Faraday that they have already met. Before the Seventh Doctor can seal the time-space corridor, however, two more fully active Daleks, one of whom is the Dalek Prime, arrive at Faraday's house. The Daleks recognise the Doctor in his seventh incarnation. After activating Faraday's electromagnet, which disrupts the two Daleks' functioning, the Seventh Doctor is able to escape through the dumbwaiter.

The Seventh Doctor tells Ulrik that they have actually met on two previous occasions: the first was in the Vault while the second was on the battlefield of Pejorica on the planet Sovavevanti. Colonel Ulrik is swept through the time corridor and arrives in Pejorica during the battle. He is captured and tortured by the Daleks of that era.

Ulrik is revealed to be a functional upgrade of the Jaridens who fought in the Battle of Pejorica. His technology is unknown to the Daleks. He serves in the 47th Division of the Jariden Army, his ident number being 6-Four-Alpha-Z.

While in his cell, Ulrik converses with the Sixth Doctor, telling him that he arrived in the midst of the Battle of Pejorica, the Jaridens' "glorious, historic victory over the Daleks." Ulrik tells the Sixth Doctor that it seemed anything but glorious. He sought refuge in the manor house to which his grandfather had fled but discovered that it was being used as the Dalek base of operations in Pejorica; he was captured when he entered. He tells the Sixth Doctor that the Dalek Prime and the Special Weapons Dalek were swept into the past as well. The Sixth Doctor knows that The Battle of Pejorica occurred at a point in Dalek history prior to the creation of the Dalek Prime and the Special Weapons Dalek, and he believes that the two future Daleks were captured by the Jariden forces, reverse-engineered and used to create the next generation of Dalek technology. However, Ulrik learns that this was only true of the Special Weapons Dalek when the Dalek Prime appears and assumes command of the past versions of the Daleks. Ulrik realizes that he and the Dalek Prime are not travelling back along their own timelines but that of the Doctor. Kalinda and Ulrik's grandfather did not flee the Battle of Pejorica as they were brought up to believe but was captured by the Daleks and converted into a Roboman. As per the Sixth Doctor's instructions, Ulrik liberates his robotised grandfather from Dalek control and instructs him to surrender himself to the Jariden forces. The Sixth Doctor tells Ulrik that the Roboman will be the Jariden's best help in reverse-engineering Dalek technology, and will enable them to win the war.

When Ulrik comes within range of the time field generated by the TARDIS, the residual chronon particles cause him to be sent forward in time to the Vault, which was his initial starting point. While the Sixth Doctor had hoped that the same would be true of the Dalek Prime, it instead remained in Pejorica, poised to exterminate him.

In the Vault several decades in the future, Magran, a scientist working at the Vault, tells the Fifth Doctor that the defence shields have been deactivated and that a Dalek assault vessel is approaching. It soon boards the station. The Fifth Doctor, Magran and several other scientists barricade themselves inside the laboratory wing of the Vault. According to Magran, the inner vault contains a device which is the work of generations of Jaridens. The Fifth Doctor tells Ulrik that he intends to use the light comb generator to create a highly localised disturbance in space-time. Shortly afterwards, the older Ulrik arrives in the laboratory through such a disturbance. The older Ulrik incapacitates his younger self, which he recalls happening to him earlier in his personal timeline.

The Fifth Doctor receives a message from a Time Lord agent who is working for the High Council. He intends to use a light comb generator to create a highly localised disturbance in space time. The Time Lord agent tells him that this will create a temporal whirlwind and that he must contain the temporal instability. As per the instructions of the Time Lord agent, Kalinda suggests that the Fifth Doctor create a time loop to contain the Daleks by forming a temporal bridge between his TARDIS and that of the Time Lord agent. The Fifth Doctor determines that the Time Lord agent is, in fact, his future self, given that the older Ulrik had told him that he had travelled along his personal timeline and met three of his other incarnations.

The Vault contains the still robotised version of Ulrik's grandfather, who has been fused with the remnants of the Special Weapons Dalek which the Jariden forces procured at the Battle of Pejorica. The older Ulrik instructs his grandfather to destroy the Daleks but they are exterminated after they destroy the Special Weapons Dalek. The younger Ulrik sees the corpse of his future self shortly before he, the Dalek Prime, the remnants of the Special Weapons Dalek and another Dalek are sent back in time to 1854.

Shortly before the Eighth Doctor and Kalinda are going to be exterminated, the remaining Daleks vanish due to the resonating TARDIS trace pulling them into the Time Vortex. He tells her that he has seen this happen before, specifically on Sovavevanti during his sixth incarnation and in London in 1854 during his seventh incarnation. The Eighth Doctor enters the TARDIS to find that his fifth, sixth and seventh incarnations are all present due to the temporal instability. The time phasing eventually corrects itself and the younger Doctors are returned to their own versions of the TARDIS at the proper points in their respective personal timelines. The Eighth Doctor is the only one of the four of them to remember their encounter in the TARDIS.

Cast

• Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
• Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker
• Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
• Eighth Doctor - Paul McGann
• The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs
• Professor Kalinda / Lady Cowen - Ellie Burrow
• Colonel Ulrik / Whitmore - David Bamber
• Professor Michael Faraday / Magran - Nigel Lambert
• Roboman / Jariden Device - Alex Mallinson

Worldbuilding

Species

• The Dalek assault vessel is commanded by the Dalek Prime.
• The Jaridens are a race of biomechanoids.

Individuals

• The Eighth Doctor describes the Fifth Doctor as "a blond chap in Edwardian cricket gear".
• Colonel Ulrik is sent back through time to the laboratory of Professor Michael Faraday in the Royal Institution in London in 1854.

Notes

Promotional poster announcing the story

• This is the first performed multi-Doctor story to feature the Daleks as the main antagonists.
• This was initially a special release exclusively given away to Big Finish subscribers who had The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories as part of their subscription; it could also be chosen as free gift for those with a 12 CD or download subscription or a 6 download subscription.
  • The decision to make this story a subscriber-exclusive was "to reward subscriber loyalty" according to Nicholas Briggs, in efforts to combat piracy. He further elaborated, "So, given that there aren’t really any restrictive measures that we can reasonably take to stop people stealing our work, the most sensible course of action is for us to make it more attractive and desirable for people to be loyal to us. And to do that, we need to make gestures of goodwill… or in other words, give stuff away for free. And we wanted to give this story a real extra-special feel, so we decided never to charge for it".
  • On 17 October 2024, Big Finish made it freely available to download as a gesture after issues with their app,and to celebrate 25 years of Doctor Who at Big Finish.
• The audio is accompanied by a commemorative sixteen-page booklet.
• When asked why The Four Doctors came about, Nicholas Briggs stated that "We’re always looking to do something very special and attention-grabbing as our subscriber special", and that it was David Richardson who suggested to "do a story that used all ‘our’ Doctors".
• Nicholas Briggs said the availability of Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and Paul McGann "was a bit tricky, but it all came together well in the end". He also said that The Four Doctors "had the same budget as any Doctor Who production we would mount; probably slightly more, because of the involvement of so many Doctors".
• Peter Anghelides said that Big Finish's original suggestion for The Four Doctors was "a Doctor Who version of A Christmas Carol," as it was releasing "as a festive special for subscribers". He persuaded them to his other idea of "a proper time travel story for the Daleks", and because of the television story by Steven Moffat that same year.
• This audio story was originally four episodes instead of one part.
• This story was recorded on 6 September 2010 (plus various inserts) at the Moat Studios.
• The cover for this audio story was revealed on 9 November 2010.
• A teaser trailer for this story was uploaded on 10 November 2010.
• On 27 January 2013, Steve Foxon uploaded a music suite for this story to his SoundCloud page.
• The character names "Lady Cowen" and "Whitmore" are in-joke references to two friends of the author, Laura Cowen and Tony Whitmore.
• The original subscription exclusive release includes a music suite, while the promo release does not. The promo release has new inclusions of a Big Finish ident, and trailers for The Sirens of Time - Redux, The Great Beyond, The Trials of a Time Lord, The Last Day 2, and Echoes.

Continuity

• The Dalek Prime is in command of the Dalek assault vessel which boards the Vault of Stellar Curios; the Dalek Prime was introduced in PROSE: War of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["War of the Daleks (novel)"]. A Special Weapons Dalek is among the Dalek forces; Special Weapons Daleks were introduced in TV: Remembrance of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"]. Both are sent back in time to the home of Professor Michael Faraday in London in 1854.
• The Daleks turned Jariden soldiers into Robomen during the Battle of Pejorica; Robomen were introduced in TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth ^[+]Loading...["The Dalek Invasion of Earth (TV story)"].
• The Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors all previously met each other in AUDIO: The Sirens of Time ^[+]Loading...["The Sirens of Time (audio story)"]. The Fifth and Sixth Doctors also met each other in PROSE: Five Card Draw ^[+]Loading...["Five Card Draw (short story)"] and AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox ^[+]Loading...["Peri and the Piscon Paradox (audio story)"]. On the latter occasion, the Sixth Doctor disguised himself as a Piscon named Zarl so his younger self did not realise his identity. The Fifth and Seventh Doctors also met on at least two other occasions, namely in PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)"] / AUDIO: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (audio story)"], and prior to the events of AUDIO: The Veiled Leopard ^[+]Loading...["The Veiled Leopard (audio story)"]. Furthermore, the Eighth Doctor previously met his three immediate predecessors (as well as his first four incarnations) in PROSE: The Eight Doctors ^[+]Loading...["The Eight Doctors (novel)"].
  • COMIC: Endgame ^[+]Loading...["Endgame (POT comic story)"], AUDIO: The Light at the End ^[+]Loading...["The Light at the End (audio story)"], AUDIO: Collision Course ^[+]Loading...["Collision Course (audio story)"], and AUDIO: The End of the Beginning ^[+]Loading...["The End of the Beginning (audio story)"] would have the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctors meet again.
• The Eighth Doctor remembers speaking to the Fifth Doctor over the intercom from the perspective of his younger self, as well as other details of his fifth incarnation's visit to the Vault of Stellar Curios, such as meeting Kalinda. This is similar to AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox ^[+]Loading...["Peri and the Piscon Paradox (audio story)"], PROSE: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (novel)"] / AUDIO: Cold Fusion ^[+]Loading...["Cold Fusion (audio story)"], and TV: Time Crash ^[+]Loading...["Time Crash (TV story)"] in which the Sixth, Seventh and Tenth Doctors respectively remember the events portrayed from the point of view of their fifth incarnation.
• The Seventh Doctor previously visited 1854 when he and his companions Ace and Hex travelled to Scutari and Sevastopol in September of that year during the Crimean War (1853-1856) in AUDIO: The Angel of Scutari ^[+]Loading...["The Angel of Scutari (audio story)"].
• The Seventh Doctor doesn't recognise the Eighth Doctor. In AUDIO: The Shadow of the Scourge ^[+]Loading...["The Shadow of the Scourge (audio story)"], while he and Bernice Summerfield were in the former's mind, they saw the Eighth Doctor as a possible future incarnation. Also, during his previous incarnation, he, along with Evelyn Smythe, observed two Eighth Doctors playing poker, and saw their companions Charley Pollard, C'rizz and Lucie Miller, in an American frontier town in the 1870s in AUDIO: The 100 Days of the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The 100 Days of the Doctor (audio story)"].
• The Daleks use rels as a unit of measure of time. This usage was originally cemented in AUDIO: The Genocide Machine ^[+]Loading...["The Genocide Machine (audio story)"], and would continue through Big Finish's output. Originally, in COMIC: Plague of Death ^[+]Loading...["Plague of Death (comic story)"] and COMIC: The Emissaries of Jevo ^[+]Loading...["The Emissaries of Jevo (comic story)"], they instead used it as a unit of measure for speed.

External links

• Official The Four Doctors (subscription exclusive) page at bigfinish.com
• Official The Four Doctors (promo) page at bigfinish.com
• The Four Doctors at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• DisContinuity for The Four Doctors at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide