Mother Russia (audio story)

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Mother Russia was the first story of the second series of The Companion Chronicles, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Marc Platt, narrated by Peter Purves and featured the First Doctor, Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet.

It was the first to feature the talents of Peter Purves and to use the character of Dodo. However, it was not Steven Taylor's debut in the range, since he had earlier appeared in the very first Companion Chronicle, Frostfire, read by Maureen O'Brien.

It depicts an incident which happened to the First Doctor, Steven and Dodo during the Napoleonic Wars in Russia.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

It's 1812 and the Doctor, Steven and Dodo get ready to spend their winter in a Russian village. The French are on their way, but that's not the only invasion the travellers will have to deal with.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]

In a burning city, Steven is questioned by an interrogator who changes his shape. He is struggling with his memory, but is given all the time he needs to think back on his recent adventure.

The TARDIS materialises in a forest in Russia in the spring of 1812 and the Doctor declares that it is time for him, Steven and Dodo to have a holiday. They come across a village and are pointed to the home of the landowner, Count Grigori Nikitin, who offers them his hospitality before proposing that the Doctor tutor his son, Alexei, and Dodo accompany his daughter, Olga, on the condition that she teach her the piano. Steven spends weeks walking, reading and fishing.

In June, Steven is taught by Semion Borisovich Stasov how to hunt and skin animals and, after some time, agrees to be his best man when he marries Glasha. On the first evening of the wedding, there is a space battle above the atmosphere and an escape pod crashes north of the village. Steven and Semion go to investigate and find it empty with strange tracks leading away. A bear tells Steven that winter is coming and knocks him unconscious, eventually being found by the Doctor and Dodo and carried back to the Nikitin house. Semion says that the village is not his home and is believed to have been cursed, but Steven defends him.

As a procession of refugees displaced by the invading French soldiers pass through the village, the villagers start to burn their harvest to keep it from the French before joining the refugees. Semion is locked up in the ice house to await judgement for deserting Glasha and the Doctor, Steven and Dodo rescue him, finding him suffering from hypothermia. The Doctor sends Steven and Dodo to fetch a first aid kit from the escape pod and they find Semion's body, his neck broken and his clothes missing. They run to the TARDIS and bang on the door, but the ship dematerialises.

Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]

The TARDIS leaves a phantom of itself behind, but it soon returns and the Doctor tells Steven and Dodo that Semion, whom they deduce is the survivor of the spaceship, attacked him and has disappeared. Although the Doctor is eager to leave Earth, Steven refuses to go without stopping the shapeshifter and heads out, followed by Dodo. They are approached by Napoléon and Steven is hit over the back of the head. When he becomes conscious the next day, Glasha, who has been caring for him, tells him that Dodo has disappeared and that the Doctor went with Napoléon with the TARDIS being transported by soldiers.

Steven rides with Glasha to Moscow, which is occupied by the French, and finds the Doctor advising Napoléon. The Doctor claims not to know of Dodo and brands Steven an assassin, doing nothing when Napoléon orders Steven to be executed. Just as he is about to be shot, however, the Doctor and Dodo intervene and explain that the Doctor with Napoléon is the shapeshifting alien, whom they have named the Shape Thief. The Thief is exposed and flees to the TARDIS, but the ship will not work for him. He tells the Doctor that he is an infiltrating agent adapted by scientists and declines his offer of a new life elsewhere, not wanting to run anymore.

Steven tells the interrogator, who is actually the Thief, that the Russians were rebelling against the French. The Thief tells Steven that he will one day find somewhere that he belongs and, in the form of Napoléon, is carried away.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

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Textless cover art

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]