Kingdom of Lies (audio story)

On the planet Cicero Prime, the kingdom of Cardenas is divided, with the whole population forced to swear allegiance to either the effete Duke or the fiery, hard-edged Duchess. This is a situation both parties have grown tired of. What use is half a kingdom when, thanks to a carefully engineered murder, you could have it all?

Surely, neither of them would be rash enough to summon the deadly off-world assassin the Scorpion to help with their problem? And surely, this terrifying figure wouldn’t arrive wearing a long cream coat and striped trousers…?

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

The Doctor continues to teach Adric how to pilot the TARDIS and, when it seems to malfunction, Tegan thumps the console and they land on Cicero Prime. When the group exits the TARDIS and is found by a guard on either side of a yellow line dividing the two halves of Cardenas, the Doctor and Nyssa are assumed to be supporters of Sebastian, Duke of Cardenas and Adric and Tegan are taken to his estranged wife, the Duchess Miranda, for associating with them.

Upon learning from Tomek of the Scorpion, an assassin rumoured to have been hired by the Duke, Adric claims that he and Tegan are assassins themselves and offer their services to the Duchess. The Duchess accepts and explains that her father, Lord Crozion of Galeria, insisted that she marry the Duke for the sake of their family prestige, but, after a year of marriage, they despise one another.

The Doctor and Nyssa are arrested and brought before the Duke, whose chief courtier, Amelia, has hired the Scorpion to kill the Duchess. Nyssa plays along and confirms that the Doctor is indeed the Scorpion and that she is his apprentice, the bloodthirsty Nyssa the Destroyer. They agree to kill the Duchess and make plans to make their attempt look convincing, putting together a drone which they claim will destroy the drive unit of her Stage Sculler and cause a fatal crash. Amelia flies the drone and fires at the Sculler, inside of which the Doctor and Nyssa notice Adric and Tegan.

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

The Doctor steers the drone away with a second remote, keeping the Sculler from being destroyed, and he and Nyssa claim that the Duchess was a decoy. However, the Duchess decides to use the opportunity to garner sympathy for herself by having Adric blow the Sculler up and showing up to the Battle of the Equinoids covered in mud. The Doctor approaches her and proposes that they use a hologram to fake her assassination during her speech and ruin the Duke, but Tomek is suspicious of him.

During the Duchess's speech, the Doctor and Nyssa search for Adric and Tegan before bumping into Amelia and having to head to a vantage point to pretend to shoot the Duchess. Adric and Tegan are sent by Tomek to stop the Scorpion and his apprentice, unaware that the Doctor is the Scorpion, and the four of them are reunited. The Duchess wins the Equinoid race and makes a celebratory speech during which she is shot twice and before the Doctor's plan could be put in place; he tells Nyssa that he believes that the Duchess is dead.

Part three[[edit] | [edit source]]

Amelia has the Doctor, Nyssa, Adric and Tegan arrested and orders both pairs to kill the other, but Nyssa uses her gun to cause a distraction and allow Adric and Tegan to escape and hide in the throne room. Whilst the Duke plans to capture Adric and Tegan and use them as scapegoats for the assassination, the Duchess is alive and plans to kill the two of them to prevent them from selling their story once she reveals herself. Lord and Lady Crozion arrive in a Cruise Sculler and the Doctor and Nyssa discover their daughter's deception before confessing their true identities to the Duke.

Because of her parents' arrival, the Duchess presents herself in public earlier than intended, but Lord Crozion still intends to take back her dowry by force and has Adric and Tegan arrested before the Doctor suggests talks between the Duke and Duchess in the throne room. The talks do not go well and Adric and Nyssa speculate that Amelia and Tomek could be behind the current situation, leading to the two of them being summoned and it being revealed that they are both a fiction; somebody has been using a hologram projector to disguise themselves and manipulate both sides.

Despite the revelation, Lord and Lady Crozion still intend to go to war with Cardenas due to the Duke and Duchess's inability to reconcile and the Doctor plans to speak with them before he and his companions leave. Nyssa points out, however, that somebody still fired a laser bolt at the Duchess during her speech and a Sting Ship lands, transporting the real Scorpion. She threatens to kill everybody unless the Duchess is brought before her.

Part four[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor sends Adric, Nyssa and Tegan to look after Lady Crozion and helps the Duchess escape with the Duke, but the Scorpion traps Lord Crozion in a stasis bubble and holds him hostage to ensure the Doctor's cooperation. The Doctor visits the imprisoned impostor Zaina, whose plan was to ruin the Duke after the Duchess's assassination and then take over, and convinces her to give him her hologram projector, after which he gets Adric, Nyssa, Tegan and Lady Crozion to distract the Scorpion in the catacombs. He frees Lord Crozion only so long as to take his gun.

Using a neural inhibitor, the Doctor renders the Duchess unconscious and offers the Scorpion a credcard containing the remaining wealth of the duchy in exchange for the Duchess's life. The Scorpion accepts and shoots the Duchess regardless for the sake of her reputation, but the Doctor has modified Lord Crozion's gun into a stasis field manipulator and captures her, only to decide to release her rather than hand her over to the Crozions to be tortured. The Scorpion leaves and the Doctor reveals that the supposed Duchess was actually the Duke, using the hologram projector and a portable shield generator to keep his wife from danger.

The Duke and Duchess reconcile and appoint the Doctor as Grand Rector of Cardenas. After having the great dividing line removed, the Doctor returns to the TARDIS with Adric, Nyssa and Tegan and avoids speculating when Nyssa asks him if he believes that the Duke and Duchess's marriage will work out. The couple retire to bed following the celebrations and argue about which of them the crowds are cheering for the loudest.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor - Peter Davison
Adric - Matthew Waterhouse
Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
Tegan - Janet Fielding
Sebastian Duke of Cardenas - Jonathan Firth
Duchess Miranda - Charlotte Lucas
Amelia - Harriet Thorpe
Lord Crozion - Tim Bentinck
Lady Crozion - Richenda Carey
Tomek - Piotr Hatherer
Mercenary - Patsy Kensit
Additional Voices - Harry Smith

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

Cover Art - Simon Holub
Director - Barnaby Edwards
Executive Producer - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
Music - Joe Kraemer
Producer - David Richardson
Script Editor - Guy Adams
Sound Design - Joe Kraemer and Josh Arakelian
Writer - Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

The people of Cicero Prime place bets on the Battle of the Equinoids.
Tegan mentions the dead reckoning on a 747.
The Scorpion is the "most feared assassin in the sector" and the deadliest in the Seven Systems.
The Doctor has spoken with Lord Tennyson and told him "kind hearts are worth more than coronets".
Lady Crozion threatens to move to Cicero Beta.

Animals[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Duke's horse is named the "Cunning Little Vixen" after the soap operas of old Earth while the Duchess names hers "Dead Man Walking".

Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Scorpion uses a stasis field, also called a stasis bubble.
Holodisguises disguise people and can also change the user's voice, similar to a hologram projector.
A Sting ship is an interstellar craft from the Spadek system.
The Doctor has electro-binoculars.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Alternate cover

This story was recorded on 10 and 11 July 2017 at the Moat Studios, London.
According to the script, the story had the working title Death and the Duchy.
Patsy Kensit played the Scorpion in this story, but she was previously credited on the Big Finish website as "Mercenary".
This story was originally released on CD and download.