The Vanity Trap (audio story)

Myrna Kendal used to be a Hollywood film star. Now she spends her life reminiscing on chat shows but there is always one unfinished film she refuses to talk about… at least until the TARDIS interrupts a TV interview, and the Doctor and Peri’s appearance stirs up long-forgotten memories.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Myrna Kendal is being interviewed about her acting career and is asked about her final performance, which was in an unfinished 1972 film called Beast. She declines to talk about it, but says that the reason she left the profession was because of a remarkable man.

The Doctor sets course for Metebelis IV, but he and Peri instead find themselves in the television studio where they are recognised by Myrna as friends from 1972. They realise that they will meet Myrna in their future and travel back in time to the filming of Beast at Mammoth Studios in Teddington, the Doctor dressing in velvet and frills in an attempt to look less conspicuous. He saves Myrna from being crushed by studio lights and, believing him to be a journalist, she offers to give him an exclusive. Once Myrna and director Jimmy Garfield have gone, the Doctor shows Peri that the studio lights, which were polished metal when they walked in, are now rusted.

The Doctor and Peri join Myrna and Jimmy in watching the rushes. The projector spools but the image freezes, another indication that something strange is happening to time, and Myrna invites the Doctor to join her on a drive. He asks her about the accident and how it was only one in a line of accidents she has suffered recently, and she says that she feels that something is watching her from the corner of her eye. Later, he tells Jimmy, whom he learns is Myrna's husband, about the distortion of time.

Peri speaks with young actress Carolyn Sue, whose only line in one scene is to be cut from the film at Myrna's insistence, and tries to cheer her up by telling her that she has talent and should stand up to Myrna. Time rewinds and they have the same conversation again, although Carolyn Sue predicts what Peri is going to say. She tells Peri that she follows Myrna every afternoon and takes her to see Myrna's secret.

The Doctor uses a device to feed the temporal energy back to its source. A stuffed elephant comes to life and the Doctor and Jimmy try to quietly get around it without success, so the Doctor tells Jimmy to fire a warning shot from his empty gun; to Jimmy's surprise, the gun indeed fires.

Peri and Carolyn Sue find Dr Karp using a machine in Myrna with her consent. They stop the machine, angering Myrna and Dr Karp.

The elephant becomes stuffed again and, when Myrna returns, filming resumes. Suddenly, the Doctor, Peri, Myrna, Jimmy, Carolyn Sue and Pookie are sent some time into the future and are unable to leave the area due to time distortion; when Pookie runs outside, she turns to dust. The Doctor and Peri discuss what happened before the shift and realise that it was because Peri had persuaded Carolyn Sue to stand up to Myrna, causing an argument which never would have happened. The pair argue about changing time, leading Peri to suggest that they might have travelled together for too long and to walk away from him.

The Doctor finds Dr Karp packing to leave with his machine, the Karp 5000, which the Doctor is certain could not have been built by him. The Doctor destroys it and leaves, warning Dr Karp not to go wandering unless he has cleared up his mess. Returning to the group, he finds that Derek has been fused to the beast costume that he is wearing due to it being made of animal skins and goes with Myrna to get something from Dr Karp to make Derek comfortable. However, he has aged to death.

As the phenomena is still occurring despite the machine having been destroyed, the Doctor surmises that something has sprung from the machine and is at large. He plots the areas where the phenomena has occurred and gives Peri and Jimmy his gadget to activate once every minute to draw it out whilst the Doctor and Myrna head to the props store. He forgets, however, that Carolyn Sue exists until Peri mentions her and, after a time jump, promptly forgets her again. Dr Karp reappears and Peri realises that Carolyn Sue is Myrna and that time has been trying to resolve the anomaly. Myrna and Carolyn Sue touch, causing time to snap back.

At the interview, the elderly Myrna, who aged twenty-five years because of the merger, names Jimmy as the remarkable man who caused her to leave the acting profession. The Doctor and Peri have planted rumours and stories about The Beast across time and taken Myrna and Jimmy to 1992 so that Myrna's ageing will not be questioned. In the TARDIS, the Doctor tells Peri that, if she ever wanted to move on, he would understand, but she says that she wants to carry on.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Myrna starred in fifty-one films, including Burmese Dawn, Farewell to Austin, Last Flight to Albuquerque, The Girl in Amber (directed by Jimmy) and Tonight, They Cry.
The Doctor sets course for Metebelis IV, a barren rock of cerise sands and emerald skies which drifted off of its orbit into the outermost ring of the Axion Galaxy.
Janine Foster enjoyed watching Myrna's films.
The Doctor says that sequels are never as good.
Mammoth Studios is in Teddington.
Garfield helmed such films as Counter Plot and Journey Into Terror.
Myrna was born in England.
Derek plays the beast.
Myrna plays Dr Wentlock.
The Doctor eats popcorn.
Humphrey is Myrna's driver.
Dr Karp mentions Mount Vernon.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

"Mammoth Studios" is a generic name used for film studios in fiction.
Both of the two previous war films by the director mentioned, Journey into Terror and Counter Plot, share their name with an episode of a First Doctor story featuring the Daleks. (TV: The Chase ^[+]Loading...["The Chase (TV story)","The Chase"], The Daleks' Master Plan ^[+]Loading...["The Daleks' Master Plan (TV story)","The Daleks' Master Plan"])

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

In order to blend in, the Doctor dons the outfit he wore in his third incarnation (TV: Spearhead from Space ^[+]Loading...["Spearhead from Space (TV story)","Spearhead from Space"], et al.)

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

Official The Vanity Trap page at bigfinish.com