The Light Keepers (audio story)

Dorium Maldovar has a problem. The self-styled 'Beacon People' are bad for business, and now they're in his shuttle park, digging for mysterious minerals.

When the Doctor crashes into his life once again, Dorium enlists him to find out what these scavengers are really up to inside their lighthouse.

But a lighthouse signals danger – and this beacon was placed to warn of something more ancient and powerful than anyone knows. Something that is returning...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

In the Maldovarium, Dorium Maldovar is informed by the barhand Mervyn that the Beacon People are digging up the shuttle park. Dorium storms out to confront them and the leader, Fentiman, says that they will return the following day to continue their digging and one of them, a woman tells Dorium that they just want to keep everyone safe. After the Beacon People have left, Dorium sees a blue box fly towards the Maldovarium from the rift in time above called Geryon's Eye.

The box collided with the Maldovarium, causing serious damage but not actually killing anyone. The Doctor exits the TARDIS and is recognised by Dorium, who says that he owes 256,598 credits for the damage in addition to 12 credits for his outstanding bar bill, rounding it up to 260,000 credits in total. The Doctor turns to re-enter the TARDIS, claiming to be going to get his money, but Dorium uses his pendant to create a force field around it and tells him that it will remain impounded until the Doctor's debt has been paid.

Dorium takes the Doctor to his quarters and tells him about the Beacon People, the only other long-term residents of the planetoid who live at the Beacon and who have been mining the planetoid for centuries, causing tremors. Dorium asks the Doctor to solve the problem in a better way than "sterilising" them, the only other option he believes that he has, in return for his TARDIS. To ensure that the Doctor does not scarper, Dorium informs him that he will be joining him and that they will be travelling in his hovercar.

The Doctor and Dorium make their way to the Beacon, which is a shining colossus. The hovercar crashes and is upended, forcing the pair to walk the rest of the way as Dorium's data pad is cracked and cannot be used to contact the Maldovarium for alternative transport. They hide behind a rock when they see the Beacon People taking minerals to the Beacon and the Doctor wonders why they have shiny fragments attached to their jumpsuits, wondering if it is to do with myths about mirrors. The Doctor tells Dorium to wipe white dust on his face to cover up his skin colour and they follow the Beacon People inside.

The Beacon People place their rocks on a rotating conveyor which carries them upwards. The Beacon People go for food which tempts Dorium, but the Doctor takes him to investigate, discovering that the Beacon is able to move but has not done so for a very long time. Dorium takes a lift which takes several minutes to ascend and then waits for the Doctor, who climbs through a hatchway and then leads him on, noting that the colossus has been retrofitted with none of the gantries or conveyors being original. He wonders if the purpose of the lighthouse is to warn people of danger or to act as a guiding light.

A tremor hits and two Beacon People crumble to death after being hit by a wave of glowing liquid from the vat. The Doctor goes to save a woman, who says that she is called Plume and whom Dorium recognises as the woman from the shuttle park, who is hanging from a slippery ledge. The Doctor and Plume are about to fall when Dorium uses his pendant to hover them to safety, draining the device's power cell. Plume tells them that she and her people, whom she calls the "Light Keepers", have been making Lustre for the Light. Below, people in protective gear return the spilt Lustre to the crucible whilst guards identify that there have been two fatalities and search for Plume, whom they spot.

Plume runs with the Doctor and Dorium to her small living space in an adapted alcove behind a curtain. Dorium rests his aching legs and notices that, in addition to the imported risotto that he smelt earlier, Plume has posters stolen from the Maldovarium. Plume tells the Doctor that the Lustre draws life from things, which was why the Light Keepers came from "the universe beyond", and that the Keepers were made to build the Beacon for the Light. Once the Lustre runs out, the Keepers will be unable to stop the Beacon from shining and the Light within will escape.

Captain Tallis enters Plume's hideout with two guards and offers to show the Doctor what the Light Keepers do. In the Beacon's head, Captain Tallis shows the Doctor and Dorium that they build hexagonal panels from Lustre to keep the Light trapped in the Beacon and that he is afraid that the Light has already begun to awake, the planetoid being almost entirely stripped of ore. In the process of replacing a panel, the Light hits Dorium, possessing him. The Doctor recognises its voice as that of the Lux, whom he encountered on New Earth, and learns from Captain Tallis that the Keepers' ancestors were forced to serve the Lux and build the Beacon for it before trapping it.

The panel is replaced and the light beam stopped, restoring Dorium. Captain Tallis says that the Lux's Light Queen, the controlling influence from whom they were separated, was buried underground and must remain so. Dorium believes that it might be inside his favourite mirror which he found beneath the Maldovarium. The Beacon shakes as it starts moving, making the Doctor realise that it is one giant Lumen. The Lux escape as the Lustre panels are smashed and the Lumen marches towards the Maldovarium.

The Doctor tries to control the Lumen with the controls in the head chamber, but Captain Tallis tells him that it was never intended to be controlled by humans and thus they were for internal functions only. Captain Tallis blames the Doctor for causing this and is knocked out by Dorium. The Doctor says that, should the Lumen locate the Light Queen, they would be powerless to stop it. The Lumen rips into the Maldovarium and finds the mirror. The Doctor asks Dorium for his pendant, which Plume reveals that she has stolen. She hands it to the Doctor, who supercharges it with his sonic screwdriver and uses it to bend the Lux and keep it from reaching the mirror, deflected into Geryon's Eye. The Lumen topples backwards over the desert.

Days later, Dorium enters the shuttle park and sees the Light Keepers fixing the Maldovarium's roof and disassembling the Lumen, parts of which he intends to sell. He tells Plume, now his deputy, that he wants the Light Keepers to take the mirror out into the desert and buried once again. She says that her people no longer wish to be known as Beacon People or Light Keepers and the Doctor says that they are now able to become whatever they wish. Dorium tells the Doctor that his debt is clear and that he may leave, but the Doctor says that he feels that Dorium now owes him. Before the Doctor leaves, Dorium asks if he thinks that the Lux will return. The Doctor tells him that one of him will have it covered.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Narrator / The Doctor - Jacob Dudman
Dorium Maldovar - Simon Fisher-Becker

Uncredited cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Lux - Jacob Dudman (BFX: The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles)

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Beacon People wear worn-out jumpsuits studded with shiny fragments.
The Maldovarium is on a planetoid with a desert landscape near a red space-time rift called Geryon's Eye. It looks like a gaping mouth and was the source of many of his customers and his rarest merchandise.
The TARDIS impacts on a storage pod, taking down the roof and smashing into Dorium's reserve of Arcturan brandy, destroying the barrels.
Dorium carries a data pad.
On his previous visit, the Doctor neglected to pay for two pots of the finest oolong tea and three dozen fruit scones, amounting to 12 credits.
Dorium has a silver pendant gifted to him by the Wavemasters of Arkethon which can manipulate localised gravity to create self-sustaining force fields.
The Doctor once worked as a waiter and forgot an order for five million years, at which point the patrons had lost their mouths due to evolution and, in any case, the food was cold.
The Doctor says that he is good at five-a-side, amazing at knitting, is beloved by dogs (especially robot ones), can recite The Rime of the Ancient Mariner whilst riding backwards on an elephant and can save planets.
Dorium has a favourite mirror which is convex and burnished.
It is believed that the Beacon was an ancient lighthouse meant to warn travellers about Geryon's Eye.
The Beacon is a colossus.
The Beacon People use an Archimedes' screw. The Doctor told Archimedes that the Archimedes' screw was boring.
Dorium mistakes the term "Archimedes' screw" for a cocktail.
The Maldovarium imported risotto from Venice Apple 12.
Dorium suggests that the Beacon People start using light bulbs and mentions that energy-saving ones are available.
Plume has posters for bands including Occluded Bison and Metropolitan Cabaret.
Dorium says that the Maldovarium is a respectable business and not a food bank or lending library.
Dorium tells Plume that she should take her CV to the Maldovarium. However, she does not know what one is and asks how one catches one.
The Lux are an ancient light god from beyond the universe, represented by the Light Queen who states "We are the first, the beginning, from us all matter springs."
The Lux's automaton is called a Lumen.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor mentions a bad-tempered Scottish girl (TV: The Eleventh Hour, etc.) and an archaeologist with really massive hair. (TV: Silence in the Library, etc.)
The Doctor says that it is especially robot dogs that like him. (TV: The Invisible Enemy, etc.)
The Doctor tells Dorium never to ignore a sinister crack, having previously had his own experiences with a crack in the universe. (TV: The Eleventh Hour, et al.)
The Doctor knows the Lux will arrive on New Earth and tells Dorium he's "got it covered." (AUDIO: Death in the New Forest, The Skies of New Earth, The Cats of New Cairo)
The Doctor informs Dorium that the man owes him. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)

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

Official The Light Keepers page at bigfinish.com