The Nightmare Fair (audio story)

This story was originally intended to be the first story of the original Season 23, but was cancelled along with other planned stories when Doctor Who went on a production hiatus.

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

The TARDIS has been drawn to Blackpool in the year 1986, where the Doctor intends to investigate a dangerous space/time vortex... while enjoying some local attractions along the way. But an old enemy is watching from his base deep within the amusement park, a timeless being who craves revenge.

The Celestial Toymaker has returned. The game is on. And, should he lose, the Doctor will pay the ultimate forfeit...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

After the TARDIS is pulled to Blackpool in 1986 by a space/time vortex, the Doctor takes Peri up Blackpool Tower and around the amusement park. Peri is not initially enamoured by the experience, but they enjoy a roller coaster ride together and go for a walk, during which the Doctor telepathically hears a voice he had previously mistaken for Peri saying his name. He senses that something is wrong as they watch a woman find her missing son and traces the voice to the Galactic Adventure ride to which they are followed by Kevin, who has been watching the pair.

The attendant puts Peri and Kevin in one carriage and the Doctor in one to himself despite his protestations. When Peri disembarks at the end of the ride, she notices that the Doctor has disappeared and goes with Kevin to speak to security about his whereabouts, but a man with a gun captures them and leads them away until Kevin manages to get the weapon and shoot at him, injuring himself with a ricocheting bullet. Kevin tells Peri how his brother, Geoff, disappeared near the video arcade and that he has seen a mandarin, strange lights and a red creature there.

The Doctor is locked in a cell next door to somebody whom he attempts to communicate with through knocking to no avail. He is visited in his cell by the Toymaker, who reveals that is using Peri to collect Kevin and releases the Ventusan from the next cell to attack the Doctor. After the Doctor manages to soothe it through more knocking, Stefan escorts him to the Toymaker's rooms where he learns that the Toymaker himself is the vortex that pulled the TARDIS to 1986 to invite him to play another game.

Peri and Kevin follow a tunnel to the goldmine ride and are attacked by animated dummies. Kevin is captured and taken to the cells whilst Peri is to be dealt with by the Toymaker, who is delighted when the Doctor accepts his challenge to play the ultimate game.

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

The Doctor clarifies that he will not play the game until he sees Peri and is returned to his cell where he finds Kevin and an arcade game. He puts together an image loop so that the Toymaker's video camera shows the two of them in conversation, allowing him to discover that the arcade game is a solid hologram, and he alters it to show Peri as well when she is imprisoned with them. She explains how she was attacked by an android duplicate of Kevin which she took to be the real thing until his voice malfunctioned and she realised he was unharmed despite Kevin having been shot, after which she was captured and he faded away.

The Doctor uses a device to make the three holographic walls of the cell fade away so that the trio can escape with the Ventusan and meet the android SB, another prisoner who joins the group. The fourth wall remains in place. When Stefan comes to take him to the Toymaker, the Doctor tells Peri to yell if she needs him and is made to play the arcade game, which the Toymaker made with Geoff's help and which will soon be released around the world. The Doctor beats the Toymaker's high score and realises that he is from another universe, hurled alone into this one alone by a catastrophe which left him long-living and bored until he found games; the Toymaker sets an electrical monster on him.

The Ventusan works on a device using SB's parts and attacks Peri when it makes a continuous loud noise. Peri's scream incapacitates the Toymaker and causes the monster to attack Stefan, after which the Doctor returns to the cells to free Peri and Kevin and get them to look for the Toymaker's tele-mechanical relay to control his holograms. Once he finds it, he ensures that it operates eternally to keep the Toymaker trapped in an endless loop inside his own holograms so long as he lives, which he believes is the only way to deal with him. He also explains to Peri that the Ventusan built a transmitter on the same wavelength as the holograms and that Peri's scream flooded the Toymaker's mind, getting rid of the monster he intended to release upon the Earth.

Kevin and Geoff are reunited and the Doctor advises them to locate the patents for the arcade games to take over and close down the Toymaker's factory. The Doctor agrees to use the transdimensional stabiliser to move the Toymaker's prison and to use the TARDIS to take SB and the Ventusan home, but he first takes her back to the funfair.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor – Colin Baker
Peri Brown – Nicola Bryant
The Celestial Toymaker - David Bailie
Kevin - Matthew Noble
Stefan - Andrew Fettes
Woman - Louise Faulkner
Shardlow / Attendant - William Whymper
Yatsumoto / Truscott / Manager / Man - Toby Longworth
Humandroid / Security Man / Geoff / Guard - Duncan Wisbey

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

Cover Art - Alex Mallinson
Director - John Ainsworth
Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
Music and Sound Design - Jamie Robertson
Producer & Script Editor - David Richardson
Writer - Graham Williams, adapted by John Ainsworth
The Toymaker created by Brian Hayles

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Peri suggests that the Doctor could have taken her to Disneyland, but he suggests that it needs another hundred years "to settle."
The Toymaker operates outside of the Celestial Toyroom.
Shardlow lost to the Toymaker in a game of backgammon at the Hellfire Club in July 1778.
The Toymaker can intensify the Time Vortex on occasion.
The Toymaker refers to the Christmas Truce of 1914, where he says "During one of the Great Wars, they [the people of Earth] stopped fighting and played games."
SB reminisces about Vega V.
Truscott mentions Preston North End.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

CD Sleeve illustration of events of the story.

This is actually the second audio adaptation of The Nightmare Fair (which was also adapted as a novelisation); in 2003 an unofficial adaptation, without any of the original cast, was produced for charity.
Seven months before this audio was released, Big Finish Productions brought back the Celestial Toymaker in AUDIO: The Magic Mousetrap.
As originally filmed, TV: Revelation of the Daleks, the final story of Season 22, ended with the Doctor telling Peri "All right, I'll take you to Blackpool." This reference was removed before broadcast, being replaced with a freeze-frame before the Doctor could name the intended destination, as the BBC had decided to take the series off the air for eighteen months. The reference to Blackpool would have originally led into The Nightmare Fair. Had it been produced, Michael Gough would have reprised his role as the title character from TV: The Celestial Toymaker.
Doctor Who's audio series producer David Richardson briefed all the composers including Jamie Robertson to give the Lost Stories season an original but classic "80's Retro" feel.
Robertsoton used various synths for the music soundtrack and sound design including an AKAI AX-80 and a Yamaha SY85.
This audio drama was recorded on 9 and 10 March 2009 at the Moat Studios.
Previously portrayed by Michael Gough in The Celestial Toymaker, the Toymaker is played by David Bailie (Taren Capel in The Robots of Death and Magic Bullet Productions' Kaldor City series).
Interestingly, the Second Doctor would encounter the Toymaker's sister Hecuba in another Lost Stories adventure. (AUDIO: The Queen of Time)
There is an old misconception Michael Gough was in fact still active when he declined to return, due to him appearing in Tim Burton's films Corpse Bride and Alice in Wonderland, both made before (2005) and after (2010) the story was produced. He had been retired since 1999, but appeared in those films as a favour to Burton, with them being roles requiring minimal dialogue.
This story is set after Revelation of the Daleks.