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The Restoration of Catherine was the eighty-fourth story in the Torchwood - Monthly Range by Big Finish Productions. It featured Andy Davidson and Norton Folgate and was written by James Goss.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Sergeant Andy and duplicitous 1950s Torchwood agent Norton Folgate find themselves trapped inside a house in the seventeenth century.
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
On his way to Winter Grange to investigate reports of temporal energy, Andy suddenly finds himself inside a horse-drawn carriage which Norton is unable to control. He helps get a hold of the reins to stop the horses and Norton explains that he was heading to the grange in the 1950s when he was transported away. They learn upon meeting Squire Edmund Dashington and Sir Reginald at the house that they have arrived in 1660 and that the property is due to be transferred to whoever marries Catherine de Winter, who mistakes Andy for a third suitor and Norton for his footman. Both time travellers accuse the other of kidnapping them and Andy has signal on his mobile phone long enough to make a call in which he is told that something is wrong with time.
Sir Reginald walks in on Norton as he picks up broadcasts from various future times using his transistor radio, but Andy explains the device away as a clockwork prayer box and claims that Norton is Belgian. Norton is caught by Catherine looking at the scientific apparatus in her study during dinner and is shown her father's will, which dictates that she must choose to marry Sir Reginald or Dashington before midnight. He relays this to Andy whilst having a walk and they realise that they are at the edge of a time bubble when they hear cars and see a street lamp, after which Andy gets a phone call and is told to hurry. An attempt to breach the time bubble fails because of a lack of sufficient velocity and they return to the house.
When Sir Reginald and Dashington point out that the clock has not moved since Andy and Norton arrived, Norton deduces that time will not resume until Catherine has made her choice of suitor because of their interruption. Andy's encouragement of the two suitors results in Dashington inadvertently offending Catherine by likening her to a trout and Sir Reginald by threatening to send her to a nunnery. Each proceeds to have sex with Norton after visiting him to complain about Andy, who gets another call warning him that time is dying and hides under the bed when Sir Reginald returns for a second round. Norton has Sir Reginald hide in the wardrobe when Dashington visits for the same reason, but Dashington finds him in there and the two of them proceed to initiate a threesome.
Having sneaked out of the bedroom, Andy confirms Catherine's belief that time is broken and is laughed at when he proposes that she marry him to fix it. Sir Reginald accuses Norton of seducing him and Dashington and duels with Dashington whilst Andy shows Catherine the radio and the broadcasts which are ceasing to exist. He realises that the strange phenomena is connected to the crystals that Catherine has found on the property and she admits that she used them to build a time engine to freeze time and keep back the deadline by which she has to marry. When the time engine was activated, Andy and Norton were drawn to Winter Grange and pulled back in time to serve as batteries to maintain the time bubble, but it is now falling apart and Andy is dying.
Sir Reginald and Dashington inform Catherine that they will be withdrawing their offers of marriage and instead intend to tour Europe together immediately, slipping away without Norton. Catherine shows Andy and Norton the time engine, absorbs the excess energy to extend her life and shuts the engine down as, without any suitors, the house is to be sold and its proceeds passed to her. Andy and Norton leave by horse in the expectation that they will be transported back to their own times, but not before Andy gets Norton to attempt a Belgian accent one final time.
Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]
Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Senior Producer - John Ainsworth
- Cover Art - Sean Longmore
- Director - Bethany Weimers
- Executive Producer - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
- Music - Blair Mowat
- Producer - James Goss
- Script Editor - Tim Foley
- Sound Design - Toby Hrycek-Robinson
- Written - James Goss
- Theme Music - Murray Gold
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Winter Grange is in Bath.
- Andy mentions Judi Dench.
- Andy has signal on his mobile phone and receives calls from an unnamed person with an American accent, implied to be Captain Jack Harkness.
- The transistor radio was, according to Norton, a marvel of the Festival of Britain.
- Andy and Norton hear radio broadcasts about Margaret Thatcher, Sir Winston Churchill and Mr Chamberlain.
- Andy claims that Norton is Belgian.
- Andy likens visiting the 1950s to a holiday in Rhyl.
- Dashington's father encouraged him to drink.
- Andy and Catherine play draughts.
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Restoration of Catherine was recorded at The Soundhouse on 11 September, 2023.
- James Goss wrote The Restoration of Catherine after Tom Price suggested a time travel story with Andy and Norton. (BFX: The Restoration of Catherine)
- Though not named, this is the first appearance of Captain Jack Harkness in a Big Finish audio since the cancelled Absent Friends in 2021.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Norton has seen Andy naked before, namely in AUDIO: Goodbye Piccadilly [+]Loading...["Goodbye Piccadilly"] and Parasite [+]Loading...["Parasite (audio story)"].
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Official The Restoration of Catherine page at bigfinish.com