Call to Arms (audio story)

Mike Yates braves a stormy night in the Lakes to help celebrate a milestone for John Benton. An evening of fond reminiscences of old glories and friends awaits. But a long-buried past is about to catch up with them.

Meanwhile, on the rain-lashed moors, what begins as a routine mission for modern-day UNIT quickly becomes a fight for survival.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Benton is planning on moving abroad with Margery and holds a party at his pub near Grasmere with his friends from the British Army. Yates arrives late, after most people have left due to the weather, and is attacked by a drunk Terry who believes that he is to blame for him not entering into a relationship with Anne.

On the moors, UNIT soldiers fight against and evade Silurians, led by Grand Marshal Jastrok, to allow Kate and Osgood to escape. They reach the pub and explain to Yates and Benton that they were ensuring that the Silurians at the hibernation nest at Scafell remained safe and asleep when Osgood realised that the place was awake. Kate attempted to enter into dialogue with Jastrok, but he had his warriors attack and Captain Burmaster covered her and Osgood as they ran. With all power cut out by the Silurians' technology, they headed to Benton's pub.

Osgood uses Benton's landline to connect to UNIT's VPN tunnel and contact Josh for reinforcements whilst Yates and Terry try unsuccessfully to get Yates's car to run. Having defeated the UNIT soldiers and captured Burmaster, Jastrok captures Anne and takes her motorcycle, using it to travel to the pub. His two Silurian soldiers attack with energy arrows, injuring Benton and killing Terry, and destroy the vehicles. The group barricade themselves inside and Osgood realises that the Silurians are vulnerable to sudden changes in temperature due to them being reptiles incapable of regulating their body temperature.

Joined by more Silurians, Jastrok gets inside and searches for the group. Osgood starts a fire and runs to Bessie in the garage with Kate and Yates, who leaves Benton with his present: Benton's service revolver with a single bullet. Benton sets the air conditioning to make the Silurians cold and, after Kate, Osgood and Yates leave in Bessie, they return to their nest as the fuel cells are overloading. On the radio, Kate, Osgood and Yates hear Burmaster reporting to Josh about having sabotaged the nest's power couplings to cause it to go critical.

Kate returns to Benton at the pub whilst Osgood and Yates meet with the reinforcements and collect Josh. The base explodes and Kate invites Yates and Benton to London for a debriefing. Unbeknownst to them, Jastrok has sacrificed the Silurian farmers and scientists and prepares to march through a secret tunnel with his warriors. He activates the control signal to use UNIT's own troops against them, having control over Burmaster's mind and made him believe the story he has told him. Burmaster hears Jastrok's voice telling him to serve the Silurians, the masters of Earth.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

John Benton owns a pub in Scafell called the White Hart.
Margery Benton missed her train and is spending another night with her sister.
Benton met Anne on the training grounds.
Charlie left his umbrella in the pub.
Benton and Margery are planning on taking a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea before looking at moving abroad.
Anne is married to Grant.
UNIT has a long-standard protocol, the Earth Reptile Initiative, to keep watch of Silurian nests and ensure they remain asleep and alive. The sites were identified shortly after UNIT's first encounter with the species, using a device invented by the Third Doctor. Yates, Benton and Terry established monitoring systems.
Benton makes strong coffees.
The Brigadier intended to take his family to Benton's pub when he got out of hospital.
The Third Doctor was aware of Jastrok and said that he should be left alone if he awoke.
Anne drives a motorcycle.
Terry got a lift with Nigel.
Jastrok attacks the pub with Rikala and Ichtess, who are killed by Kate.
Silurians are poikilothermic exotherms.
Yates, the Brigadier, and the Third Doctor once took a trip in Bessie to see Crystal Palace play West Ham.
Burmaster uses a transport disc.
Burmaster was in Josh's electrical engineering classes and was better than him.
Benton has a gargoyle from Devil's End.
Benton kept Bessie and restored it.
UNIT has a VPN tunnel.
Jastrok mentions Okdel, Scibus, Eldane and Karanna as Silurian leaders with no knowledge of war, asleep and scattered across the British Isles.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Jastrok refers to his Silurians losing their third eye and needing scientific replicas. This refers to the fact that Silurians originally had weaponised eyes, but no longer had them in The Hungry Earth.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Kate and Osgood try to invoke Okdel L'da and the Triad when talking to Jastrok. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians, Warriors of the Deep)
Kate mentions her father and the Third Doctor, and their previous encounter with the Silurians. Her father didn't like talking about it. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
Kate mentions the Brigadier intended to visit the White Hart once he was out of hospital but "never made it". (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
Benton keeps a memento from Devil's End. (TV: The Dæmons)
Osgood notes that Benton has fought Autons, (TV: Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons) Dæmons, (TV: The Dæmons) and Chronovores. (TV: The Time Monster)
Benton mentions the time there were three Doctors on UNIT HQ, (TV: The Three Doctors) which Osgood says must be "an once in a lifetime experience". Later in her timeline, Osgood went through a similar experience. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
Yates refers to Benton's time as a used car salesman, saying that he wasn't very good at it, and that the Brigadier may have given him Bessie as a joke. (TV: Mawdryn Undead)
Terry mentions Yates' breakdown. (TV: The Green Death)
Benton eventually married Margery Phipps. (AUDIO: Council of War)
Yates knows Carter as the "fellow with the plastic bones" and suggests that they should trade Auton war stories. (TV: Terror of the Autons, AUDIO: Bridgehead, Armageddon)
Jastrok lists Okdel, (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians) Scibus (TV: Warriors of the Deep) and Eldane (TV: Cold Blood) as Silurian leaders inefficient for war.

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

Official Call to Arms page at bigfinish.com