The Rapture (audio story)

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The Rapture was the thirty-sixth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Joseph Lidster and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Sophie Aldred as Ace.

This was the fifth audio story to feature this pairing of Doctor and companion. Each episode featured remixes of the Doctor Who theme, a device employed by Big Finish on numerous occasions.

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

Ibiza, 1997, and thousands of young people are acting like mindless zombies.

Which is to be expected. Ibiza, the island of dance music, sex, drugs and alcohol, is the ultimate hedonistic paradise.

God has sent help from on high to save the sinners of Ibiza. He has sent His angels to save their souls.

Which would be simple enough if these souls didn't include an alien time-traveller working in a bar, a woman who disappeared in 1987, a young man carrying a photograph of a girl he's never met and an Irish girl who doesn't even know who she is anymore.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part One[[edit] | [edit source]]

Tony Blackburn in Ibiza gives a radio story about a new club, The Rapture, run by Gabriel and Jude, who are brothers and DJs. Tony then plays a song.

Caitriona Henderson and Liam McShane are called over by Brian, who says they need to leave so they can get the Rapture. McShane complains to the Doctor that they're not in London as he promised. She just wants a normal day, no death, no monsters. The Doctor says that this is why he's brought her to Ibiza in 1997, and introduces her to Gustavo Riviera, whose life the Doctor saved when he was little. Gustavo recommends the Rapture, as a good place to relax. There, McShane meets Brian. The Doctor is still with Gustavo, where they are catching up. Gustavo tells the Doctor that Jude and Gabriel are angels who will be able to help McShane, and the Doctor fears trouble.

Jude tells Gabriel that tonight is the night. They discuss events from the Bible as if they were there, and then Gabriel goes to DJ. Caitrionia's pills are kicking in, and Liam is talking to her when he sees McShane talking to Brian, recognising her as Ace. The Doctor is still talking to Gustavo about McShane, and decides to join her at the Rapture. Brian tells McShane about Liam and Caitriona ("Cat"), who both come over. They all begin dancing. The Doctor turns up, but the bouncer turns him away because he looks too old for the club.

Gabriel arrives and gives a speech about the biblical rapture, claiming he is the angel of salvation. Brian feels strange, and people keep bumping into Kat. Mid sentence, she stops talking, as does everyone in the club except for Brian. Everyone inside the club starts saying, "behold the rapture". Brian finds Jude, who attacks him. The Doctor has made his way into the club, finding McShane in a trance, like everyone else, except for Gabriel, who is still shouting about the rapture from his DJ booth on high, fifteen feet above the dance floor.

Part Two[[edit] | [edit source]]

Suddenly, everyone breaks out of the trance. McShane doesn't want the Doctor to interrupt her "normal" night. He agrees to let her come back with him and Cat, after they're done dancing. Jude receives a call from someone whose help allowed them to do all this. Meanwhile, Liam has just been sick and McShane decides to go back with him while Cat stays at the club. Gabriel, angel of music, manages to wake Brian, telling him he's going to heaven, and then attacks him while Brian screams. Meanwhile, Liam tells McShane about how he met Cat at university, and how he's now trying to help her through her illness. He calls her Ace, making her realise he knows her already, finding a picture of her in his apartment.

Gabriel buys something from Gustavo just after Cat buys some tortilla chips from him, allowing the pair to meet. The Doctor appears and tells Gustavo about the trance while Cat tells Gabriel about her depression, and how the music helps her. He insists he's really an angel, and she asks him to fly her away from her life. Gustavo tells the Doctor that the music is like a church for young people, while the Doctor insists this isn't a good thing, reminding him of Franco, who manipulated people with Bible quotes and religion. Liam reveals to McShane that he's her brother, explaining that when his father found their mother, Audrey Dudman, cheating on him with another man, he took Liam and walked out.

Gabriel gives Cat "angel dust", to help her fly, and shows her his wings. Liam tells McShane about how he went to see their mother just before their father died, and that's how he knew she went by Ace and had the photo. Gabriel takes Cat flying while Gustavo tells the Doctor that angels have been said to visit the islands in the past, such as when an angel visited the monk, "Francisco Palau", in 1850. The island he was on (Es Vedrà) is the island that the partygoers in the Rapture see the sun set behind.

McShane laments the loss of the life she could have had if she'd had a brother and wasn't so lonely growing up, crying. She begins to tell him about her life while Cat gets higher, flown over the island. Listening hard, Cat can hear things down below on the island, like McShane arguing with Liam and deciding to leave. Gabriel tells Cat that she has become God, and then she hears clapping as Liam and "Dorothy" tell Tony Blackburn, the radio host how happy they are to have found each other, and then Liam says no one likes Cat. McShane and the Doctor call to her, saying she's cursed, and then a voice tells Cat she must kill Dorothy, or Liam will leave her and everything will fall.

Part Three[[edit] | [edit source]]

Liam wakes up, telling Cat that McShane wants nothing to do with him. Cat is still hearing the Doctor's voice in her head. McShane finds the Doctor. She feels overwhelmed by her issues. The pair notice Gabriel carrying something, following him to a boat, where they hide to watch him. They talk about Liam, and how Kurtz's death hit McShane so hard because it happened in their safe place, the TARDIS. Cat talks to Gustavo, and she and Liam decide to go back to the Rapture and work out what happened the night before.

The boat has taken the Doctor and McShane to Es Vedrà, where Gabriel is entering a cave. They follow him. The Doctor tells her about the biblical rapture, and the pair watch Gabriel talk about voices he hears. Cat and Liam are at the club, and they split up, with Cat still hearing voices from last night's angel dust trip in her head. Gabriel is talking to a bright glowing light about a prophecy. The Doctor and McShane see a body - Brian. He's offering sacrifices to "his Lord". McShane talks Gabriel into believing she and the Doctor want to be Gabriel's disciples, and they follow him to his church. Liam finds Jude in the Rapture, who is about to make contact with God.

Gabriel explains that the rapture is occuring that night, within the Rapture nightclub. Jude tells Liam that Ibiza is the least holy place on Earth, and that's why there are angels there. That having no great enemy to fight like Hitler or Franco has caused their generation has become selfish, and so those without an enemy create one: mental illness. Religion allows people purpose, and those without it turn to drugs and are obsessed with fame. Liam insists Jude is not an angel, and Jude admits that he is not. Just then, Gabriel, the Doctor, and McShane enter. Gabriel leaves, and the Doctor says the glowing light they saw was an interdimensional portal, and "angel dust" is a drug: PCP. Gabriel and Jude are members of the Euphorian Empire, who were peaceful until they were attacked by the Scardatura. Jude wants to use humans as soldiers.

Gabriel finds Cat, but she barely remembers him. Jude explains that Gabriel used to be a composer who wrote sad songs, but he was conscripted and went mad with shellshock, which is why he thinks he's an angel. Jude took him to Earth so he wouldn't be killed for his madness. They had visited Earth once before, where they met Francisco Palau, and so they returned to this place of safety. Jude gave him angel dust and told him he was an angel; but his madness is breaking through again, so Jude wants to give his people an army so they'll allow Jude and Gabriel to return home, and hopefully help Gabriel. The Doctor says that he can help Gabriel instead.

Gabriel thinks he can help Cat with her depression, so they return to the dance floor, where Gabriel plays her music, with Brian's screams mixed in, making her enter a trance. Meanwhile, Liam hits Jude because of the harm he's been causing. They all return to the nightclub, where Jude reveals who's been financing the nightclub: Gustavo.

Part Four[[edit] | [edit source]]

Gustavo explains that he thinks young people take too much for granted, especially democracy, which is why he was financing the club - he thought the young should go and fight in Jude and Gabriel's war for democracy, like they had back in his day. However, he has now realised he needs to stop interfering, let people make their own choices, so is at the club now to correct his wrong. Cat under a trance forces him into a lift up to the DJ's box. Jude tries to make Gabriel remember the awful war and try to give up the Rapture, but Gustavo attacks Gabriel when he realises that he killed Brian and recorded his screams. They both fall out of the box to their deaths.

The others leave the room so Jude can be alone with Gabriel's body, but Cat is still out on the dance floor. The Doctor decides to take Jude somewhere where he can find peace. Liam tries to go and get Cat, but finds the door is locked. Jude declares that he will get revenge by destroying all humans using Gabriel's music and Cat. The Doctor tells Liam that by using a bipolar woman as his best friend, he can be addicted to helping her instead of facing his own problems, just like how Cat does drugs and goes dancing to avoid hers, and how Jude was addicted to helping his brother. Without Gabriel, he himself becomes mad and will seek revenge. The Doctor still has a CD from Gustavo, and so they decide to play it.

Tony Blackburn is at the Rapture, speaking over radio ACL about the club. The Doctor thinks if he gets the CD into the DJ booth and play it, it will help. He starts going though a ventilation shaft to reach the booth. Liam apologises to McShane. Blackburn describes the club as Jude welcomes the clubgoers to the Rapture. McShane and Liam pound on the door, but no one can hear them.

The Doctor arrives in the booth with Jude, who has modified his brother's music so that anyone listening will lose their minds. He tells Cat -"Gabriel's legacy" - to bring him "Satan's disciples", and she brings Liam and McShane to the DJ booth. Jude insists that he cannot forget his brother and forgive humans for what they did to him, so will kill the Doctor's friends in agony. He orders Cat to shoot McShane and Liam, and the Doctor says he won't forgive Jude. The deadly music begins. Cat shoots herself, and McShane tries to stop Liam from killing Jude. In the struggle, McShane falls off the booth, but Jude catches her, though doesn't pull her back in. The Doctor convinces Jude to allow him to play a disc that he says will restore his faith in humanity.

He plays it; it's the sound of Gabriel killing Brian. He talks about Jude, how he keeps saving him and pitying him, instead of respecting him. The disc ends and the Doctor talks about how McShane and Liam have found each other for the first time, how he should understand how important that sibling bond is, how terrible it would be for them to lose each other. He even offers for Jude to come with him in the TARDIS. He brings McShane back up to safety, but Jude says he can't live without his brother, and decides to go back to his people through the portal on Es Vedrà. He leaves, and they realise Cat has survived - the gun wasn't at full power, as she subconsciously set it low so she wouldn't kill her friends.

The Doctor starts to make an announcement to the clubgoers, but McShane interrupts it by telling them to party, to enjoy their lives, playing dance music. Tony Blackburn concludes his broadcast. Later, the Doctor talks to Cat, who knows that McShane will come with the Doctor, leaving Liam. McShane promises she'll come back to Liam one day, though she needs to stay with the Doctor for now. They say goodbye, and she and the Doctor leave.

Post-Credits[[edit] | [edit source]]

In London, a woman called Bridget receives an email from an anonymous person confessing their love to her. The email says they composed a song for her, which is attached to her email. She and her friend open the file: it's Gabriel's music. They go silent.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor[[edit] | [edit source]]

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

Earth history[[edit] | [edit source]]

Television series[[edit] | [edit source]]

Gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • In keeping with the story's Ibiza theme, this audio drama features remixes of the Doctor Who theme for each episode.
  • Tony Blackburn says he'll play a song that listeners "haven't heard in about a month", and then the Doctor Who theme tune plays, referencing the fact that the main range audios were released once a month.
  • When asked where she's from, McShane replies "I'm from over the rainbow", in reference to her name being inspired by Dorothy Gale from the Wizard of Oz series. Later, when talked to Liam McShane, she says that she's been over a "twisted rainbow".
  • Caitriona says "fuck" in part one, marking a rare occurrence of swearing in Doctor Who media.
  • When Liam sees the TARDIS dematerialising, he says "Wicked!", echoing his sister's catchphrase.
  • The first draft scripts had individual episode titles: Essential Selection, A Higher State of..., Deeper, and Euphoric Breakdown.
  • This would be the final audio drama released in the Main Range to feature the Seventh Doctor and Ace travelling alone until 1963: The Assassination Games in November 2013. The next story, The Harvest, would add Hex as a companion.
  • This audio drama was recorded on 20 and 21 April and 12 May 2002 at the Moat Studios.
  • Jim Mortimore's score for the story was released, alongside the scores to Dust Breeding and Bang-Bang-a-Boom! , as part of the Music from the Seventh Doctor Audio Adventures release.
  • DJ Tony Blackburn's guest role marked the fourth time a celebrity played himself in a Doctor Who production, and the first time it was done in a Big Finish audio story.
  • Francisco Palau was a real person who supposedly lived on Es Vedrà[1].
  • Despite the cover mentioning there being 17 tracks, the Spotify release has 26.
  • This story is placed between Survival and the 1996 TV Movie.
  • This story was originally released on CD. It is now available as a download, as well as to stream on Spotify.
  • The date is given as Friday 14 May, despite the fact that 14 May was a Wednesday in 1997.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

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  1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Palau
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