A Death in the Family (audio story)
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A Death in the Family was the one hundred and fortieth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Steven Hall and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace, Philip Olivier as Hex, Ian Reddington as Nobody No-One and Maggie Stables as Evelyn Smythe.
It was the final chronological story for Evelyn, with this story taking place many years after she stopped travelling with the Doctor. This is the third Big Finish audio story to feature a companion death, the first was K9 Mark I in Imperiatrix, with the second being C'rizz in Absolution. However, Evelyn continues to travel with the Sixth Doctor with several events mentioned in this story featuring in stories released after this one, until Stables passed away in 2014 and her character was retired.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
"The future folds into the past. The homeless hero has fallen. Now begins the time of three tales: The Tale of the Herald. The Tale of the Hidden Woman. The Tale of the Final Speaker. When the last tale is told, all the lights shall fail. The world will end."
21st century London: Nobody No One, the extra-dimensional Word Lord, is again running amok. Only this time, he's unbeatable — and a terrible tragedy is about to unfold.
It is written.
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added
Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
- Ace - Sophie Aldred
- Hex - Philip Olivier
- Evelyn Smythe - Maggie Stables
- Nobody No-One - Ian Reddington
- Corporal / Novice / Henry Noone - John Dorney
- Ayl-San / Faber / Nurse - Alison Thea-Skot
- Captain Stillwell / Applin / Tour Guide - Andrew Dickens
- Ann-the-Van / Story Speaker / Webster - Harriet Kershaw
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Pelachan calendar is used.
The Doctor[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Doctor has something like a calendar of when his friends will die.
- Nobody No-one wears a scarf in his new incarnation. He claims that it is a homage to the Doctor's fourth incarnation.
Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Henry Louis Noone was born in St Stephen's Hospital in London on 10 February 2000. A body scan indicated that he would most likely die at the age of 82.
- Henry Noone creates Dr Dorothy Noone, a being capable of combating the Word Lord Nobody No-One.
Locations[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Doctor and Ace search the remains of the Forge's building for alien technology with Captain Stillwell of UNIT.
- Ace meets up with Henry Noone on several occasions in the White Rabbit pub in London during 2027.
- By 2027, the United Kingdom has a king.
- WOTAN 1 is a UNIT base located beneath the BT Tower.
Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Doctor finds in the Forge a Gallifreyan sarcophagus, a Makek compensator, a Carpatian worry-wheel, a Mobius chip, a remote neutron polariser, a TG tablet and a Vaspan space-time stamp.
Time travel[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Evelyn Rossiter was transported from Világ to the planet Pelachan via a temporal device.
- The people of Pelachan are descendants of the crew of a human time ship called the UNS Pelican.
Earth[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Bees were being reintroduced to the UK in June 2027. According to Ace, the bee problem would be resolved by 2040, by which time Earth would also have "new pandas."
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- This release includes behind-the-scenes interviews with members of the cast and isolated music as bonus tracks.
- The cover of this story first released to the Big Finish website featured Nobody No-One in the space where Hex is placed in the actual cover. This, along with the lack of Hex on the cover to the following story, Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge, was used to imply he would leave the TARDIS in Project: Destiny.
- Clips from numerous previous audio dramas are heard in Part One, including Son of the Dragon, Castle of Fear, Project: Twilight, The One Doctor, Jubilee, Colditz, The Magic Mousetrap, Enemy of the Daleks, The Pyralis Effect and The Angel of Scutari.
- Evelyn's reference to spending time "in a spacesuit bouncing about Axos with that poor boy Brewster" foreshadows both the Fifth Doctor's former companion Thomas Brewster rejoining the TARDIS crew as a companion of the Sixth Doctor in The Crimes of Thomas Brewster and the events of The Feast of Axos.
- This story marks the first appearance of Evelyn Smythe in the main range since Assassin in the Limelight in May 2008. Maggie Stables reprised the role again in A Town Called Fortune and three stories featuring Thomas Brewster prior to her death.
- A reading of the story Lepidoptery for Beginners by Duncan Wisbey was released as a bonus to this story for subscribers. It had first appeared in written form in the anthology Short Trips: Defining Patterns.
- This audio drama was recorded on 28 and 29 April 2010 at the Moat Studios.
- This story is set after Survival.
- This story was originally released on CD and download on 13 October 2010.[1]
Cover gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]
Dummy cover
Textless cover
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Doctor, Ace and Hex previously encountered Nobody No-One in Antarctica in 2045. (AUDIO: The Word Lord) In a manner similar to a Time Lord, he has regenerated since his previous encounter with the present Doctor. He claims to have battled the Doctor numerous times in the Doctor's personal future.
- The Doctor mentions that meeting his past or future selves is something which he is "very much not supposed to do". (TV: The Three Doctors)
- Hex refers to his encounters with the Cybermen (AUDIO: The Harvest) and the Daleks. (AUDIO: Enemy of the Daleks)
- Nobody No-One refers to the Doctor as "Lazarus", the codename given to him by the Forge during his sixth incarnation. (AUDIO: Project: Lazarus)
- Ace doesn't know how long she's been travelling with the Doctor. She used to keep careful track of her personal chronology. (PROSE: Shadowmind)
- The older Doctor implies that something bad will happen to Ace in the future. (COMIC: Ground Zero)
- The future Seventh Doctor tells Hex that "burning into existence" is considerably more painful than fading out of existence. (AUDIO: Master)
- Evelyn relates the events of AUDIO: Project: Twilight and AUDIO: Project: Lazarus to Hex in which she and the Sixth Doctor met his late mother, Cassie Schofield.
- Evelyn mentions to Hex that the Doctor once told her that he does not always win. (AUDIO: Arrangements for War)
- Ace reminds the future Seventh Doctor that he once destroyed a planet. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
- On 24 May 2027, it is reported that the British government is conducting further Mars research. (TV: The Ambassadors of Death, AUDIO: Red Dawn, TV: The Christmas Invasion)
- When the Seventh Doctor arrives on Pelachan, Evelyn is initially disappointed to see him as she had been hoping that it would be "her" Doctor. (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy)
- Evelyn mentions meeting Julius Caesar's parents Gaius Julius Caesar the Elder and Aurelia (AUDIO: 100 BC) and Charles Darwin, (AUDIO: Bloodtide) "leaping from steam trains in the Wild West" (AUDIO: A Town Called Fortune) and spending time "in a spacesuit bouncing about Axos with that poor boy Brewster". (AUDIO: The Feast of Axos)
- Evelyn previously met the Seventh Doctor in AUDIO: Thicker Than Water. Prior to that brief encounter, she saw him, Ace and Hex from afar in AUDIO: The 100 Days of the Doctor.
- The voices of past Doctors being heard, as well as the Doctor dying and being brought back to life by a companion, will happen again. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
- In 2027, UNIT was using WOTAN Base 1 to monitor all of the world's computers for information. (TV: The War Machines)
- The Doctor's TARDIS is still white. (AUDIO: The Angel of Scutari)
- Ace contemplates contacting Claire Spencer for support while stranded in 2027, but dismisses this upon realising that Claire would be younger and of a lower rank than when they last met and she didn't know Ace when she met her at the South Pole in 2045. (AUDIO: The Word Lord)
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Official A Death in the Family page at bigfinish.com
- A Death in the Family at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for A Death in the Family at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
