Harvest of the Sycorax (audio story)

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Harvest of the Sycorax was the third story in Classic Doctors, New Monsters: Volume One, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by James Goss and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor.

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

In the far future, humanity has a remedy for everything. Whatever the problem, Pharma Corps has the answer and a designer disease tailored to every human's blood-type. Zanzibar Hashtag has no need to be sad, scared, stressed, or depressed ever again.

That is, until vicious aliens arrive on her space station intent on opening its Vault. What will it mean for the human race if the Sycorax take control of what's inside?

And when the Seventh Doctor arrives on the scene, can he convince Zanzibar to care about her life long enough to help him?

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Held as a hostage to the Sycorax in the Blood Bank, Zanzibar Hashtag is put through an extremely painful execution — in which her body is infected by a deadly poison which boils her blood. With only her personal computer interface, PAD, to talk to Zanzibar believes that she has no way of escaping her execution and wishes that her death would come sooner rather than later in order to relieve her of the excruciating pain. However, suddenly the TARDIS appears and the Doctor steps out, quickly assisting Zanzibar in finding the right antidote for the poison. The Doctor is confused as to why the poison had such a devastating effect on her (as it would usually be stopped by the body's immunity system) and is horrified to discover that Zanzibar, along with many other humans from the same time period, have actually been spending fortunes on having a genetically engineered disease — which wastes away the immune system — injected into their bodies.

Believing that Zanzibar had been executed and that more deaths would soon follow, the other hostages are left terrified. Seeing that their only way to escape would be to follow their captor's orders, Shadrak begs the Sycorax Chief to tell her his intentions for invading the Blood Bank. The Chief explains that he wants access to the Bank's vault and insists that one of the captors must grant him access. Unfortunately, neither Shadrak or the other hostages have the key to the vault, a fact which enrages the impatient Chief.

Using Pad, the Doctor and Zanzibar are able to intercept an angry message from the Sycorax Chief threatening that more hostages will die if the vault remains sealed. Shadrak, growing tired, insists that the only person who had a key was Zanzibar and suggests that she could go and retrieve the key from her body. The Sycorax leader refuses and called for one of the captors, Eshak to be executed. Eshak's blood is de-oxygenated and he dies almost instantly. The Chief reveals that Eshak's death will not be the last if the vault remains locked.

The Doctor and Zanzibar argue over the revelation that she'd went through with a treatment that had destroyed her immune system and made her dependent on medical supplies. However, Zanzibar explains that she had no choice in the matter. She tells the Doctor that when Pharma Corps came into power they had insisted that every human goes through with a certain treatment — in order to get a blood sample — the few that refused would be denied any other medical treatment whatsoever in the future, leaving them vulnerable in cases of emergency. Zanzibar informs the Doctor that Pharma Corps own the Blood Bank and that there is a blood sample from nearly every human being in existence kept in the vault. Remembering the Sycorax's love of blood voodoo, the Doctor concludes that if they were to get their hands on all that blood they'd be able to control the whole of the human race.

Shadrak tries to reason with the Sycorax...

To be added

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • A vinyl version was released at selective Asda stores on 25 September 2020.
  • This story was released on BBC Sounds on 15 November 2023 as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of Doctor Who, under the banner title of Doctor Who: The Audio Adventures.[1]

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0gsxqxg
v • e
Classic Series - Special Releases
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Adaptations:
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v • e
Sycorax stories
For the purposes of this list, a "Sycorax story" is one in which one living, authentic Sycorax plays a part within the confines of the story, outside of flashbacks to previous stories and cliffhangers that lead into the following story. Stories like The Pandorica Opens and Revolution of the Daleks are also not included due to the Sycoraxs' cameos being of no consequence to the plot of the story.
Television
Audio
Prose
Comics
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Complete list of appearances
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