No Place Like Home (audio story)

No Place Like Home was a 2003 Big Finish audio drama, featuring the Fifth Doctor and new companion Erimem. Originally included in Doctor Who Magazine #326, it was later re-released as a free download on the Big Finish Productions website on 23 July 2014.^[1] This was also the audio debut (and, as of October 2023, only appearance) of the comic-originated character Shayde.

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

Whilst showing his latest companion, Erimem, around her new home, the Doctor discovers that the TARDIS seems remarkably keen to be as unhelpful as possible. Almost as if it wants rid of its occupants...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

• The Doctor - Peter Davison
• Erimem - Caroline Morris
• The Rovie / Shayde - Mark Donovan

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Director - Gary Russell
• Executive Producer - Jacqueline Rayner
• Music and Sound Design - David Darlington
• Producers Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery
• Writer - Iain McLaughlin

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

• The Doctor used to hide from his former companion Tegan Jovanka in the Cloister Room.
• The Doctor uses everlasting matches.

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Peri Brown once considered wearing one of Leela's skins, which she found in the TARDIS wardrobe, to a fancy dress party.
• The Rovie refers to Peri and Erimem as the "female monkeys".
• Erimem sees ice for the first time.

The TARDIS[[edit] | [edit source]]

• The TARDIS contains a full sized cricket pitch, several fields, a rainforest, various control relays, the swimming pool, at least two libraries, several gardens, a storeroom full of terracotta soldiers, the Dimensional Induction Chamber, and the Cloister Room.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Shayde first appeared in the Fifth Doctor comic strip The Tides of Time. He later developed a more complicated relationship with the Doctor in the Eighth Doctor comic stories, beginning with The Final Chapter. This is the only audio drama to feature Shayde.
• This is the only Big Finish audio story in which Erimem appears but Peri does not.
• After the 2019 redesign of the Big Finish website, this release was added to The Fifth Doctor Adventures.
• The preview of Dalek War: Chapter One that was bundled with it in its release in Doctor Who Magazine still is when downloaded from either the Big Finish site or in the Big Finish app.
• This story was recorded on 1 November 2002.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Shayde's warning to the Doctor is a direct homage to the Time Lord's warning to the Fourth Doctor. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) Again, the Time Lords "foresee a time" when a race will conquer the universe — only this time, it is the Rovies.
• As in Time and the Rani and later in The Christmas Invasion, the TARDIS wardrobe holds the outfits of several earlier incarnations. In particular, Erimem finds the Fourth Doctor's scarf and hat, (TV: Robot, et. al.) the Second Doctor's furry overcoat (TV: The Abominable Snowman, The Five Doctors) and the Third Doctor's ruffled shirts and smoking jackets (TV: Spearhead from Space, et. al). Of the three, the Fifth Doctor seems fondest of the scarf — which he describes as "useful" but cumbersome as he tended to trip over it. The furry coat is described as being made of polyester rather than animal skin and as having come from the planet Thraxis. He expresses positive embarrassment at her discovery of the kind of clothes which he wore during his third incarnation.
• Companions' clothes are also discovered in the wardrobe, including a dress worn by both Victoria Waterfield and Sarah Jane Smith, (TV: Pyramids of Mars) a kilt worn by Jamie McCrimmon and one set of Leela's skins, which the Doctor says Peri once considered wearing.
• The TARDIS is said to have the ability to automatically reconfigure its rooms, leaving the Doctor temporarily unaware of where the rooms had gone. (TV: Castrovalva, The Eleventh Hour; COMIC: Tesseract) He tells Erimem that he doesn't like it, similar to what the Second Doctor said upon entering the Third Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: The Three Doctors)
• Similar to a conversation between the Second Doctor and Victoria in TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen, the Fifth Doctor speaks to Erimem about his memories of his family. He says that he does not, in fact, think of his family very much at all, save for occasional thoughts of his granddaughter Susan Foreman. (TV: An Unearthly Child et al)
• The Fifth Doctor expresses a disdain of cats. This was a running gag in his adventures with Erimem, at least until her cat Antranak's death. (AUDIO: Nekromanteia)
• The Doctor claims that he delivered the Terracotta Army to the first Emperor of China, Qin Chi Huangdi, during his third incarnation. The Second Doctor had encountered the Emperor towards the end of his life in 210 BC. (AUDIO: The Emperor of Eternity)
• The Doctor refers to the Library of St John the Beheaded. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire)
• Shayde refers to the Doctor as "Lord President". (TV: The Five Doctors)
• The Doctor remarks that, unlike Antranak, K9 was TARDIS trained, paraphrasing Marius. (TV: The Invisible Enemy)
• Erimem regrets not saying goodbye to her mother Rhaoubak before she left Egypt. (AUDIO: The Eye of the Scorpion)

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

• Official No Place Like Home page at bigfinish.com
• No Place Like Home at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• DisContinuity for No Place Like Home at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]