Relative Dimensions (audio story)
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Relative Dimensions was the seventh story in the fourth series of the Eighth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Marc Platt and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Sheridan Smith as Lucie Miller.
It served as Big Finish's 2010 Christmas special release and featured Susan and Alex Campbell (portrayed by Carole Ann Ford and Jake McGann respectively). In this adventure, the Doctor intended to spend Christmas with Susan and Alex, his great-grandson whom he had met for the first time in the audio story An Earthly Child. But a present he got for Susan a long time ago, in the audio story Quinnis, may jeopardise the perfect Christmas he had promised Lucie to make it up to her for their previous disastrous Christmas described in Death in Blackpool. This story was the only story on television or audio where the Doctor celebrated Christmas with his family.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Christmas is a time for family, they say — which is why the Doctor has invited his grand-daughter Susan and great-grandson Alex for Christmas dinner in his time and space machine. But who, or what, is the spectre at their yuletide feast?
Venturing deep into the dark heart of the TARDIS, Susan uncovers her past, Alex is told his future — and the Doctor finds himself caught in a deadly dangerous present!
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added
Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Doctor - Paul McGann
- Lucie Miller - Sheridan Smith
- Susan Campbell - Carole Ann Ford
- Alex Campbell - Jake McGann
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
Christmas[[edit] | [edit source]]
- At Lucie's suggestion, she and the Doctor do their Christmas shopping during the subsequent January sales. He is able to pay for the gifts using his previously untouched UNIT salary, which has accrued a great deal of interest over the years.
- The TARDIS's Christmas tree is a Norwegian spruce.
- For Christmas, both Susan and Lucie bought socks for the Doctor while the Doctor intended to give Lucie socks as well as a TARDIS key with a musical ringtone.
- Susan builds a snowman version of the First Doctor with a carrot for a nose and two brussels sprouts for his eyes.
- The Doctor wants to watch Queen Elizabeth II's Christmas Speech from 25 December 1953 using the Time-Space Visualiser.
Historical figures[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Doctor tells Susan, Lucie and Alex that Leonardo da Vinci begged him to take him to Bethlehem in order to witness the birth of Jesus Christ. Lucie erroneously believed that he was referring to the American film actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Alex is studying the history of European architecture in London.
- Alex is not telepathic and cannot regenerate. The Doctor analyses his DNA and discovers that his Gallifreyan genes constitute only 7% of his genome.
Planets[[edit] | [edit source]]
- During their travels together, the First Doctor and Susan travelled to the planet Ambrosia, where everything smelled of spice apart from their sovereign.
Species[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The TARDIS contains a colony of bats known as fledershrews.
- The Doctor, Lucie, Susan and Alex are attacked in the TARDIS library by an eight foot alien fish.
The TARDIS[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The TARDIS holding ring contains the stored rooms of all of the Doctor's previous companions, including Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki Pallister, Steven Taylor, Dodo Chaplet, Polly Wright, Ben Jackson, Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield and Tamsin Drew.
- The library has a copy of Gauntlet's Bestiary of the Fourth Universe.
Time Lords[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Alex was previously unaware that Time Lords have two hearts.
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The working title for this story was The Fish That Stole Christmas[1].
- In the final scene, the Doctor says, "Happy Christmas, Doctor. And happy Christmas to everyone else too. If anyone's listening." This is a reference to the First Doctor breaking the fourth wall in the final scene of TV: "The Feast of Steven", episode seven of The Daleks' Master Plan which was first broadcast on 25 December 1965, by turning to face the camera and saying, "Incidentally, a happy Christmas to all of you at home!"
- This is the second Christmas special in Big Finish's Eighth Doctor Adventures. Death in Blackpool was the first of its kind, the previous December, in some sense continuing a tradition set by the recent BBC Wales Doctor Who.
- The story was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 15 January 2013.
- This story was recorded at The Moat Studios.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Lucie mentions the death of her aunt Patricia Ryder on 25 December 2009, which occured in the earlier audio drama Death in Blackpool [+]Loading...["Death in Blackpool (audio story)"]
- The Doctor refers to "windswept monasteries.", which is a reference to the Abby in The Book of Kells [+]Loading...["The Book of Kells (audio story)"]
- Alex recalls meeting his great-grandfather, the Doctor, for the first time six months earlier during the events of AUDIO: An Earthly Child)
- Susan and Alex have not had a proper family Christmas since the death of her husband David Campbell. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)
- Susan mentions that the Doctor has not regenerated since they last met, which he describes as "a bit of a novelty" for her. (TV: The Five Doctors, AUDIO: An Earthly Child)
- Susan remembers being abandoned on Earth by the Doctor following the end of the Dalek occupation. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
- Susan tells her grandfather that the Iborians were sincere in their desire to render assistance in rebuilding Earth and that they have already accomplished much in the previous six months. (AUDIO: An Earthly Child)
- Susan refers to the Doctor's recklessness in lying to herself and their former travelling companions Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright about the fluid link being broken so to provide an excuse to explore in the Dalek city on Skaro. (TV: The Daleks)
- As a Christmas present, the Doctor gives Susan the Aztec bracelet which Cameca had previously given to him as an engagement present in Mexico in the 15th century. (TV: The Aztecs) It had seemingly re-entered his possession as the First Doctor had previously used it to buy suits and top hats for himself and Steven Taylor in London in 1912. (AUDIO: The Suffering) The Seventh Doctor previously wore it on the lapel of his cream linen suit. (PROSE: White Darkness)
- Susan tells Alex that the Doctor bought her a dried air fish from a market in Bridgetown on Quinnis in the fourth universe many years earlier. (AUDIO: Quinnis; TV: The Edge of Destruction) However, she left it behind along with the rest of her possessions when the Doctor locked her out of the TARDIS. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
- The Blitzen fish ruins the Thal cloak which Alydon had given Susan on Skaro. (TV: The Daleks)
- The Fledershrews (PROSE: Lungbarrow) had resided in the TARDIS since at least the Doctor's previous incarnation. (AUDIO: Black and White)
- The Doctor folds napkins into the shape of Draconian Sazou pieces. (AUDIO: Paper Cuts)
- The Doctor is friends with Leonardo da Vinci. (PROSE: Happy Endings) He recounts an alternate version of PROSE: The Innocents.
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Official Relative Dimensions page at bigfinish.com
- Relative Dimensions at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for Relative Dimensions at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
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