The Reaping (audio story)

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The Reaping was the eighty-sixth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Joseph Lidster and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown.

It was the Sixth Doctor's entry in a loose trilogy of Cyberman stories, which began in the Seventh Doctor story The Harvest and was concluded in the Fifth Doctor story The Gathering.

It was notable for featuring significant details about Peri's life in Baltimore, Maryland. It was, from the perspective of Peri's mother Janine Foster, a direct sequel to Planet of Fire.

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

On the morning of 9 May 1984, Peri woke up. She was expecting to spend the day relaxing in Lanzarote and, that evening, leave her mother and stepfather to go travelling with some guys she'd only just met.

But things don't always go as expected­ as her friends and family discover when, four months later, she returns home having travelled further than anyone could have imagined.

Meanwhile her friend, Katherine Chambers, mourns her father and Peri finds herself meeting some other familiar faces.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor takes Peri to the Gogglebox beneath the surface of the Moon where she chooses to view the news from 1984 America to see what is going on. Unimpressed by her request, the Doctor goes to find an important book he vaguely remembers leaving at the Gogglebox whilst Peri is plugged into a booth by Alan-56 and distressed to learn of the murder of Anthony Chambers. She gets Alan-32 to take her to the Doctor and tearfully begs him to take her home to see Janine, her mother, and Kathy, her best friend and Mr Chambers's daughter, at the funeral in Baltimore in September 1984. The Doctor wanders off to give Peri the chance to reunite with her mother, but Janine is dismissive.

Pretending to have met Mrs Van Gysegham in Lanzarote, the Doctor learns from her that the homeless man arrested for the murder, Daniel Woods, denies responsibility and is too old to have overpowered Mr Chambers and snapped his neck. She gives him a lift to the wake, but he implies mid-journey that he is part of British Intelligence and has her drive him to the police station in Fell's Point where Woods is being held. Lt Doyle allows him to see Woods despite him being unable to prove his identity and Woods tells him that the police are being controlled; the Doctor manipulates Lt Doyle into letting him and Woods leave by exploiting his logical thinking.

Peri breaks down at Mr Chambers's grave and heads to the wake at her home where Janine tells her that she and Howard separated after she accused him of being responsible for Peri's death, but Kathy denies that this was the case and catches her up on what their friends have been up to in her absence. Kathy finds herself inexplicably saying "8687" and Janine angrily asks Peri if she was intending on returning home in 1986 or '87. Later, Peri overhears Janine and Kathy agree that things were better before her return and pretends not to be upset when they call her downstairs to watch a video cassette from Mr Chambers's fortieth birthday with them and Nate, Kathy's brother.

The Doctor takes Woods back to the graveyard where Mr Chambers was killed and learns that the murderer was a "silver ghost" who was no longer able to control Mr Chambers. After the murder, the ghost said "you will become like us", confirming the Doctor's suspicion that it was a Cyberman. Meanwhile, Lt Doyle is due to give an interview to Natalie Hamilton about the escaped Woods and forcibly puts a device in her ear which puts her under the Cybermen's control just as he is. They proceed to warn the public to remain in their homes to keep safe from the supposed fugitives Doctor and Woods.

In the video, Mr Chambers tells his children to "keep playing", leading Peri to continue playing the video and find a message for Kathy and Nate; Mr Chambers somehow broke free from the Cybermen's control, although he is unable to say what he had been made to do, and tells them not to contact the police nor return to the graveyard. Peri takes Janine, Kathy and Nate to the graveyard to find the Doctor, but Kathy is distressed to meet Woods and runs away, screaming when she hears a scratching sound from her father's coffin. The coffin bursts open and a partially-converted Cyberman bursts out, saying "8687" before telling Nate that he is his father.

Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]

Mr Chambers is confused on account of being only partially-converted and the Doctor tells Peri to get Janine, Kathy, Nate and Woods to safety, but Lt Doyle and the police arrive and the group run to Mr Chambers's office when they fire. Peri helps the Doctor deduce that the Cybermen are from the future, that they are converting the dead and that they targeted Mr Chambers because he was an undertaker, controlling him to place convertor units into the coffins. Whilst Kathy, Nate and Woods look for a room to fortify, the Doctor, Peri and Janine analyse the Cyber-technology and find that conversion of the dead is being achieved using only a small needle.

Hearing a disturbance despite the heavy rain outside, Peri finds that Mr Chambers has killed Woods and plays the video of his fortieth birthday party to remind him of his former identity. She and Kathy go to fetch the Doctor and Janine, but the Doctor has found a dimensionally transcendental pod he wishes to investigate and sends the two of them and Janine to lock themselves in the bathroom with Nate until the police leave, at which point Peri is to take everybody to the TARDIS. When the Doctor enters the pod, it travels into the Time Vortex and Peri, Janine and Kathy go to find Nate.

The Doctor finds a dying Cyber-Leader inside the pod who says "8687" and explains that he is one of the last of his kind, come back in time with salvaged Time Lord technology which he is now confined to thanks to his attempt to connect with it. Having access to the history of the Cybermen, he set a trap for the Doctor and lured him there with the murder of Mr Chambers and the supposed conversion of the dead, a ruse to make the Doctor believe that there were more Cybermen and to better manipulate him. The Cyber-Leader has Mr Chambers attack Nate and threatens to have him kill Peri, Janine and Kathy unless the Doctor goes back in time with him to Earth's prehistory to convert the entirety of humanity with adapted Time Lord technology.

The Doctor claims to have converted eight early humans who have gone on to convert others and then takes the Cyber-Leader to 1984 where they encounter inferior Cybermen. The Cyber-Leader soon realises, however, that he is on Mondas and a Cyberman orders Commander Zheng to take him for reprocessing. This results in Mr Chambers losing his connection to the Cyber-Leader and he stops trying to kill Peri and Janine, who have been looking after the severely-injured Nate whilst Kathy is locked in the bathroom. The Doctor rejoins them and gets Nate to the hospital, Lt Doyle and the police also having been freed from the Cyber-Leader's control. Janine and Peri have the cyber-technology, including the pod and the conversion device, hidden at Janine's house to keep out of harm's way.

Feeling unable to leave her mother and Kathy again, Peri chooses to stay in Fell's Point and tearfully says goodbye to the Doctor, asking him to visit her in the future. Saddened, the Doctor travels back to the Gogglebox to see how Peri adapts to living back on Earth and swiftly returns for her because of what he has seen; Janine and Mrs Van Gysegham are killed when one half of the conversion device explodes because of unauthorised use. Kathy and Nate disappear and the Doctor comforts a tearful Peri, who feels that there is nothing left for her on Earth and returns with him to the TARDIS.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Culture[[edit] | [edit source]]

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

Politics[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • At an indeterminate point in the far future, though not before the 52nd century, the British monarchy was abolished and the last monarch was executed. Footage of that event could be viewed via the Gogglebox.

Species[[edit] | [edit source]]

Gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The phrase "86, 87" may be a reference to the Big Finish number for this story (number 86) and that of The Gathering (number 87), both by Joseph Lidster.
  • An illustrated preview by Martin Geraghty featured in DWM 373 for this story.
  • This audio drama is part of a loose trilogy encompassing The Reaping, The Gathering and The Harvest.
    • The trilogy can notably be listened to in three different orders; release order (The Harvest, The Reaping, The Gathering), in-universe chronological order (The Reaping, The Gathering, The Harvest), or in order from the Doctor's perspective (The Gathering, The Reaping, The Harvest).
  • The Cyber-Leader is from a point in the distant future where the Cybermen have gained time travel based on a combination of their own systems and Time Lord technology.
  • Commander Zheng, one of the earliest Mondasian Cybermen who was introduced in AUDIO: Spare Parts, returns for a brief cameo appearance towards the end of the story. He is depicted as still being operational in September 1984.
  • Besides the Doctor, Kathy and Nathaniel Chambers are the only characters to appear in both this story and AUDIO: The Gathering.
  • The cover-art and some of the dialogue in the story suggests that Peri is attired in the same outfit she would wear in Mindwarp.
  • The death of Janine Foster at the conclusion of this story may be the catalyst for the softening of the relationship between the Sixth Doctor and Peri, as seen in stories such as The Mysterious Planet.
  • This audio drama was recorded on 20 and 21 March 2006 at the Moat Studios.
  • This story is set between Revelation of the Daleks and The Trial of a Time Lord.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

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