Caerdroia
The Doctor is asleep in the interzone between worlds, and the Kro’Ka appears to torment him - only to find that it must put up with Charley and C’rizz, who quickly become aware that the Kro’Ka seems to be powerless while the Time Lord is unconscious. Once awakened, the Doctor is subjected to a kind of mind-probing technique by the Kro’Ka, but he quickly gains the upper hand on the interzone guardian, forcing it to tell him, at least in general terms, where the TARDIS is located. The Doctor follows the trail to a place called Caerdroia, a surreal world where verdant hills populated by seemingly normal cows and rabbits lead to a circular maze. But that’s not the most surreal thing about Caerdroia - topping that list is the fact that the Doctor has emerged from the interzone in what seems like three aspects of his character: one rational, one inquisitive and easily distracted, and one dark and quick to anger. Charley and C’rizz can only tag along with the three Doctors as they look for a way out of the maze - and a way to find out who’s holding the Kro’Ka’s leash.
written by Lloyd Rose
directed by Gary Russell
music by Steve FoxonCast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), India Fisher (Charley), Conrad Westmaas (C’rizz), Stephen Perring (The Kro’Ka), Don Warrington (Rassilon)
Notes: Caerdroia is a Welsh word for a labyrinth. This audio adventure received an early release - with alternate cover art (seen here) - at a Doctor Who convention in November 2004; the limited edition alternate cover version was also sold by the internet vendor Tenth Planet.
Timeline: between The Last and The Next Life
Review: An intriguing story that’s best left on the soundstage of the mind, the ever-shifting (and I don’t use that term lightly) maze passages of Caerdroia would bankrupt a movie budget, let alone a TV budget - making it a perfect idea for an audio story. The plot threads are definitely being tightened as well, finally giving some direction to the Divergent Universe arc and leading up to what is almost certainly a grand confrontation with Rassilon. If there’s a single problem with Caerdroia as a story, it’s a bit of the dreaded “info-dump” phenomenon, where weird and wacky things happen in abundance in the first three episodes, and all is explained in the fourth. (more…)
On the planet Bortresoye, a global nuclear war has laid waste to the surface and the planet’s entire population is wiped out. The Doctor, Charley and C’rizz arrive here, driven thorugh the interzone by the Kro’Ka, who delays the Time Lord briefly to haunt him with memories of fallen companions. They seek shelter in a bombed-out building, but it collapses underneath and on top of them, leaving Charley paralyzed from the neck down and the Doctor buried under the rubble. C’rizz goes to get help, but can find only a strangely circumspect being who calls himself Requiem. The Doctor and Charley are found by a survey team and brought to a well-protected underground bunker where the planet’s only survivors are barely managing to stay alive - and earthquake damage to their bunker is slowly whittling down even that population. The ruler of one of Bortresoye’s warring nations, the Lady Excelsior, terrifies her two surviving cabinet ministers with her ability to remain blissfully deluded about the outcome of the war, and her insistence on consorting with a mysterious man named Landscar.
Still wandering through the Divergent Universe without the safety of the TARDIS, the Doctor, Charley and C’rizz suspiciously follow the Kro’ka to a place called the Multihaven. A melting pot of multiple religious beliefs, the Multihaven tolerates all of them equally, and dozens of churches have been established there. And any safe haven would be a blessing for C’rizz, plagued by memories of fulfilling his mate’s request for a mercy killing in the Kromon biosphere; the memories have taken on a new intensity of late, at times rendering him almost helpless. The Doctor and Charley leave C’rizz in the care of a peaceful sect of monks while they set out to explore the Multihaven, but while they’re gone, C’rizz’s caretakers themselves wind up on the wrong end of a hostile merger with another religion. The 23rd Church of Lucidianism is gaining new recruits at a rapid rate, even converting long-standing members of other established religions in the Multihaven. The Lucidians’ leader, Lan Carder, has more than just charisma on his side - and the Doctor suspects that the object of the Lucidians’ worship may be an alien force with a sinister agenda.
The Doctor and Evelyn arrive in Scotland, and the Doctor quickly deduces that they’ve arrived at the time of the infamous string of grave robberies attributed to Burke & Hare. But things are not as they should be - the Doctor begins to notice that certain things are out of place, and certain elements of history are not as they should be. The time travelers quickly find out why history seems to be playing out differently than recorded: they’re not the only ones there with a TARDIS.