100
The Doctor and Evelyn inadvertently interrupt a key moment in history – or so they think – when they meet the parents of Julius Caesar. When Evelyn insists that they jump forward to find out if Caesar really was born via caesarian section, the time travelers think they’ve found evidence that they’ve really changed history. Later, the Doctor and Evelyn encounter Mozart on his 100th birthday, but wind up meeting someone who wishes the great musician had died young, and then go to pay their respects to a former student of Evelyn’s whose father has just died, discovering that something has planted a deadly seed in the family tree. Finally, the Doctor discovers that he has been infected with a genetically-engineered virus by an assassin, and has only 100 days to live – and he and Evelyn proceed to spend those days trying to find the moment in the Doctor’s history when he was infected, and prevent it from happening.
written by Jacqueline Rayner (100 B.C.), Robert Shearman (My Own Private Wolfgang), Joseph Lidster (Bedtime Stories) and Paul Cornell (The 100 Days Of The Doctor)
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by ERSCast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Maggie Stables (Evelyn Smythe)
- 100 BC: Will Thorp (Gaius Julius Caesar), Lucy Paterson (Aurelia), Susan Brown (Midwife)
- My Own Private Wolfgang: John Sessions (Mozart)
- Bedtime Story: Will Thorp (Jacob), Frank Finlay (Old Jacob), Martha Cope (Talia), Susan Brown (Mary), Lucy Paterson (Julia), Alex Mallinson (Patrick)
- The 100 Days Of The Doctor: Nicholas Briggs (The Assassin)
Notes: 100 was added to Big Finish’s Doctor Who schedule late in the proceedings, replacing a six-part story, Earthstorm by SF novelist Stephen Baxter, which was originally slated to be the 100th release. Earthstorm was suddenly withdrawn from the schedule with no explanation offered, and has yet to be rescheduled for a later release date at the time of this writing.
Timeline: After The Nowhere Place and before Assassin In The Limelight
LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green
A peaceful visit to early 21st century London becomes less restful for the Doctor and Evelyn when they find themselves pursued by robotic insects with deadly homing instincts. Help comes from an unlikely ally within the police, D.I. Patricia Menzies, pursuing a criminal investigation well outside her home jurisdiction in Manchester. The Doctor has never met Menzies before, but she knows him well, and keeps silent about their past meetings (which take place in his future). Total strangers or not, though, she does need his help in ending the crminal activities of a mysterious gang operating in London. The Doctor and Evelyn quickly find out that the trail leads to a criminal known as the Doctor – described as a fair-haired young man in Edwardian clothes. Though the sixth Doctor is troubled by the thought that another of his incarnations is acting criminally, he follows the clues until he finds out who the other Doctor is: his unethical former companion, Thomas Brewster. Acting as “the Doctor”, Brewster is trying to restore his ability to time travel, and has done a deal with a species from another world. Naturally, what Brewster has failed to take into account is that he himself has been double-crossed by the aliens, who wish to wipe out the human race and take Earth for themselves.
A private expedition from Earth sets out to gain access to the time-looped space parasite Axos, hoping to trap and tame the living space vehicle that once threatened to drain Earth of all life and energy. With Earth now facing a debilitating energy crisis, it is hoped that Axos can be harnessed to transmit energy to Earth from within its time loop. Awakened by the activity in its immediate vicinity, Axos begins making its own plans to regain full strength. “Hijacked” by Thomas Brewster, the TARDIS arrives aboard Axos, and the Doctor is immediately wary of the motivation of the human astronauts trying to revive the being. When not all of the astronauts turn out to be following the same plans, this only serves to intensify the Doctor’s suspicions of them, and Brewster’s ever-changing loyalties make matters even worse. Reawakened, Axos reverses the apparatus designed to bleed its energy off and send it to Earth, instead draning energy from Earth to feed itself. With the unwitting help of the explorers from Earth, and the very willing help of Brewster, will Axos succeed in sucking Earth dry this time?