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A Thousand Tiny Wings
(Andy Lane)
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 The
first story in second season of stories for the Seventh
Doctor, and the first release for 2010, is "A
Thousand Tiny Wings", which is set in the jungles
of Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s.
It is written by Andy Lane, the man behind the popular
Companion Chronicles "Here There Be Monsters" and "The
Mahogany Murderers", while Ann Bell (who played
Marion Jefferson in Tenko) guest stars as Sylvia
O’Donnell, and Lisa (Bernice
Summerfield) Bowerman
directs. It was recorded on the 25th and 26th June
2009.
The
Seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy, gets a new
travelling companion… but it’s not someone
he would want aboard the TARDIS! It is the return of
Nazi scientist Elizabeth Klein (again played by Tracey
Childs), who stole the TARDIS and changed the course
of history in the popular story "Colditz".
‘"Colditz" was
actually number 25 in our range of Doctor Who audio
adventures’, says script editor John Ainsworth, ‘and
it’s been exciting to revisit the character over
100 CDs and (for us) eight years later. In that time
we’ve had many requests from fans demanding that
we bring the character back, so we’re thrilled
that Tracey Childs, who recently appeared in the TV
series in "The
Fires of Pompeii", has returned
to the role to challenge the Seventh Doctor, who we
find at a point in his life where he is travelling
solo’.
‘I
am, of course, completely delighted to be returning to
the role of Klein again’, adds Tracey Childs. ‘And
am overjoyed that those in power have seen fit to bring
her back... though frankly how anyone might ever have
thought they could get by without my presence is a mystery
to me. But maybe playing a megalomaniacal time travelling
Nazi physicist is starting to go to my head!’
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| Seventh Doctor |
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‘"Colditz" did
quite well at the time’, Steve Lyons (who wrote
the 2001 audio story "Colditz" that introduced
her) has revealed. ‘We realised that the character
was popular in the studio, and we saw Tracey’s
performance, Gary Russell asked me there and then to
bring her back, but for one reason or another it’s
taken nine years!’
Elizabeth
Klein comes from an alternate, accidentally-created timeline,
in which the Nazis won World War Two. In that timeline
the Nazis captured the Doctor’s TARDIS, and she
studied it, and learned to pilot it. And so as well as
being a time-travelling megalomaniacal Nazi physicist,
Elizabeth Klein is also a thief!
She’s
not though necessarily a villain. Ace, The Doctor’s
companion during "Colditz", left behind a CD
player in 1944 which changed the outcome of the war,
and Klein just wants to restore that timeline, because
it’s the one she remembers. The fact that it should
never have happened is not really her fault.
‘The
thing with Klein is that she wants to get her timeline
back’, Steve Lyons has revealed. ‘The
Doctor tricked her into changing her history, It’s not
even a question of whether it’s a better timeline
or not - she just thinks it’s the real one’.
As revealed
by Tracey Childs ‘The fact that she’s completely
barking, and her judgement is completely awry, is neither
here nor there! Let’s be honest, most companions
are out there to try to improve the universe, and make
things right. Klein believes that’s what she’s
trying to do, too, but she’s fighting against the
Doctor’s beliefs, and that makes their relationship
very interesting, It ranges from loathing the man to
having to work with him because it’s the only way
to solve certain problems. She recognises him as a man
of wisdom who’s seen a great deal, so she’s
not against using his brainpower. The Doctor is hoping
to broaden her horizons, and thinks if she could see
the universe as a whole, then maybe she will help him
save it. That’s a really brilliant idea, on the
Doctor’s part, but of course it won’t be
that simple!’
Also starring in this story are: Abigail McKern, Joannah
Tincey, Chuk Iwuji and Alex Mallinson.
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Companion
Chronicles
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This
release also includes the eleventh part of "The
Three Companions" - the 12-part Companion Chronicles
mini-series which are a bonus feature on the monthly Doctor
Who plays since April 2009. Each of the 10-minute
episodes has been written by Marc Platt and has been
directed by Lisa Bowerman.
This
special story brings together Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
(aka The
Brigadier) (played by Nicholas Courtney) and Polly (played
by Anneke Wills), who discover that their past travels
with The Doctor share a common link... Meanwhile, Thomas
Brewster (played by John Pickard) is watching from
a distance, and he is now the owner of a stolen TARDIS...
Also
starring in this episode is Russell Floyd.
Episode
Eleven: "The Hunter": With the Coffin loader
on the rampage in London, Polly, The Brigadier and
Brewster meet an old acquaintance. But can he cure
the planet’s accelerated global warming?
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| Big Finish Magazine
- Vortex: Issue 11 (January 2010) |
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| Vortex: Issue 11 |
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Issue
11 of 'Vortex - The Big Finish Magazine' was also sent out to subscribers with this release.
In
this issue...
1.
Editorial -
Nicholas Briggs
2. Sneak Previews and Whispers - Doctor Who - "Legend
of the Cybermen" and Doctor Who - The Companion Chronicles: "Night’s
Black Agents"
3. Q&A -
D Lynn Smith
4.
Interview - Childs
Play
5.
Forthcoming Releases -
January 2010 - October 2010
6.
Interview -
Fisher & The
Ripper
7. Letters
8.
Q&A - Paul Finch
9.
Team
Twitter
| Published By: |
Big Finish Productions Ltd |
| Managing Editor: |
Jason Haigh-Ellery |
| Editors: |
Nicholas Briggs and David Richardson |
| Assistant Editor: |
Paul Spragg |
| Design and Layout: |
Alex Mallinson |
| Published: |
January 2010 |
| Page Count: |
20 |
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Notes:
- Featuring the Seventh
Doctor and
Elizabeth Klein.
- Serial Number: 7Z/E
- Number of Episodes: 4
- Cover Length: 120 minutes
- Main Story Episode Lengths: 1 = 23'16",
2 = 23'41", 3 = 24'14", 4 = 30'31"
- Main Story Total Length: 101'42"
- Extra Story Episode Length: 11 = 11'11"
- Also features 21 minutes of trailers
and special behind-the-scenes interviews with the
cast
and producers.
- This story takes place takes place after "Survival" and
the audio story "Kingdom
of Silver".
- Cover Illustration: Alex Mallinson
- Recorded: 25th and 26th June 2009
- Recording Location: Moat Studios
- Released: January 2010
- ISBN: 978-1-84435-433-7
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On the Back Cover:
1950s
Kenya. The Mau Mau uprising. A disparate group of
women lie low in a remote house in the jungle, waiting
for a resolution or for rescue. Among these British
imperialists is Elizabeth Klein, a refugee from a
timeline that no longer exists… thanks to The
Doctor.
Reunited,
The Doctor and Klein are forced to set aside their
differences by terrifying circumstances. People are
dying in this remote place. One by one. And there's
something out there, in the jungle, accompanied only
by the flutter of a thousand tiny wings…
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On the Inside Cover:
Writer’s Notes: Andy Lane
Without
wanting to be obvious about it, the key to a successful
audio drama is a memorable and unique sound, while
the key to a good audio horror (and A Thousand
Tiny Wings is, underneath it all, a classic horror
story) is a sound that, while innocuous in itself,
strikes fear into the heart because of the inappropriate
context in which it is heard. The abnormally loud
beating of a heart. The rustle of rats moving behind
the walls. Or the sound of a thousand tiny wings,
all fluttering away in a locked room.
A
Thousand Tiny Wings is, of course, the anti-matter version
of the classic film The Thing From Another
World (based on John Campbell’s short story Who
Goes There?). Instead of an ice-bound research
station we have a farmhouse in the middle of Africa;
instead of a group of burly male scientists and
military men we have a bunch of women sheltering
from the Mau Mau fighters; and instead of a hulking
shape-shifting creature we have.., yes, a thousand
tiny wings.
Producer’s Notes: David Richardson
With
Nick Briggs and Alan Barnes busy on the fourth
season of Eighth
Doctor adventures, it fell to
myself and John Ainsworth to respectively produce
and direct this trilogy for the Seventh
Doctor.
And what a joy it’s been. John came up with
the brilliant idea of making the Nazi scientist Klein -
last encountered in Colditz -
the Doctor’s
new companion, and suddenly we became creatively
fired up by all the dramatic and narrative opportunities
this presented.
A
Thousand Tiny Wings is the start of a journey, and I wanted that start to be rather
intimate and claustrophobic. I’d just seen the wonderful horror film
The Mist, and loved the idea of doing a similar base under siege tale.
That simple brief was mine: it was Andy who came up with the setting, the
characters and the stunningly original monster.
I’ll never look at a hummingbird in quite the same way ever again...
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Who's Who?
The Seventh Doctor
First television appearance: "Time
and the Rani"
First chronological Big Finish audio appearance: "Unregenerate!"
He
has been exploring the universe for hundreds of years. He fights injustice. He
defeats evil. He helps people. In the past, the Doctor has shared his adventures
with friends, but now he travels clone. In this regeneration, the Doctor can
be impish, devious even, but also greatly compassionate; whimsy and melancholy
do battle inside this persona, but the good and the just can always rely on him.
Elizabeth Klein
First chronological Big Finish audio appearance: "Colditz"
A
committed and ambitious Nazi from an alternative future in which Germany won
the war. Dr Elizabeth Klein made the fatal mistake of travelling bock in time
to Colditz Castle in 1944 in order to meet the Doctor. Unwittingly, her own actions
returned time to its proper course, Germany lost the war and now Klein is all
that is left of a future that no longer exists, if she can’t return home,
then she is determined to recreate the world that only she remembers. The key
to her dreams is the Doctor, someone she never expected to see again. |
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Full Cast List:
| A Thousand Tiny Wings |
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| The Doctor |
Sylvester McCoy |
| Elizabeth Klein |
Tracey Childs |
| Sylvia O'Donnell |
Ann Bell |
| Denise Waterford |
Abigail McKern |
| Lucy Watts |
Joannah Tincey |
| Joshua Sembeke
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Chuk Iwuji |
| Abraham |
Alex Mallinson |
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| Companion Chronicles
- Episode Eleven: "The Hunter" |
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| Polly Wright |
Anneke Wills |
| Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart |
Nicholas Courtney |
| Thomas Brewster |
John Pickard |
| Gerry Lenz |
Russell Floyd |
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The Production Team:
| A Thousand Tiny Wings |
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| Writer |
Andy Lane |
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| Companion Chronicles
- Episode Eleven: "The Hunter" |
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| Writer |
Marc Platt |
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| Both Stories: |
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| Director |
Lisa Bowerman |
| Sound/Music |
Richard Fox and Lauren Yason |
| Theme Music |
David Darlington |
| Script Editor |
Alan Barnes |
| Producer |
David Richardson |
| Executive Producers |
Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery |
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