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Audio - Night of the Stormcrow
Night of the Stormcrow
(Marc Platt)

Accompanying "1001 Nights", the release in December 2012, was the annual 'Subscriber Special', titled "Night of the Stormcrow".

Tom Baker
Tom Baker

This story, which is written by Marc Platt and directed by Nicholas Briggs, stars Tom Baker (as the Fourth Doctor) and Louise Jameson (as his travelling companion Leela). Also starring are: Chase Masterson, Ann Bell, Jonathan Forbes and Mandi Symonds.

This release is available free to subscribers to the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who Monthly Range and will be available to buy from December 2013.

 
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Notes:
  • Featuring the Fourth Doctor and Leela
  • Serial Number: Unknown
  • Number of Episodes: 2
  • Cover Length: 60 minutes
  • Episode Lengths: 1 = 31'09", 2 = 33'24"
  • Total Story Length: 64'33"
  • Also features 13 minutes of trailers and special behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and producers
  • Cover Illustration: Alex Mallinson
  • Recorded: Unknown
  • Recording Location: Audio Sorcery Studios
  • Released: December 2012
  • ISBN: 978-1-78178-070-1

On the Back Cover:
 
Audio - Night of the Stormcrow
Night of the Stormcrow
(Marc Platt)
High atop Mount McKerry sits the observatory. For years now it's been watching the skies. Now something's watching back. Something dark and huge that blots out the stars. Something with giant wings. Something that kills.

When the TARDIS is struck mid-flight, the Doctor and Leela crash-land on the mountain to find they are not the only aliens to be visiting. Beings of nothing infest the complex, staff members are dead or mad. As the survivors argue amongst themselves and attempt to take advantage of the situation, a creature vast and terrible is coming ever closer.

A creature called... Stormcrow.
 

On the Inside Cover:

Director's Notes

You can always guarantee that a Marc Platt script is going to be strange, often quite disturbing and decidedly bonkers, and this one doesn't disappoint... on any count. Marc is a beautifully modest sort of fellow, so sometimes in his writing he displays this peculiar self-effacement by almost not daring to come clean about what's happening. Marc and I are opposite poles in this respect, so we're quite good for each other. He brings the unexplained mysteries and I'm the one who says, 'But what's actually happening. Marc?' He usually replies along the lines of, 'Oh, didn't I say?' So after doing the tiniest of adjustments to the script, I was ready to embrace the wonderful strangeness that Marc brings to Doctor Who. And it was a strangeness that the cast themselves really enjoyed.

At the risk of sounding old-fashioned and a bit sexist, I feel almost compelled to say, 'What a classy bunch of ladies they were' - because they were! Ann Bell was effortlessly amazing and instantly brilliant. And, of course, this was my first encounter with Chase Masterson, who'd been suggested to us by Frazer Mines. She brought a little of that serious dedication that American actors are so good at. We British types often affect a blasé attitude to our performances, concealing our inner passions, whereas Chase was often to be found, outside, in the freezing cold, going through her lines. Her glamorous attire during the photo call was, however, enough to warm everyone up.

NICHOLAS BRIGGS


Writer's Notes

'Write from what you know' is one of the oldest maxims for writers. But with science fantasy/horror, experience really isn't enough. 'Write from what you imagine' is better. Mixing the two is best of all. Write from what you know you fear.

I have a problem with three o'clock in the morning. If I'm worrying, that's when I lie awake fearing the worst. It's been like that for years. It's just my overripe imagination, of course. Or maybe it isn't. Suppose there is something that feeds on all that anxiety. Something hungry that passes over every night at three in the morning.

But despite all the worries, this was a great day in studio. I love Leela tempting poor Trevor with jelly babies; I love Tom Baker rhyming quarrel with barrel; I love the team at Mount McKerry Observatory - at each other's throats like all good theatrical families. And when I heard that Jamie Robertson was doing the sound and music, I gave an automatic cheer. This may be a Christmas release, but there's no tinsel in sight. Ghost stories have always been for Christmas too.

And when dawn finally breaks, we find that all the worries were nothing at all. The biggest, scariest, hungriest no-thing of them all.

MARC PLATT

 

Full Cast List:

The Doctor Tom Baker
Leela Louise Jameson
Peggy Brooks Chase Masterson
Professor Gesima Cazalet Ann Bell
Trevor Gale Jonathan Forbes
Erica MacMillan Mandi Symonds
   

The Production Team:

Writer Marc Platt
Director Nicholas Briggs
Sound/Music Jamie Robertson
Theme Music David Darlington
Script Editor John Dorney
Producer David Richardson
Executive Producers Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
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