Prisoners of Fate (Jonathan Morris)

The release for June 2013 is called "Prisoners of Fate" and sees Peter Davison, in the last of three releases for 2013, as the Fifth Doctor with his three companions: Nyssa, played by Sarah Sutton; Tegan Jovanka, played by Janet Fielding, and Turlough, played by Mark Strickson.

This story has been written by Jonathan Morris and has been directed by Ken Bentley. It was recorded on the 9th and 10th January 2013.

If you have been listening to this range of Fifth Doctor stories, where he has been travelling with companions Tegan Jovanka, Nyssa and Turlough, then you will know that Nyssa is the older version of this character, that was introduced in the 2010 story "Cobwebs", than when she first left the TARDIS in the 1983 Fifth Doctor story "Terminus". In "Prisoners of Fate" Nyssa’s past catches up with her on a prison planet, with heartbreaking consequences.

Starring in this story are: Sarah Douglas, Alistair Mackenzie, Anjella Mackintosh and Jez Fielder.

Fifth Doctor

Back in 2010 Big Finish Productions brought back some old travelling companions to rejoin the Fifth Doctor in the TARDIS. In a casting coup Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson came on board after just a handful of previous Doctor Who audio appearances between them - and encountered their old friend Nyssa. For the TARDIS crew, it had been just days since they last saw her, but for Nyssa herself, 50 years had passed. Their new adventures together as a foursome have run for four years - but this month, some of the dangling story threads from that initial reunion are being tied up...

It has been established, in previous audio stories, that in those years after she left The Doctor, Nyssa now has a son and a daughter, and the son's called Adric. In the 2010 story "Cobwebs", Nyssa went off exploring to find a cure for Richter's Syndrome, when Adric was ten years old.

As revealed by writer Jonathan Morris, ʽmy story takes place 25 years later - which means Nyssa's son has grown up without her. He has grown up thinking his mother died when he was ten years old, and then she turns up out of the blue. There's a lot of heartbreak with a big adventure going on as well!ʼ.

Jonathan Morris has stated that ʽIt's one of the hardest things I've had to write. In part because the brief was so complicated and difficult to get my head around, with the timescales... The first episode is the fallout of the situation with Nyssa and her son, and then the trick was to come up with a storyline that uses that relationship, uses the problem of their missing 25 yearsʼ.

Nyssa as some tough choices to make. What if Nyssa was offered the chance to go back and spend those 25 years with her son, but the cost was other terrible consequences?

On the Back Cover:

Twenty-five years ago, with Richter's Syndrome running rampant throughout the galaxy, the brilliant biochemist Nyssa, formerly of Traken, bade a painful farewell to her young family... and set off into the space, in search of a cure for this deadly disease.

She never returned.

Now, her grown-up son continues her work on the penal colony of Valderon, still desperate to make the breakthrough that eluded his presumed-dead mother.

So when the TARDIS lands on Valderon, bringing the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Nyssa to its fortress prison, the scene is set for a painful reunion... but not only for Nyssa. The Doctor's past is about to catch up with him too...

As our heroes leap from one time to another, it's inevitable their pasts will at some point catch up with them, and it's not just Nyssa that's faced with hers in this intricately woven adventure. In many ways it's the perfect storm of pasts, all crashing together to threaten the present we find ourselves in. As a result, secrets will be revealed in Prisoners of Fate, and the revelations will threaten the lives of our heroes more than they've ever been threatened before.

Without wishing to give any of the game away - stories like this come with the added weight of responsibility - for the first time you're going to meet characters that, for some time, you've only heard about. When casting such roles it's important we put every effort into getting it right, so the experience is as satisfying as possible for you, the listener. And I'm really proud of the cast we managed to assemble for Prisoners.

This play marks a defining moment in the lives of this particular TARDIS team, but don't expect all your questions to be answered. I'm sure you wouldn't ever want it to be that simple. And this is, after all, Doctor Who?

KEN BENTLEY



Writer's Notes

There's a fundamental problem with time travel stories, which is this: if the rule is that a character can't change something of which they have pre-knowledge, then your characters no long have free will. So, if a character travels into the past they can't change history. And if a character is shown a glimpse into their own future, they are powerless to prevent that future from happening. In effect, they have no free will - they are Prisoners of Fate - which can lead to very predictable stories. Stories are, after all, all about the choices characters make.

But what if time travel didn't work like that? What if you could see what the future had in store and do something else? What if you could go back in time and change your past? What would happen then?

That was my challenge. To write a story about the philosophical and emotional consequences of time travel. And to draw a line under various outstanding arcs. And, just to make things interesting, I thought I'd throw in a couple of surprises of my own.

After all, what better time to revisit the past than in the anniversary year?

PAUL MAGRS