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The
Wormery
(Stephen Cole and Paul Magrs) |
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 For the 40th anniversary celebrations Big Finish
Productions released a second audio story for November ("Zagreus" being the main
40th anniversary release). This second story, titled "The Wormery", has been
penned by writing team Stephen Cole and Paul Magrs. It is directed by Gary
Russell and was recorded 1st and 10th November 2002.
"The Wormery"
sees the Sixth
Doctor once again caught up in the schemes of the troublesome
Time Lady Iris Wildthyme, who has appeared in several Doctor Who novels and in
the Big Finish Doctor Who audio story "Excelis Dawns". Iris was brought to life
in this audio story by Katy Manning, who starred alongside Jon Pertwee as the
Third Doctor's companion Jo Grant, and Katy reprises her role in this story
that features her first meeting of Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor
Staring
alongside Colin Baker and Katy Manning are: James Campbell, Paul Clayton, Mark
Donovan, Jason Loborik, Maria McErlane and Jane McFarlane.
When a
mysterious stranger and a former nightclub waitress meet the story of a very
exclusive 1930's cabaret club, named Bianca's, is revealed through her
recollections helped by various surviving audio recordings taken at the time.
Between them they piece together the final days of the club, discovering an
exotic cocktail of desperation, vengeance and love…
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| Sixth Doctor |
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There's one place in creation where the truth
really can be found in the bottom of a glass: Bianca's, a very special and very
exclusive little club. Of all the gin-joints on all the planets in the whole
universe, The Doctor has to walk into this one. Except that this gin is not the
house special at Bianca's - nor is this a bar in wartime Casablanca run by
Bogart. This exclusive little nightclub, that is run by the legendary hostess
Bianca, is no ordinary place even for 1930's Berlin. And when that
extraordinary time-traveller Iris Wildthyme arrives, The Doctor knows he's not
in for a quiet night…
While The Doctor is seeking quiet distraction he
finds that his rest and relaxation is soon shattered. He finds himself drawn
into the mysteries of the club all thanks to the wobbly arrival of Iris who
claims is on a secret mission of vital importance, the success of which hinges
on her getting paralytic. It is only then can she hear the whispering voices in
her head!
The Doctor soon learns that Bianca's is a hotbed of plotting
and counterplotting with no less than three malevolent powers scheming away
against each other. Then there the wriggling, writhing presence that has
designs on the clientele just as Bianca herself has designs on The Doctor.
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| Katy
Manning |
|
But Bianca's is no ordinary night club - as The Doctor soon realises when he deduces that the entrance to Bianca's maybe is in
Berlin but the club itself is in deep space.
As Bianca's
descends into chaos, not helped by Iris becoming drunk and becoming part of the
cabaret act, The Doctor implores her to stop singing or she'll destroy them
all. Until that is when The Doctor realises that the Bianca's suggestion to
solve everything is right and Iris must die...
But how can
The Doctor allow this to happen. Despite finding Iris annoying to the extreme
the weary Time Lord has been dragged by the heels into that darkest of
undiscovered countries and something as yet truly alien to him - love.
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Notes:
- Featuring the Sixth
Doctor.
- Serial Number: SS5
- Number of Episodes: 4
- Cover Length: 125 minutes
- Episode Lengths: 1 = 32'54", 2 = 32'08", 3 =
33'27", 4 = 35'33"
- Total Story Length: 134'02"
- This story takes place shortly after "The
Trial of a Time Lord".
- Early Title: "The Devil Woman".
- Cover Illustration: Lee Binding
- Recorded: 1st and 10th November 2002
- Recording Location: The Moat Studios
- Released: November 2003
- ISBN: 1-84435-033-9
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On the Back Cover:
There's one
place in creation where the truth really can be found
in the bottom of a glass - Bianca's, a very special and
very exclusive little club.
The Doctor,
careworn and seeking quiet distraction, gains admission.
But his rest and relaxation is soon shattered by the wobbly
arrival of louche trans-temporal adventuress Iris Wildthyme.
She claims she's on a secret mission of vital importance,
the success of which hinges on her getting paralytic.
When
she's drunk, she can hear the whispering voices in her
head!
The
Doctor soon learns that Bianca's airs and graces cover
not just one malevolent power lurking in the shadows,
but several. And a wriggling, writhing presence has designs
on the clientele just as Bianca herself has designs
on The Doctor.
At last, after so many
centuries, the weary Time Lord is dragged by the heels
into that darkest of undiscovered countries… love... |
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On the Inside Cover:
WE HAD WANTED
to write something together for a long time, but we both
decided that we had to wait for a project to come along
that had real integrity. A project that had something
to say about the condition of man and the nature of the
universe, that would transcend its genre roots and its
limitations of form to become timeless and profound.
Then
we thought, 'Stuff that', and started making up all this
stuff about tequila worms who wanted to take over the
multiverse, who operate from a 1930s cabaret and get everyone
dead drunk.
We passed the
baton of writing back and forth, taking the story forward
a little at a time, each waiting to see what the other
would come up with before pressing on. And the beautiful
cast did much the same, listening to each other, laughing
with each other; it was a bit like being down the pub
with your mates, complete with a ramshackle singalong
when the script demanded it. And why not? It's 40 years
since all this madness started - and The Wormey
is a boozy celebration...
|
Paul Magrs and Stephen Cole,
April 2003 |
Stephen Cole (pictured with friend) and Paul Magrs
(not pictured at all) have, between them, written more
Doctor Who books and short stories than can be
listed here. Both have, of course, extensive non-Doctor
Who careers as well, but somehow they keep getting
drawn hack to the good old TARDIS. Both have written two
previous DoctorWho audios - Paul did Excelis
Dawns and The Stones of Venice, whilst Steve
has penned The Land of the Dead and The Apocalypse
Element. |
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Production Notes:
Shortly
after completing work on Excelis
Dawns, we all knew we wanted Katy to return as
Iris Wildthyme, a marvellous character created by Paul
Magrs who had cropped up in one or two of his Doctor
Who novels. And Katy was equally keen to do so, and
asked if she could work with Colin Baker as they were
old chums. Colin was also very interested, but because
Katy lives in Sydney, Australia, we had to record the
play when she was next over in the UK - nearly a year
before its eventual release!
Big Finish helpfully provided
the writers with very little in the way of concepts or
story requirements - saying that they just wanted something
that could only be done with Iris rather than any of The Doctor's more traditional travelling compan-ions. After
reading this script, they realised they'd never look at
the contents of a Tequila bottle again in quite the same
way... |
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Full Cast List:
| The Doctor |
Colin Baker |
| Iris Wildthyme |
Katy Manning |
| Allis & Ballis |
James Campbell |
| Henry |
Paul Clayton |
| Sturmer |
Mark Donovan |
| Heinrich |
Jason Loborik |
| Bianca |
Maria McErlane |
| Mickey |
Jane McFarlane |
The Production Team:
| Writer |
Stephen Cole and
Paul Magrs |
| Director |
Gary Russell |
| Sound/Music |
Stephen Cole and
Jason Loborik |
| Theme Music |
David Darlington |
| Producers |
Gary Russell and
Jason Haigh-Ellery |
| Executive Producer for the BBC |
Jaqueline Rayner |
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