Time of the Vulpreen (audio story)

 was the fourth and final story in the audio anthology Objective: Earth, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Roland Moore and featured Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as Petronella Osgood, James Joyce as Josh Carter, Chris Lew Kum Hoi as Jimmy Tan, Eleanor Crooks as Naomi Cross and Mark Bonnar as the Eleven.

Publisher's summary
UNIT coordinates a worldwide response to the arrival of Vulpreen Arches around the globe. Troops stand ready to face the invaders.

Kate Stewart and Osgood form an uneasy alliance with the Eleven to destroy the time fields that protect each Arch and which are being used as a devastating weapon by the Vulpreen. But when the invasion starts, the odds may be stacked too heavily against them...

Plot
Osgood oversees missions to surround and try to destroy the 419 arches that have landed around the world, but Josh reports that bullets disintegrate when they get close. She sends Josh to capture a new one on the Isle of Wight, unaware that it is Lord Varliss's plan to have UNIT wait at the arches and get the upper hand thanks to time being on the Vulpreen's side.

Apparently cut out of Varliss's plans, the Eleven works on a time field inhibitor for UNIT to remove the fields around the arches. Kate contacts Geneva to arrange talks to put Osgood's plan to use the Internet to spread its effects around the world into place. Jimmy returns from the hospital and Kate sends Naomi to meet with Harry at the arch on Wimbledon Common.

Artist Daniel Hoyer finds an arch in his backgarden and tries to touch it, but the field ages his hand and Josh soon lands and has it surround it. A Vulpreen deputy brings Josh to Varliss's attention and Varliss travels through the arch to get his revenge on Josh for his part in Kate's escape from the Void World. He is trapped in the time field, however, after attempting to fire his energy weapon. Josh informs Kate, who learns from the Eleven that the Vulpreen do not properly understand the arches without him.

Kate, Osgood and the Eleven go to Hoyer's arch. Varliss replicates the time bubble and Josh has his soldiers fire at the arch, incorrectly believing that it would be unprotected as a result. The time bubbles kill many of the soldiers and ages Daniel whilst Varliss is able to escape back through the arch after the Eleven, aged sixty years, activates the inhibitor. Osgood and the Eleven work to repair the badly-damaged inhibitor.

Naomi reports that the time field of the arch on Wimbledon Common is greatly expanding and freezing everything inside of it. Kate finds that this is happening almost everywhere around the world whilst leaving some areas in real time and asks the Eleven if he knew that this would happen, which he denies. She plans to have the Eleven activate an arch to take them to the asteroid ship to destroy the arches at their source. Daniel insists on joining her, Josh and Jimmy, but she refuses to allow it.

The group place explosives around the asteroid ship and head back to the arch, but Josh finds that the timer in his backpack has been destroyed, meaning that one of them will have to remain behind. Each of them volunteers and Jimmy suggests that they draw lots; Josh draws the short one, although Kate suspects that he ensured that that was the case. Kate and Jimmy return to the Isle of Wight where Osgood and the Eleven are hiding from Vulpreen soldiers. Seeing that Josh is missing, Osgood appears to him using the holographic projector and learns of the situation. They say their goodbyes and Kate activates the inhibitor.

The asteroid ship is destroyed, but Varliss has already travelled to the Isle of Wight via another arch and reveals that the Internet has been disconnected. He also tells the Eleven that he has the services of another Time Lord, to whom he is to deliver the Eleven. He captures the Eleven and Jimmy whilst Kate and Osgood escape and are reunited with Josh, whose place Daniel took at the last moment after following the group through the arch. Kate leaves in a helicopter and Osgood and Josh learn that the Vulpreen are allied with.

Cast

 * Kate Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
 * Osgood - Ingrid Oliver
 * Josh Carter - James Joyce
 * The Eleven - Mark Bonnar
 * Jimmy Tan - Chris Lew Kum Hoi
 * Daniel Hoyer / Vulpreen Deputy - Daniel Easton
 * Varliss - Alisdair Simpson
 * Naomi Cross - Eleanor Crooks

Worldbuilding

 * Josh has Sergeant Butler move the troops into position. He later guards the arch on the Isle of Wight.
 * An arch lands near Oslo and on Wimbledon Common.
 * The Eleven makes a circuit which he claims is to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow. The Brigadier told Kate that the Third Doctor would say this when he did not want to explain something.
 * Daniel Hoyer has a podcast.
 * Grief in Pieces was a mosaic made by Daniel out of photographs of crying people.
 * The Eleven says that his work would be easier with a sonic screwdriver.
 * The inhibitor has a strontium capacitor.
 * The Eleven finds an old mobile phone.
 * Kate takes Osgood's holographic projector.
 * Osgood says that she has not seen so many makeshift electrical connections since she last visited her aunt's house.
 * Osgood threatens the Eleven with her inhaler, claiming that it is a deadly gas gun.

Continuity

 * The Eleven says that Kate would not have escaped Axos without him. (AUDIO: Axos Unleashed)
 * Josh helped Kate escape from the Void World. (AUDIO: Ten Minutes in Hell)
 * Osgood likens the time bubbles to those on the arch ship which killed Jimmy's squad. (AUDIO: The Vulpreen Encounter)
 * Osgood mentions Jacqui's death. (AUDIO: By Jacqui McGee)
 * Osgood knows of, who killed her first Zygon double. (TV: Death in Heaven)