The Havoc of Empires (audio story)

The Havoc of Empires was the second and final story in The Third Doctor Adventures. It was written by Andy Lane and featured Tim Treloar as the Third Doctor as well as the Narrator, Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Richard Franklin as Mike Yates.

Publisher's summary
The Doctor and Jo take Mike Yates on his first trip in the TARDIS, but instead of the historical cricket match they were aiming for they end up on a futuristic space station in the middle of a diplomatic crisis that might escalate into galactic war.

The alien leader of the Chalnoth Hegemony is marrying the human Director of the Teklarn Incorporation, but there are forces that will stop at nothing to disrupt the ceremony. The Doctor is accused of murder while explosions occur across the station, and only Jo Grant, pretending to be a security consultant, can save the day.

But then, there's the Eels to consider...

Part one
Having recently had his exile on Earth rescinded by the Time Lords, the Doctor is doing TARDIS maintenance when Jo and Yates remind him that he agreed to take them to the Cavern Club in 1961 to see the Beatles, although Yates persuades Jo to postpone that trip and instead have a picnic at 1899 Trent Bridge to see W. G. Grace's last cricket match. The Doctor has taken the temporal synchromesh offline but agrees to take them.

The TARDIS instead materialises in a docking bay on Harmony Station in 2679. Lieutenant Commander Alex Filton arrives, having been sent by Earth Empire to coordinate security for the wedding of Regent Tharlar of the Chalnoth Alliance and Chief Executive Officer Tina Andresson of the Teklarn Incorporation, and forces the Doctor, Jo and Yates to identify themselves. Yates knocks him out with his cricket ball and they take him to safety before planning on returning to the TARDIS, but the docking bay is sealed for three hours for decontamination. The Doctor proposes that he takes on Filton's identity, but Jo does so instead due to their similar size.

The Doctor, Jo and Yates meet Louis Markell, Andresson's executive officer, and May Zalrick, wedding arranger and split up, with the Doctor meeting Tharlar and Yates meeting Andresson whilst Jo checks security arrangements with Louis. The decontamination of the docking bay is complete and Janos Pirell, who arranged the match, arrives; Jo has the Doctor and Yates join her to greet Pirell so that they might sneak away into the TARDIS, but Pirell's ship explodes.

Part two
The docking bay door is automatically closed due to structural damage which will take eight hours to repair. In the meantime, the Doctor, Jo and Yates decide to investigate Pirell's death; Jo meets with Markell and Lady Gurlen in the security centre and is unable to narrow down any suspects, but security recordings show that the bomb was beneath the ship rather than on it. Gurlen withdraws from the investigation until the Teklarn, whom she blames for the attack, is disciplined.

Jo summons the Doctor and Yates outside the docking bay and informs them of a sound in there that she and Markell had heard prior to the explosion. Amongst the weapons of the Chalnath and Teklarn, stored away to prevent fighting, the trio find a cage of five Attow Eels. Zalrick enters and explains that they are from Tersurus and will be the centrepiece of the ceremony, being heraldic animals of the Chalnath extinct in their space. Later, Gurlen tells Jo that she now believes that the Teklarn are unlikely to be behind Pirell's death and that blame might instead lie with the Delphons.

to be added

Part three
to be added

Part four
to be added

Cast

 * Narrator / The Doctor - Tim Treloar
 * Jo Grant - Katy Manning
 * Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
 * May Zalrick / Harmony Station AI - Helen Goldwyn
 * Regent Tharlar / Alex Filton - Hywel Morgan
 * Tina Andresson - Lucy Briggs-Owen
 * Lady Gurlen - Joanna Bacon
 * Louis Markell / Human Guard - George Layton

Continuity

 * Jo and Mike are planning on going on a date. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
 * The Doctor's exile has been rescinded by the Time Lords. (TV: The Three Doctors)
 * The Draconians (TV: Frontier in Space, et al), Alpha Centaurans (TV: The Curse of Peladon et al), Sontarans (TV: The Time Warrior et al) and the Rutan Host (TV: Horror of Fang Rock) are mentioned as species wanting a war between the Chalnoth and Teklarn, not peace.
 * The Attow Eels were brought from Tersurus. (AUDIO: Dominion)