The Vanity Trap (audio story)

The Vanity Trap was the third story in the audio anthology The Sixth Doctor and Peri: Volume One. It was written by Stuart Manning and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown.

Publisher's summary
Myrna Kendal used to be a Hollywood film star. Now she spends her life reminiscing on chat shows but there is always one unfinished film she refuses to talk about… at least until the TARDIS interrupts a TV interview, and the Doctor and Peri’s appearance stirs up long-forgotten memories.

Plot
Myrna Kendal is being interviewed about her acting career and is asked about her final performance, which was in an unfinished 1972 film called Beast. She declines to talk about it, but says that the reason she left the profession was because of a remarkable man.

The Doctor sets course for Metebelis IV, but he and Peri instead find themselves in the television studio where they are recognised by Myrna as friends from 1972. They realise that they will meet Myrna in their future and travel back in time to the filming of Beast at Mammoth Studios in Teddington, the Doctor dressing in velvet and frills in an attempt to look less conspicuous. He saves Myrna from being crushed by studio lights and, believing him to be a journalist, she offers to give him an exclusive. Once Myrna and director Jimmy Garfield have gone, the Doctor shows Peri that the studio lights, which were polished metal when they walked in, are now rusted.

The Doctor and Peri join Myrna and Jimmy in watching the rushes. The projector spools but the image freezes, another indication that something strange is happening to time, and Myrna invites the Doctor to join her on a drive. He asks her about the accident and how it was only one in a line of accidents she has suffered recently, and she says that she feels that something is watching her from the corner of her eye.

Peri speaks with young actress Carolyn Sue, whose only line is to be cut from the film at Myrna's insistence,

to be completed

Cast

 * The Doctor - Colin Baker
 * Peri Brown - Nicola Bryant
 * Myrna Kendal - Sarah Douglas
 * Jimmy Garfield - Stephen Critchlow
 * Dr Karp - Ryan Forde Iosco
 * Carolyn Sue - Rosie Baker

Continuity

 * In order to blend in, the Doctor dons the outfit he wore in his third incarnation (TV: Spearhead from Space, et al.)