Crime of the Century (audio story)

Crime of the Century was the fourth story release in the second series of The Lost Stories, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was adapted by Andrew Cartmel, from the original script by Ben Aaronovitch, and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace and introduced Beth Chalmers as Raine Creevy.

This story was originally intended to be the third story of the original Season 27, but was cancelled along with other planned stories when Doctor Who itself was cancelled in 1989.

Publisher's summary
The year is 1989. In London, safe cracker Raine Creevy breaks into a house — and finds more than the family jewels.

In the Middle East, the kingdom of Sayf Udeen is being terrorised by Soviet invaders and alien monsters.

And on the Scottish border, a highly guarded facility contains an advanced alien weapon.

These are all part of the Doctor's masterplan. But masterplans can go awry...

Part one
In October 1989, Raine Creevy goes to a party and, watched by a guest whom she gives a spiked maraschino cherry, cracks her way into a safe and finds the Doctor waiting inside. He knew to wait for her there because he read her diary, although she has not yet written an entry on this night, and tells her where the black pearl necklace that she was hired to rob is. Before they can get off the property, the alarm sounds and they flee, throwing black pepper into the eyes of the dogs; upon getting away, Raine abandons the Doctor in her car.

Ace gets the attention of Markus Creevy, sat in his car, and reminds him of how they met in Russia in the 1960s. She tells him that the Doctor wants his help, but he refuses until she warns him that eleven or twelve CID men are in the warehouse he is watching. He calls off the operation to steal antique coins worth £30,000 and invites Ace into his car; she asks him to use his connections in the Middle East to get her into Kafiristan, a country at war, and provide her with guns, maps, vodka and other supplies. They drive away upon hearing sirens.

Several nights later, Raine waits in the cold for her buyer and lifts a sword which feels warm and natural in her hand. She is only able to put down thanks to the Doctor, who arrives and reveals that he is her client, having hired her to steal several items obtained illicitly to be returned to their rightful owner. He tells her that the sword is Martian and that a device she has is a human transponder. A man approaches, having found Raine using the transponder, and intends to take the treasures back.

Ace travels with Lieutenant Nikitin to Kafiristan by a terrain vehicle before going by foot. They come across wrecked vehicles which Nikitin tells her are rumoured by the tribes to have been attacked by demons. Ace suggests that they have a closer look, but Colonel Maxim Alexandrovitch Felnikov and soldiers of the People's Army, to which Nikitin belongs, stop her and prepare to execute her.

Part two
Although the man was only sent to retrieve the sword, he threatens the Doctor and Raine into handing over all of the treasures. Raine uses the sword to destroy the man's gun, scaring him away, and has an unhappy reunion with Markus, her father; the items were sold by Markus following Black Monday and the Doctor needs him solvent to assist him in his plans, which include reclaiming an item similar to a Fabergé egg. The Doctor keeps the sword, however, as he has a new owner in mind. Raine initially refuses to work with her father, but breaks down in tears after he gives her the black pearl necklace in memory of her mother.

On the Isle of Dogs, the Doctor, Raine and Markus break into a replica of RAF Spadeadam, their next destination. The Doctor explains that the real base will be guarded by robot kill teams and that Raine will have to break into a vault. Upon completing the mission, they fly to Kafiristan and meet Prince Sayf, to whom the Doctor hands the Martian sword in return for a favour. Sayf is called away and the Doctor and Raine watch him meet outside with Felnikov, with whom he shakes hands.

Ace claims to be a war correspondent with the fictional Perivale Enquirer and wins Felnikov over by giving him and his men ten litres of vodka, although Felnikov does feel that he recognises her from somewhere once she removes her hat. Felnikov and his men take Ace and Nikitin with them, first by vehicle and then by foot when they reach a roadblock. Ace and Nikitin climb to a height to keep an eye on the palace of Prince Sayf Udeen, enemy of the People's Army, and later go to see Sergeant Valentin Abramov, the almost unresponsive survivor of the supposed demon attacks. He can only say насекомое, meaning "insect". They suddenly come under attack from monsters.

Part three
The Doctor and Raine travel with Sayf and Walnuf by helicopter to the site of a battle against the demons, where they discuss the fight and the Doctor learns that the demons did not use their guns against the soldiers using swords. He analyses an advanced alien bullet and he and Raine return to the palace by land vehicle whilst Sayf uses the helicopter to go to an isolated valley. There, Felnikov asks Sayf to supply him with one of the demon's weapons in return for guns for his insurgency.

The Doctor and Raine arrive at the valley using another of Sayf's helicopters and Felnikov recognises the Doctor, making him realise where he recognises Ace from. Not having been contacted by Ace within an agreed time, the Doctor assumes that she is in danger and gives Sayf the Martian sword. He and Sayf head off in the direction of billowing smoke whilst Raine takes Felnikov to the palace by helicopter.

Ace, Nikitin and Valentin arm themselves, but Valentin soon tries to shoot himself rather than face the demons. The battle outside ends and they flee, chased by the demons, to a cave where Valentin hides at the back. The Doctor and Sayf arrive and the Doctor says that he plans on having Sayf challenge the Metatraxi to mortal combat, defeat one in a swordfight and force them to leave Earth. However, Sayf and Valentin are killed by ricocheting Metatraxi bullets and the Doctor tells Ace to pick up the sword.

Part four
Ace picks up the sword and hears its voice whispering to her in her mind. The Doctor calls for parley with the Metatraxi and alters their translator device, allowing them to communicate better but with the voice and vocabulary of a stereotypical surfer. He challenges them to a swordfight with Ace and she is able to disarm the Metatraxi champion. The Doctor demands that they leave Earth, which they agree in return for their translator being returned to normal. He complies and they prepare to depart, but the champion is enraged upon learning that Ace is a female and deems the fight invalid.

The Doctor goes to a gentlemen's club and meets a Minister, accusing him of using Kafiristan as a testing ground for a weapon that his government confiscated from Creevy's contraband, one which looks like a Fabergé egg. The Minister refuses to hand it over and says that it is in a secure facility.

The Metatraxi contact Felnikov, whose government has hired them to fight their enemies in return for rare metals. As the Metatraxi have also killed Russians, he demands a refund, but is told that it is impossible. He is being held responsible for the attacks and will likely be imprisoned or executed and gives the Metatraxi one final mission. Raine and Felnikov go to RAF Spadeadam with the Metatraxi to steal the weapon. After fighting robots, the Metatraxi leave Earth and the Doctor, Ace and Markus appear, revealing that Raine had manipulated Felnikov. Markus escorts him away to travel to South America and Raine and opens the vault to steal the weapon.

The Doctor checks the robots and sees that they were built by the Cybernetics Research Unit at Margrave University, whom he decides to pay a visit to. Ace and Raine compliment one another's swordfighting and safecracking skills but exchange class-related insults when the Doctor suggests that they could be friends. The Doctor sets the weapon to self-destruct and, after running into the Minister, he and Ace invite Raine to travel with them to Margrave and beyond.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Ace - Sophie Aldred
 * Raine - Beth Chalmers
 * Markus Creevy - Ricky Groves
 * Nikitin - Derek Carlyle
 * Colonel Felnikov - John Albasiny
 * Metatraxi - John Banks
 * Prince Sayf Udeen - Chris Porter

Crew

 * Cover Art - Alex Mallinson
 * Director - Ken Bentley
 * Executive Producer - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
 * Music and Sound Design - Simon Robinson
 * Producer - David Richardson
 * Writer & Script Editor - Andrew Cartmel

Worldbuilding

 * Raine keeps a diary.
 * Raine drinks a Manhattan.
 * Raine obtained a stethoscope from a medical student she met at a party in Holland Park.
 * Raine has a jar of maraschino cherries.
 * Raine learnt some safecracking skills from somebody that her father knew.
 * Markus lost a lot of his money on Black Monday, the biggest financial meltdown since the Wall Street Crash. Felnikov dreamt up the scheme in an attempt to destabilise the western world, but it caused several of his superiors to lose money and he was sent back to the army.
 * The Doctor gets ground black pepper from the kitchen.
 * Kafiristan is best known for its uses of goat skin.
 * The People's Army defeated insurgents in Kafiristan.
 * Nikitin is an interpreter.
 * Sayf Udeen has seven wives.
 * Sayf fenced on several Olympic teams.
 * Sayf serves mint tea.
 * Valentin Abramov is the only person to survive an attack by the "demons".
 * The Metatraxi use Polyglot 7 Version 3, which is notorious as one of the worst translator devices in the galaxy. Most were recalled.
 * The Doctor claims that dolphins are "one of the few sentient species" on Earth.
 * The robots were built by Margrave University Cybernetics Research Unit.

Continuity

 * Raine Creevy was delivered by the Doctor in the Soviet Union on 7 November 1967, (AUDIO: Thin Ice) almost twenty-two years before the events of this story. From the Doctor's perspective, those events occurred immediately before his encounter with the adult Raine on 13 October 1989.
 * The Doctor and Ace previously met Markus Creevy and the then-Major Felnikov in Moscow in November 1967. Both Creevy and Felnikov take some time to realise that Ace is the same girl whom they had last seen more than two decades earlier, having not aged a day in the interim. (AUDIO: Thin Ice)
 * Ace refers to her home of Perivale. (TV: Ghost Light, TV: Survival)
 * Ace mentions that she has previously had bad experiences in caves. (TV: Dragonfire, TV: Battlefield)
 * Ace hates being called "small." (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
 * Felnikov calls Ace "tovarishch", a Russian word meaning comrade or friend or ally. The Fenric-possessed Captain Sorin also called her tovarishch. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)