The Ultimate Evil (audio story)

 was the second and final story in the fifth series of The Lost Stories, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was adapted by Wally K Daly, from his original script, and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown.

This story was originally intended to be the second story of the original Season 23, but was cancelled along with other planned stories when Doctor Who went on a production hiatus.

Publisher's summary
With the TARDIS working perfectly, the Doctor and Peri decide to take a holiday. But where? A long-forgotten piece of equipment in the TARDIS storage locker sends them to the peaceful and idyllic continent of Tranquela - home of the Doctor’s old friend Ravlos.

But the land where they emerge is far from peaceful. A hate ray is regularly sweeping Tranquela, turning its inhabitants into savage beasts, and there is only one place it can originate - the planet's other continent, home of Tranquela's old enemies, the Amelierans.

Or is that the only place? Because somewhere far above the planet events are watched by the slimy super-salesman, Mordant, who has his own unscrupulous plans.

Part one
The Doctor is aggrieved to find that the TARDIS is functioning perfectly as it means that he does not know what to do without having to make repairs, leading Peri to suggest a holiday. Initially resistant, he retrieves from the stowage locker a customised Salakan holiday ball gifted to him by Mordant in an unsuccessful attempt to bribe him into helping with his experiments and uses it to find the perfect holiday destination: the continent of Tranquela on Amaltron, homeland of the Doctor's scientist friend Ravlos.

Mordant, spying on the Doctor through the holiday ball, is irritated by the Doctor's imminent arrival on Tranquela as he has been targeting the continent with a hate ray for some time and does not want him interfering. He activates the hate ray when the he and Peri arrive on a beach and the surrounding Tranquelans attack, the Doctor managing to get back into the TARDIS and Peri being stuck outside. The Doctor loses his memory of his companion thanks to Mordant using the holiday ball and dematerialises the TARDIS, made angry and violent by Mordant's influence.

Peri learns from the now-docile Locas about the hate wave, which recently caused him to kill his girlfriend, Mariana, who resembled Peri, and which usually happens at set times. He was forgiven by the Court, although Escoval voted in favour of his death and is encouraging the belief that the Amelierans of the second continent, Ameliera, are responsible. Secretly, Escoval is in league with Mordant as part of a scheme to become Amaltron's ruler and smashes up the equipment in Ravlos's laboratory to stop his and his wife Koreelya's investigations into the hate ray.

Remembering that he intended to visit Ravlos, the Doctor materialises the TARDIS in his laboratory and hides when Ravlos and Koreelya enter and see the destroyed equipment. However, Mordant increases his aggression in the hopes of making him kill the couple and then does the same to Locas, who mistakes Peri for Mariana and tries to kill her atop the cliffs. She nears the edge as the Doctor attacks Ravlos.

Part two
Koreelya puts a helmet on the Doctor which deflects the hate ray, but he again becomes violent after she and Ravlos cautiously remove it. Tipped off by Mordant, Escoval uses a hypno-gun to control Shankel, a guard, and has him arrest the Doctor, who manages to knock the two of them out. The Doctor, Ravlos and Koreelya realise that Mordant's holiday ball in the TARDIS is being used as a local transmitter for the hate ray and cover it up with the helmet, blocking out its influence. They enter the TARDIS and Escoval tells Abatan that they are responsible for smashing up their own equipment as a cover-up, which Shankel confirms. Because Shankel deserted his post, he is imprisoned.

Locas returns to normal and teleports himself and Peri to the home palace of his father and head of the First Family, Abatan, and enter the forbidden Armoury in search of Shankel, his friend. Abatan catches them and has them locked up to await trial, which he expects which result in the two of them being left unchained when the hate ray takes effect so that they will kill each other. To avoid shaming his family and putting Escoval of the Second Family in charge as a consequence, Locas refuses to use teleportation to save himself and Peri and they are soon joined by Shankel, whom he suspects has been drugged.

The Doctor travels to Ameliera and Escoval uses his hypno-gun to make Ravlos and Koreelya support his claims that they are Amelieran spies rather than expose him to Abatan, leading to a declaration of war. The Leader of the Amelierans tortures the Doctor and has him escorted back to the TARDIS as a messenger to the Tranquelans. Peri and Locas teleport into the TARDIS after a brief accidental visit to Mordant's planetoid and the three of them are hit with a fear wave to incapacitate them as both continents prepare for war. The Doctor pilots the TARDIS out of the way of the wave and uses a wave tracker to track Mordant down.

Escoval teleports away when the TARDIS arrives and hypnotises a guard into shooting Abatan, but Locas follows and it is instead Escoval who is killed. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Peri confront Mordant, who admits that he has been working to start a war so that he can sell both sides weapons, and make him send a wave of peace to Amaltron and leave the star system. Both sides begin their peace talks, Ravlos and Koreelya serving as ambassadors for Tranquela, and Locas is reunited with Mariana, whom he learns teleported away after he tried to kill her. The Doctor and Peri head off for another attempt at a holiday, with Peri suggesting Majorca.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Colin Baker
 * Peri / Mariana - Nicola Bryant
 * Mordant - Robin Sebastian
 * Abatan - Kim Durham
 * Escoval - Guy Burgess
 * Locas - Jack Forsyth-Noble
 * Ravlos - Paul Panting
 * Koreelya - Issy Van Randwyck
 * Shankel / Leader - Jack Myers
 * The Bird - Wally K Daly

Crew

 * Cover Art - Ryan Aplin
 * Director - Helen Goldwyn
 * Executive Producers - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
 * Music and Sound Design - Nigel Fairs
 * Producer - David Richardson
 * Script Editor - John Dorney
 * Writer - Wally K Daly

Worldbuilding

 * Peri brings the Doctor coffee.
 * The holiday ball was made on Salakan.
 * A sucksos is a cross between a scone and a chocolate biscuit.
 * Thought balloons can be used for teleportation.
 * Mordant has hypno-guns.
 * Escovar has an instant transponder.
 * Mordant claims that he has space plague.

Continuity

 * The Doctor and Peri have just been on holiday. (AUDIO: The Nightmare Fair)