The Mega (audio story)

 was the fourth and final story in the fourth series of The Lost Stories, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was adapted by Simon Guerrier, from the original script by Bill Strutton, narrated by Katy Manning and Richard Franklin and featured the Third Doctor, Jo Grant, Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, Captain Yates, Sergeant Benton and UNIT.

Publisher's summary
"This is a warning. Your aggression cannot go unchecked. The West must disarm. We will make you disarm."

When an assassination follows the first demonstration of a deadly new weapon, it appears that an alien race has fired the opening salvo in a new war — a war... for peace.

But is that truly their intent? The Doctor is unsure. The answer lies deep in the heart of a distant country. A place where a man might be a hero or a traitor. Where a man has to face the menace...of the Mega.

Part one
After the demonstration of a deadly new chemical weapon, the United Kingdom is put on immediate notice by a powerful alien race, who murder a top military defence chief and threaten other officials with the same, unless the entire country agrees to completely disarm.

The Doctor is summoned to a secret audience with the mysterious aggressors. Upon entering an abandoned dockland warehouse, he and Jo are attacked by an 8 foot-tall monster with a swirling silver vortex in place of a face.

Part two
The monster - a Mega - hesitates, regarding the Doctor's peaceful motives as curious, but it is then distracted by two UNIT soldiers. The creature escapes in a plane piloted by a human captain.

Unaware that the threat to the UK is extraterrestrial, and with the Doctor unwilling to divulge the truth, UNIT is seconded to the regular army to fight the mysterious assailants.

The Doctor and Jo track the Mega to Golbasto, a small European principality bordering Vienna, where the vain Prince Cassie has in his possession an entire army of Mega...

Part three
Cassie plans to use the Mega to control the world according to his own social philosophies. He forces the Doctor to convince the British authorities that the Doctor and Jo have defected to a foreign power.

The Doctor and Jo escape to an abandoned research facility and attempt to contact UNIT using a heliograph - but are thwarted by a patrol of Mega.

When the United Kingdom again refuses to disarm before another deadline given by Cassie, the British Prime Minister is murdered, remotely, on live television.

Part four
The Doctor and Jo return to Prince Cassie's castle, where the Prince surprises them by producing the destroyed heliograph and employing them to repair it.

Meanwhile, riots break out across London following the Prime Minister's assassination. The authorities prepare to use the UK's new gas weapon on the rioters, but the General in charge is assassinated by the Mega, negating those plans.

Called to a meeting at Downing Street, Yates observes that anti-establishment protestors are now in positions of power.

At the castle, Jo and the Doctor learn of the British Prime Minister's assassination and Jo, in distress, attempts to sabotage Prince Cassie's operations. The Prince, enraged, orders the Mega to destroy her.

Part five
The Doctor manages to prevent Jo's execution, and is subsequently ordered by Prince Cassie to work out how to widen the beam of the Mega's molecule ray - the weapon Cassie has been using to assassinate UK officials.

The Mega want to cause chaos amongst the human race, before revealing their presence and casting themselves as humanity's saviours.

The Doctor manages to secretly construct a small model aircraft disguised as a Golbastan eagle. Loading it with intelligence intended for UNIT, he sets it on a course for across the border ... before the Mega locate its trajectory, intending to test the Doctor's modified molecule ray on it...

Meanwhile, back in the UK, the Prime Minister is revealed to be alive, part of an elaborate ploy to make Cassie believe that the chaos has resulted in a revolution.

Part six
The Prince orders the Mega not to destroy the Doctor's model plane, believing it to be a real Golbastan eagle - a sacred symbol of his country.

The eagle makes it across the border, and UNIT, aided by the information it contains, launches a missile attack on Prince Cassie's castle - but the missiles are vaporised by the Mega.

The Prince, finally convinced by the Doctor of the Mega's true intentions for world domination, focuses the molecule ray on his own castle, destroying himself and the majority of the Mega force.

At the same time, the Doctor and Jo manage to escape Golbasto in a biplane, pursued by the remaining Mega. After crash-landing on the other side of the border, UNIT comes to their rescue, destroying the Mega with the UK's chemical weapon - which, as per the Doctor's instructions, has been reprogrammed to only affect the Mega.

Cast

 * Jo Grant - Katy Manning
 * Captain Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
 * Wiley/Cassie/Prime Minister/Man - Bo Poraj
 * Magee/Laurence/The Mega/Chap - Derek Carlyle

Crew

 * Cover Art - Damien May
 * Director - Ken Bentley
 * Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
 * Music and Sound Design - Lauren Yason and Richard Fox @ FoxYason Studios
 * Producer - David Richardson
 * Script Editor - John Dorney
 * Written by Bill Strutton, adapted by Simon Guerrier

Worldbuilding

 * Jo remarks that General Wiley's moustache resembles Herbert Kitchener's

Continuity

 * The Brigadier mentions the Silurian incident. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
 * Tom Osgood creates a rain machine from the Doctor's blueprints. (TV: The Dæmons)
 * Corporal Carol Bell is still part of the Brigadier's staff. (TV: The Claws of Axos)
 * told the Mega how to invade the Earth. (TV: The Claws of Axos, et al.)
 * Sergeant John Benton mentions chasing Cybermen through the sewers. (TV: The Invasion)