Mother Russia (audio story)

Mother Russia was the first story of the second series of The Companion Chronicles, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Marc Platt, narrated by Peter Purves and featured the First Doctor, Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet.

It was the first to feature the talents of Peter Purves and to use the character of Dodo. However, it was not Steven Taylor's debut in the range, since he had earlier appeared in the very first Companion Chronicle, Frostfire, read by Maureen O'Brien.

It depicts an incident which happened to the First Doctor, Steven and Dodo during the Napoleonic Wars in Russia.

Publisher's summary
It's 1812 and the Doctor, Steven and Dodo get ready to spend their winter in a Russian village. The French are on their way, but that's not the only invasion the travellers will have to deal with.

Part one
''In a burning city, Steven is questioned by an interrogator who changes his shape. He is struggling with his memory, but is given all the time he needs to think back on his recent adventure.''

The TARDIS materialises in a forest in Russia in the spring of 1812 and the Doctor declares that it is time for him, Steven and Dodo to have a holiday. They come across a village and are pointed to the home of the landowner, Count Grigori Nikitin, who offers them his hospitality before proposing that the Doctor tutor his son, Alexei, and Dodo accompany his daughter, Olga, on the condition that she teach her the piano. Steven spends weeks walking, reading and fishing.

In June, Steven is taught by Semion Borisovich Stasov how to hunt and skin animals and, after some time, agrees to be his best man when he marries Glasha. On the first evening of the wedding, there is a space battle above the atmosphere and an escape pod crashes north of the village. Steven and Semion go to investigate and find it empty with strange tracks leading away. A bear tells Steven that winter is coming and knocks him unconscious, eventually being found by the Doctor and Dodo and carried back to the Nikitin house. Semion says that the village is not his home and is believed to have been cursed, but Steven defends him.

As a procession of refugees displaced by the invading French soldiers pass through the village, the villagers start to burn their harvest to keep it from the French before joining the refugees. Semion is locked up in the ice house to await judgement for deserting Glasha and the Doctor, Steven and Dodo rescue him, finding him suffering from hypothermia. The Doctor sends Steven and Dodo to fetch a first aid kit from the escape pod and they find Semion's body, his neck broken and his clothes missing. They run to the TARDIS and bang on the door, but the ship dematerialises.

Part two
The TARDIS leaves a phantom of itself behind, but it soon returns and the Doctor tells Steven and Dodo that Semion, whom they deduce is the survivor of the spaceship, attacked him and has disappeared. Although the Doctor is eager to leave Earth, Steven refuses to go without stopping the shapeshifter and heads out, followed by Dodo. They are approached by Napoléon and Steven is hit over the back of the head. When he becomes conscious the next day, Glasha, who has been caring for him, tells him that Dodo has disappeared and that the Doctor went with Napoléon with the TARDIS being transported by soldiers.

Steven rides with Glasha to Moscow, which is occupied by the French, and finds the Doctor advising Napoléon. The Doctor claims not to know of Dodo and brands Steven an assassin, doing nothing when Napoléon orders Steven to be executed. Just as he is about to be shot, however, the Doctor and Dodo intervene and explain that the Doctor with Napoléon is the shapeshifting alien, whom they have named the Shape Thief. The Thief is exposed and flees to the TARDIS, but the ship will not work for him. He tells the Doctor that he is an infiltrating agent adapted by scientists and declines his offer of a new life elsewhere, not wanting to run anymore.

''Steven tells the interrogator, who is actually the Thief, that the Russians were rebelling against the French. The Thief tells Steven that he will one day find somewhere that he belongs and, in the form of Napoléon, is carried away.''

Cast

 * Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
 * The Interrogator - Tony Millan

Characters

 * First Doctor
 * Steven Taylor
 * Dodo Chaplet
 * Shape thief
 * Count Grigori Nikitin
 * Semion Borisovich Stasov
 * Glasha
 * Glasha's mother
 * Napoléon Bonaparte

Worldbuilding

 * The Doctor uses his cane.
 * Dodo can tell that the TARDIS has not landed in England due to the presence of black squirrels.
 * The villagers give the travellers cabbage soup, black bread and pickled mushrooms.
 * Dodo carries a bag.
 * Nikitin gives the travellers pancakes with jam and sour cream.
 * Steven reads Homer's Iliad and remarks on its inaccuracy.
 * The TARDIS gathers moss.
 * Semion tells Steven about the legend of Immortal Koschei, who kept his soul hidden in an egg.
 * Semion asks Steven to be his best man.
 * The French win at Borodino.
 * Dodo gets water from the food machine.

Continuity

 * Steven identifies himself as a pilot, Flight Red 50. (TV: The Chase)
 * Dodo Chaplet takes up a position as a piano teacher, on the condition that she does not have to play, or hear Steven Taylor sing, "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon". Also, Steven is surprised that the Doctor wishes to holiday in Russia, since they have so recently holidayed in Tombstone, Arizona. (TV: The Gunfighters)
 * The Doctor's interest in Napoléon Bonaparte was no doubt fueled by the fact that, as Susan Foreman once said, the French Revolution was her grandfather's favourite period of Earth history — and the fact that he narrowly missed meeting Bonaparte the last time that he was in the era. (TV: The Reign of Terror) The Second Doctor would later have an extended encounter with Bonaparte (PROSE: World Game) and the Third Doctor would claim to have advised the Emperor that "an army marches on its stomach." (TV: Day of the Daleks)
 * The Eighth Doctor and his companions Fitz Kreiner and Trix MacMillan would later visit Russia during Napoléon's invasion in 1812. (PROSE: Emotional Chemistry) The renegade Time Lady Iris Wildthyme also met Napoleon on the Russian front. She told George Strangeways that, in spite of what the history books said, he was "anything but small". (AUDIO: The Panda Invasion)
 * The Doctor previously visited Russia, specifically Siberia in 1903, in the company of his granddaughter Susan, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. On that occasion, they met Grigori Rasputin. (AUDIO: The Wanderer)
 * The successful Russian defence against Napoléon's forces was later commemorated in the 1812 Overture by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. (AUDIO: A Thousand Tiny Wings)
 * Steven comments that Homer's writings in The Iliad are "wrong", and contrasts the French Army with that of the Greeks. (TV: The Myth Makers)