The Library of Alexandria (audio story)

The Library of Alexandria was the tenth story of the seventh series in The Companion Chronicles audio range. It was produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Simon Guerrier and featured Ian Chesterton.

Publisher's summary
The port of Alexandria, 5th Century AD.

The Doctor, Ian, Susan and Barbara have taken a break from their travels, and are enjoying a few weeks in the sunshine — and the chance to appreciate the magnificent Library of Alexandria.

Ian also takes the chance to enjoy friendship with the philosopher Hypatia — but things here will not last forever.

The time travellers know that the library will soon be lost to history.

What they are about to discover is the terrifying reason why...

The Library of Alexandria (1)
At Alexandria's harbour, a group of guards led by Ian Chesterton boards a ship and finds a cargo of scrolls. They confiscate them, because the law of the town establishes that every scroll has to be handed over at the local Library, so that it can be stored. A woman, Hypatia, assists to the raid and starts scraping throughout the books, catching Ian's eye, and insisting on a quick peek before the books are handed over to the authorities of the Library.

Ian recalls the arrival of the travellers at the Library some weeks earlier, and their decision to stay awhile to enjoy a holiday and admire the greatness of the Library and the amount of knowledge stored there, which in the future will allow humanity to travel to the stars. Ian had started working for the Library to pay for the rooms, and while the others spend their time watching plays or talking science, he ponders and reflects upon scientific problems and what their travels showed them of humanity's future. He'd like to talk with Barbara about it, but he is not sure she'd understand. So, some days later, he goes to assist to one of Hypatia's lessons of science and spends the afternoon with her, talking about science and even exposing her, if only as theories, some of the knowledge of the future.

When he comes back to their lodging their night, he is received with coldness and anger by his companions. Barbara is jealous of Ian's attention towards Hypathia, also because she knows she will shortly die by the hands of an angry mob. This also means that they arrive at a time shortly before the destruction of the Library, and they cannot interfere to prevent it - even though, as Susan reminds them, nobody knows how exactly the Library was destroyed, to the point that one of the accounts even says it was attacked by "sea monsters". The travellers unanimously decide it is time for them to leave, and the next day Ian comes to say goodbye to Hypatia. The scientist, however, has time to show Ian a book she found among the scrolls he confiscated some time ago: a leaather-bound book like the one of Ian's time, which nobody can read except Ian himself (due to his connection with the telepathic circuits of the TARDIS). Ian is alarmed by what he reads: the book contains a detailed description of Earth by an alien race for an invasion.

He and Hypatia bring the book to the Doctor and the other travellers, which has already reached the TARDIS in the Library's garden. The Doctor recognises it as written by the Mim, but also states that the book concludes there is nothing of value on Earth for them, so an invasion is not actually happening. However, to prevent a damage to history, he decides to bring the book with them, which causes Hypatia to call the guards to stop them to retrieve it. Before the Doctor can open the TARDIS, or the guards reach them, some creatures emerge from the sea of the harbor, moving towards the city.

The Pathway to the Stars (2)
The Mim start attacking the city, and after a brief hesitation, the Doctor agrees to help. He orders Ian, Barbara and Susan to stay in the Library as he and Hypatia goes to confront one of the assailors in the city, bringing the book with them. The Doctor attracts his attention with a game of mirrors (using his spetacles) and after congratulating himself with them for their discretion, hands him over the book, inviting him to go away. The Mim, however, replies they cannot leave just like that: some of the humans may have read the book, and the Library is known as a place of knowledge and research. Therefore, in order to prevent human history from derailing, they need to destroy it.

Ian, Susan and Barbara see the Library burning and cannot help intervening to save people and the books. Ian asks Susan whether the Mim has some weaknesses, and after a while Susan recalls that they are sensible to some frequences. Ian gathers all the musicians he can find and uses a rudimental megaphone to try and hold off the Mim's attack against the Library, until the Doctor comes back with Hypatia. Using the megaphone, the Doctor tells the Mim that their book has been burnt, and that they, destroying the Library, has set back the evolution of mankind of some time. The Mim believe the Doctor's word and go away, leaving the Library to burn.

Some days after, Ian goes to say goodbye to Hypatia, who is known unsure whether to stay in Alexandria, with the Library gone. Ian brings her into the garden where the TARDIS is, and they find the Doctor challenging some children to move a stone with a writing carved in Greek and Egyptian to the harbor. Intrigued, Hypatia starts to think about how to do it with the children too, and elects to stay after kissing Ian goodbye. In front of the TARDIS, the Doctor admits to have tricked the Mim, making them believe that the Library's destruction was a blow to human history (when instead it was supposed to happen), and that the stone he challenged the children to move will one day become the Rosetta Stone. Inside the TARDIS, Ian discovers that Barbara and Susan has saved as many books as they could bringing them into the ship, and that they are going to keep them, since giving them back would change human history.

Cast

 * Ian Chesterton - William Russell
 * Hypatia - Susan Franklyn

Characters

 * Ian Chesterton
 * First Doctor
 * Susan
 * Barbara Wright
 * Hypatia

Continuity

 * Ian remembers the Doctor saying "Our destiny is in the stars." (TV: The Reign of Terror)
 * Alexander the Great is referred to as an old friend. (AUDIO: Farewell, Great Macedon)
 * This will not be the last time that the Doctor, Ian and Barbara visit the library during peculiar happenings. (PROSE: The Book of Shadows)
 * Ian recalls seeing the Transit of Venus in 1770. (AUDIO: The Transit of Venus)
 * Following the library's destruction, the Fourth Doctor was ejected from the premises and had his lending privileges suspended because they did not trust him after he misshelved the Dead Sea Scrolls. Nevertheless, he still had one of their books, Ptolemy's Treatise on the Structure, Position and Medicinal Nature of Celestial Bodies out on loan some 2093 years and four months after it was due back. (PROSE: Eye of Heaven)
 * At some point prior to his seventh incarnation, the Doctor saved two of Aristophanes' plays from the flames. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Apocalypse)
 * The Eighth Doctor would later tell his companion Tamsin Drew that he was present for the burning of the Library of Alexandria but could not prevent it from happening due to the Web of Time. (AUDIO: The Resurrection of Mars)
 * Being able to read the Mim's reconnaissance report without any problem, Ian explains to Hypatia that he has a gift for being able to read and understand languages without even knowing them. (TV: The End of the World et al.)
 * By the time of his sixth incarnation, the Doctor had rescued several scrolls from the Library of Alexandria during the fire. (AUDIO: The Carrionite Curse)