Council of War (audio story)

Council of War was the twelfth and final story of the seventh series in The Companion Chronicles audio range. It was produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris and featured Sergeant Benton.

Publisher's summary
At the Doctor's request, Sergeant Benton is investigating ghosts and missing people in Kettering, while undercover as a local councillor.

And that's how he comes to meet Margery Phipps.

An alien incursion in the town hall leads them on a journey to a terrible future — where Margery discovers how she changed a world, and the life of a whole civilisation hangs in the balance...

Part one
to be added

Part two
to be added

Cast

 * Sergeant Benton - John Levene
 * Margery Phipps / Beryl Umbridge - Sinead Keenan

Uncredited cast

 * Documentary narrator - Lisa Bowerman

Crew

 * Cover Art - Anthony Lamb
 * Director - Lisa Bowerman
 * Executive Producer - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
 * Music and Sound Design - Simon Robinson
 * Producer - David Richardson
 * Script Editor - Jacqueline Rayner
 * Writers - Simon Barnard and Paul Morris

Worldbuilding

 * Margery Phipps, a member of the Harmony Party, was the first woman to elected to the Kettering Town Council. She is a feminist, a vegetarian and an environmentalist.
 * Overnight, the Doctor builds a time disturbance sensor for Benton to use to detect "ghosts" in Kettering.
 * Benton goes undercover as an independent councillor in the Burton Latimer Ward in investigate the disappearance of Beryl Umbridge.
 * Ted Fields dresses as Father Christmas.
 * Margery describes Benton as handsome in a "mail order catalogue sort of way" and claims that he resembles James Bond, "not the new one, the one before him but without the Australian accent."
 * UNIT believes that the "ghosts" are time travellers from the future.
 * Benton describes Margery as "a Bolshie women's libber."
 * Margery refers to Marks & Spencer.
 * Margery's favourite flowers are gladioli.
 * In 1992, Margery became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and negotiated a "deep and lasting" peace treaty between nations. Her book Love is All You Need was still a bestseller 500 years later. The people of Valiador adopted her philosophy and renamed the planet "Kettering" in her honour. Kettering became renowned for its pacifism. However, this left the planet open to invasion by a species of strip miners called the Blatherians, who sold much of the population into slavery, ten years earlier. Margery was taken from her own time to be placed on trial for her role in leading to Kettering's devastation. Mr Sparks is her defence attorney.
 * The Blatherians resemble giant cockroaches.
 * UNIT was succeeded by the United Galactic Intelligence Taskforce (UGIT).

Continuity

 * Benton mentions that Mike Yates was brainwashed by BOSS in Llanfairfach, Wales and that Jo Grant has left UNIT to travel up the Amazon with Professor Clifford Jones. (TV: The Green Death)
 * Benton states that the Doctor does not believe in ghosts. (TV: Doctor Who)
 * Benton mentions that he hasn't worn his dinner jacket since 1968, a reference to TV: The Invasion, when he and Corporal Jack Tracy went undercover to locate the Second Doctor.
 * Benton refers to fighting the Cybermen (TV: The Invasion) and the Axons. (TV: The Claws of Axos)
 * Benton tells Margery that time travellers from the future have been mistaken for ghosts before. (TV: Day of the Daleks)
 * When Benton asks Margery if she is going to comment that the TARDIS is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, she states, "Well, it's a bit obvious, isn't it?" (TV: The Three Doctors)
 * Benton tells Margery that he had to postpone their date because London is being attacked by dinosaurs. (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs)
 * By the 2010s, Benton and Margery were married and owned a pub called the White Hart. (AUDIO: Call to Arms)