The Nightmare Fair (audio story)

The Nightmare Fair is an adaptation of an unproduced Sixth Doctor story of the same name, which was originally intended for Season 23, but cancelled along with other planned stories when Doctor Who went on a production hiatus. It is the first of a series of Big Finish Productions audio adaptations based upon these lost stories.

Publisher's summary
The TARDIS has been drawn to Blackpool in the year 1986, where the Doctor intends to investigate a dangerous space/time vortex... while enjoying some local attractions along the way. But an old enemy is watching from his base deep within the amusement park, a timeless being who craves revenge.

The Celestial Toymaker has returned. The game is on. And, should he lose, the Doctor will pay the ultimate forfeit...

Plot
The TARDIS falls through a time well, landing in modern-day Blackpool at an amusement fair. The Doctor and Peri, finding nothing else amiss, start to enjoy the fair's attractions. They are separated on an amusement ride; the Doctor's car is directed into the depths of the fair, while Peri encounters Kevin, a teenaged-boy looking for his brother who is missing but had last been seen at the fair weeks ago. The two are also eventually captured and brought to a prison where the Doctor has also been caged.

They discover their captor is the Celestial Toymaker, who has been stuck on Earth for several millennia, tricking a few unsuspecting humans into playing games with him and losing, become his perpetual servants. The Toymaker created the time well to bring the Doctor here, and added elements to the fair to help capture the Doctor. The Toymaker is on the verge of completing his "great work": an arcade game that feeds on the souls that lose to it, which then can generate powerful creatures with which the Toymaker plans to take over Earth. He is prepared to have the game mass-produced in America to complete his plan. The Doctor, who knows that the Time Lords do not fully know who or what the Toymaker is, learns that he is a powerful psychic being from another dimension where time moves much slower, giving him his seemingly immortality. Knowing that he cannot hurt the Toymaker physically, he works with Peri, Kevin, a Venusian engineer and a human android who is also one of the Toymaker's captives, to construct a device to disrupt the Toymaker's psychic field. The Doctor then traps him in a time field of his device that prevents the Toymaker from being able to control anyone outside of it and that will last forever. The other creatures captured by the Toymaker are freed, including Kevin's brother. The Doctor decides to return with Peri back to enjoy the fair a bit more.

Cast

 * The Doctor – Colin Baker
 * Peri Brown – Nicola Bryant
 * The Celestial Toymaker - David Bailie
 * Kevin - Matthew Noble
 * Stefan - Andrew Fettes
 * Woman - Louise Faulkner
 * Shardlow/Attendant - William Whymper
 * Yatsumoto/Truscott/Manager/Man - Toby Longworth
 * Humandroid/Security Man/Geoff/Guard - Duncan Wisbey

Continuity

 * The First Doctor visited the Celestial Toyroom, the domain of the Celestial Toymaker, in the company of Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet. (TV: The Celestial Toymaker) He would later encounter the Toymaker again in Switzerland in 1926 during his seventh incarnation (AUDIO: The Magic Mousetrap) and Stockbridge during his eighth with Izzy Sinclair and Maxwell Edison, (COMIC: Endgame) before returning to the Toyroom in the company of Charlotte Pollard. (AUDIO: Solitaire)
 * The Doctor recalls his encounters with Magnus Greel and the Peking Homunculus (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang, AUDIO: The Butcher of Brisbane) and his visit to Brighton during his fourth incarnation in the company of Romana and K9. (TV: The Leisure Hive)
 * In the TARDIS wardrobe, Peri finds a sporran with a £5 note in it. The Doctor believes that it belonged to Jamie McCrimmon, noting that "He was always so careful with his cash."
 * Peri is not surprised by the existence of androids. She previously met them on Androzani Minor. (TV: The Caves of Androzani)
 * The Doctor tells Kevin that he knew a man who was always hitting things in Paris. (TV: City of Death)
 * The Doctor refers to Romulus and Remus. (TV: The Twin Dilemma)
 * The Toymaker refers to the 1914 Christmas Truce. The First and Twelfth Doctors were present at this event before their respective regenerations. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)