The Gathering (audio story)

The Gathering was the eighty-seventh release in the Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories range.

Publisher's summary
On the morning of 22 September 2006, Tegan woke up. She was expecting to spend the day relaxing at home and, that evening, tolerate a party thrown to celebrate her 46th birthday.

But things don't always go as expected. It's been over twenty years since she chose to leave the Doctor. She's got a job, mates...a life.

Meanwhile her friend, Katherine Chambers, makes a decision that could change all their lives, and Tegan discovers that you can never really escape the past...

Cast

 * Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
 * Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding
 * Katherine Chambers - Jane Perry
 * James Clarke - Richard Grieve
 * Michael Tanaka - Dait Abuchi
 * Eve Morris - Janie Booth
 * Jodi Boyd - Zehra Naqvi
 * Waiter - Jef Higgins
 * Alan Fitzgerald - Nicholas Briggs
 * Rosemary Stark - Belinda Hoare

Continuity

 * The opening radio broadcasts refer to the launch of the British airship R101 in October 1930 (BFA: Storm Warning), the first manned mission to Mars (BFA: Red Dawn), St. Gart's Hospital (BFA: The Harvest) and the 2012 London Olympic Games (DW: Fear Her).
 * The Doctor obliges Alan by telling him that he was responsible for the Great Fire of London in September 1666 (DW: The Visitation), "sort of" responsible for the disappearance of the Mary Celeste's crew (DW: The Chase) and that he worked for UNIT (DW: Spearhead from Space, et. al), though he is seemingly unsure as to exactly when. Alan mentions that they are rumours claiming that the Doctor was present when mankind discovered fire (DW: An Unearthly Child) as well as rumours which suggest that he shall witness the end of the universe (DW: Utopia, DW: The Big Bang).
 * Alan is somewhat disappointed that it was not the Seventh Doctor who travelled to the Gogglebox, as he believes that "he knows everything."
 * In an attempt to reach the Ice Caves of Shabadabadon, the Doctor lands in the Gogglebox inside the Moon instead. He claims that he has always wanted to visit the Ice Caves. While in his sixth incarnation, he would later intend to bring his companion Peri Brown to see them. Following a brief (and accidental) return to the Gogglebox, they instead travelled to Peri's home town of Fell's Point, Baltimore, Maryland, USA in September 1984 after Peri learned of the murder of Anthony Chambers, the father of her best friend Kathy Chambers. (BFA: The Reaping) The Eighth Doctor would eventually visit the Ice Caves in the company of Samson and Gemma Griffin. (BFA: Terror Firma)
 * While investigating unusual energy signatures that appear throughout Earth's history, the Doctor detects a television transmission emanating from Fell's Point, Baltimore, USA in September 1984 in which Lt. Doyle of the Baltimore Police states that "the vagrant charged with the brutal murder of father of two Anthony Chambers has escaped. He is believed to be still in the Fell's Point neighbourhood and is on the run with an accomplice known only as 'the Doctor'." Based on this evidence, the Doctor determines that his future self is already in Baltimore in 1984 (BFA: The Reaping) and therefore decides to travel to the location of the next energy spike, namely Brisbane, Australia in September 2006.
 * Tegan has had no contact with the Doctor since her departure in DW: Resurrection of the Daleks. She inquires after Turlough, whom she learns has likewise ceased travelling with the Doctor in the interim. (DW: Planet of Fire)
 * The computer System would later appear in BFA: The Harvest and BFA: The Word Lord.
 * The Doctor mentions dropping his companions Peri and Erimem in Monte Carlo in 1966. (BFA: The Veiled Leopard)
 * Tegan mentions the Daleks (BFA: The Elite, DW: Resurrection of the Daleks), the Mara (DW: Kinda, DW: Snakedance, BFA: The Cradle of the Snake) and nearly being killed by the Cybermen (DW: Earthshock, DW: The Five Doctors).
 * Kathy refers to the circumstances of the Doctor's upcoming regeneration as related to her by Peri in 1984. (BFA: The Reaping) The Sixth Doctor would later claim that he had been experiencing problems with his memory since that regeneration (CC: Peri and the Piscon Paradox), which could account for the fact that he did not recognise the younger Kathy in 1984.
 * James Clarke is implied to be an agent of the Forge. The Doctor would not learn of the existence of the Forge until his sixth incarnation. (BFA: Project: Twilight)
 * The Doctor previously visited Brisbane in 1983 in the company of Tegan and Nyssa after defeating Father Thane and the Elite of Florana. (BFA: The Elite, BFA: Hexagora)



Timeline
The Gathering had a complicated timeline. Different characters experienced it in different ways.
 * For Tegan, it occurred twenty-two years after DW: Resurrection of the Daleks.
 * For Katherine Chambers, it occurred twenty-two years after BFA: The Reaping.
 * For the Fifth Doctor, it occurred before BFA: The Reaping. He had his memories suppressed in this story, in part so he will not recognise the younger Kathy Chambers in 1984. More specifically, this story can be placed after BFA: The Veiled Leopard and before ST: There's Something About Mary
 * For Peri and Erimem, it occurred contemporaneously with BFA: The Veiled Leopard, relatively speaking, which neatly prevented Peri from meeting an older version of her childhood best friend, Kathy Chambers.
 * For most humans on Earth, it occurred fifteen years before BFA: The Harvest but twenty-two years after BFA: The Reaping. It therefore occurred well after other Cybermen stories such as DW: The Tenth Planet, DW: The Invasion, DW: Attack of the Cybermen and DW: Silver Nemesis.