The Church and the Crown (audio story)

The Church and the Crown was the thirty-eighth monthly Doctor Who audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. It was, broadly, an historical examination of the era of the, although it featured original musketeers, rather than those created by Alexandre Dumas.

It featured Erimem's first journey in the TARDIS, and her second display of field-of-battle heroism. As with several other historicals in the first five years of Big Finish's main Doctor Who line, it was a so-called "pure" historical without any science fictional elements aside from the TARDIS.

It also gave Nicola Bryant an expanded acting opportunity, since it featured her as both Peri and Queen Anne. Like Romana I before her, Peri had an exact doppelgänger in a royal family.

Publisher's summary
A nation divided...

A Queen's life at risk...

A net of conspiracy closing in...

Sometimes being a time travelling adventurer just isn't easy...

For a start there's a temperamental TARDIS that lands a few thousand years off course in 17th century Paris. But why shouldn't the Fifth Doctor, Peri and their travelling guest Erimem take a look around the city on the morning of King Louis' annual State Ball?

As Peri becomes embroiled in a plot to kill Queen Anne and smash the unity of the Church and the Crown, the Doctor finds himself duelling musketeers on the streets.

With Peri missing, Erimem catching King Louis' eye and a Musketeer's sword at your throat, could things get any worse?

Probably...

Part One
to be added

Part Two
to be added

Part Three
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Part Four
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Davison
 * Peri Brown / Queen Anne of France - Nicola Bryant
 * Erimem - Caroline Morris
 * King Louis XIII of France - Andrew Mackay
 * Cardinal Richelieu - Michael Shallard
 * The Duke of Buckingham - Marcus Hutton
 * Delmarre - Peter John
 * François Rouffet - Andy Coleman
 * Captain Morand - Robert Curbishley
 * Madame de Chevreuse - Wendy Albiston
 * Crow - Mark Wright
 * Piere - Gary Russell
 * Passerby - Mark Wyman

The Doctor

 * The Doctor tells Erimem that, earlier in his personal timeline, he met an older version of Louis XIII in 1638. He claims to have "had a nip and tuck since then," indicating that it was one of his first four incarnations.
 * The Doctor has a lifetime membership to the Marylebone Cricket Club.
 * The Doctor claims to have once met a Visigoth with a sword, describing him as a "terribly nice chap, very misunderstood."

Foods and beverages

 * The Doctor offers to take Peri and Erimem to Barastabon for a chocolate cake.

Individuals

 * Erimem names her new pet cat Antranak.
 * The Doctor dislikes Alexandre Dumas, and thinks he totally miscast Cardinal Richelieu as a villain.

Locations

 * The Doctor has visited the Louvre since its modern retrofit with the glass pyramid and didn't like it. He also visited the building when its foundation was laid.



Continuity

 * Before landing in France, the Doctor was trying to reach the Braxiatel Collection, in fulfilment of the promise he made to Erimem at the end of her previous story, The Eye of the Scorpion. The Doctor's purpose at this stage in his relationship with Erimem was to get her to a place of education, not necessarily to travel indefinitely with her.
 * Doppelgängers happen in Doctor Who, and Peri looking like Queen Anne is one in a longish line of lookalikes, which also include:
 * Romana I and Princess Strella on Tara in The Androids of Tara
 * Nyssa and Ann Talbot in Black Orchid
 * The Second Doctor and Ramón Salamander in The Enemy of the World
 * The First Doctor and Abbot of Amboise in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve


 * The Doctor refers to his former companion K9. (TV: The Invisible Enemy, et al.)
 * The Doctor mentions that he was the protégé of the American escapologist Harry Houdini. (TV: Planet of the Spiders) Prior to their arrival in 1963, his first incarnation and his granddaughter Susan Foreman met Houdini in the United States. Houdini taught the Doctor how to perform sleight-of-hand tricks. (PROSE: The Sorcerer's Apprentice) His fourth incarnation had previously told the Iceni cook Bragnar that Houdini kept numerous lock picks on his person. (AUDIO: The Wrath of the Iceni) He met Houdini again at an earlier point in his fifth incarnation, whilst travelling with Adric, Tegan and Nyssa. (AUDIO: ''Smoke and Mirrors)
 * When the Duke of Buckingham boasts that he is the best swordsman in England, the Doctor quips that they are in France, echoing his own words from The King's Demons.