The Reaping (audio story)

 was the eighty-sixth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Joseph Lidster and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown.

It was the Sixth Doctor's entry in a loose trilogy of Cyberman stories, which began in the Seventh Doctor story The Harvest and was concluded in the Fifth Doctor story The Gathering.

It was notable for featuring significant details about Peri's life in Baltimore, Maryland. It was, from the perspective of Peri's mother Janine Foster, a direct sequel to Planet of Fire.

Publisher's summary
On the morning of 9 May 1984, Peri woke up. She was expecting to spend the day relaxing in Lanzarote and, that evening, leave her mother and stepfather to go travelling with some guys she'd only just met.

But things don't always go as expected­ as her friends and family discover when, four months later, she returns home having travelled further than anyone could have imagined.

Meanwhile her friend, Katherine Chambers, mourns her father and Peri finds herself meeting some other familiar faces.

Part one
The Doctor takes Peri to the Gogglebox beneath the surface of the Moon where she chooses to view the news from 1984 America to see what is going on. Unimpressed by her request, the Doctor goes to find an important book he vaguely remembers leaving at the Gogglebox whilst Peri is plugged into a booth by Alan-56 and distressed to learn of the murder of Anthony Chambers. She gets Alan-32 to take her to the Doctor and tearfully begs him to take her home to see Janine, her mother, and Kathy, her best friend and Mr Chambers's daughter, at the funeral in Baltimore in September 1984. The Doctor wanders off to give Peri the chance to reunite with her mother, but Janine is dismissive.

Pretending to have met Mrs Van Gysegham in Lanzarote, the Doctor learns from her that the homeless man arrested for the murder, Daniel Woods, denies responsibility and is too old to have overpowered Mr Chambers and snapped his neck. She gives him a lift to the wake, but he implies mid-journey that he is part of British Intelligence and has her drive him to the police station in Fell's Point where Woods is being held. Lt Doyle allows him to see Woods despite him being unable to prove his identity and Woods tells him that the police are being controlled; the Doctor manipulates Lt Doyle into letting him and Woods leave by exploiting his logical thinking.

Peri breaks down at Mr Chambers's grave and heads to the wake where Janine tells her that she and Howard separated after she accused him of being responsible for Peri's death, but Kathy denies that this was the case and catches her up on what their friends have been up to in her absence. Kathy finds herself inexplicably saying "8687" and Janine angrily asks Peri if she was intending on returning home in 1986 or '87. Later, she overhears Janine and Kathy agree that things were better before her return and pretends not to be upset when they call her downstairs to watch a video cassette from Mr Chambers's fortieth birthday with them and Nate, Kathy's brother.

The Doctor takes Woods back to the graveyard where Mr Chambers was killed and learns that the murderer was a "silver ghost" who was no longer able to control Mr Chambers. After the murder, the ghost said "you will become like us", confirming the Doctor's suspicion that it was a Cyberman. Meanwhile, Lt Doyle is due to give an interview to Natalie Hamilton about the escaped Woods and forcibly puts a device in her ear which puts her under the Cybermen's control just as he is. They proceed to warn the public to remain in their homes to keep safe from the supposed fugitives Doctor and Woods.

In the video, Mr Chambers tells his children to "keep playing", leading Peri to continue playing the video and find a message for Kathy and Nate; Mr Chambers somehow broke free from the Cybermen's control, although he is unable to say what he had been made to do, and tells them not to contact the police nor return to the graveyard. Peri takes Janine, Kathy and Nate to the graveyard to find the Doctor, but Kathy is distressed to meet Woods and runs away, screaming when she hears a scratching sound from her father's coffin. The coffin bursts open and a partially-converted Cyberman bursts out, saying "8687" before telling Nate that he is his father.

Part two
Mr Chambers is confused on account of being only partially-converted and the Doctor tells Peri to get Janine, Kathy, Nate and Woods to safety, but Lt Doyle and the police arrive and the group run to Mr Chambers's office when they fire. Peri helps the Doctor deduce that the Cybermen are from the future, that they are converting the dead and that they targeted Mr Chambers because he was an undertaker, controlling him to place convertor units into the coffins. Whilst Kathy, Nate and Woods look for a room to fortify, the Doctor, Peri and Janine analyse the Cyber-technology and find that conversion of the dead is being achieved using only a small needle.

Hearing a disturbance despite the heavy rain outside, Peri finds that Mr Chambers has killed Woods and plays the video of his fortieth birthday party to remind him of his former identity. She and Kathy go to fetch the Doctor and Janine, but the Doctor has found a dimensionally transcendental pod he wishes to investigate and sends the two of them and Janine to lock themselves in the bathroom with Nate until the police leave, at which point Peri is to take everybody to the TARDIS. When the Doctor enters the pod, it travels into the Time Vortex and Peri, Janine and Kathy go to find Nate.

The Doctor finds a dying Cyber-Leader inside the pod who says "8687" and explains that he is one of the last of his kind, come back in time with salvaged Time Lord technology which he is now confined to thanks to his attempt to connect with it. Having access to the history of the Cybermen, he set a trap for the Doctor and lured him there with the murder of Mr Chambers and the supposed conversion of the dead, a ruse to make the Doctor believe that there were more Cybermen and to better manipulate him. The Cyber-Leader has Mr Chambers attack Nate and threatens to have him kill Peri, Janine and Kathy unless the Doctor goes back in time with him to Earth's prehistory to convert the entirety of humanity with adapted Time Lord technology.

The Doctor claims to have converted eight early humans who have gone on to convert others and then takes the Cyber-Leader to 1984 where they encounter inferior Cybermen. The Cyber-Leader soon realises, however, that he is on Mondas and a Cyberman orders Commander Zheng to take him for reprocessing. This results in Mr Chambers losing his connection to the Cyber-Leader and he stops trying to kill Peri and Janine, who have been looking after the severely-injured Nate whilst Kathy is locked in the bathroom. The Doctor rejoins them and gets Nate to the hospital, Lt Doyle and the police also having been freed from the Cyber-Leader's control.

Feeling unable to leave her mother and Kathy again, Peri chooses to stay in Fell's Point and tearfully says goodbye to the Doctor, asking him to visit her in the future and to let her keep the conversion device. The Doctor travels back to the Gogglebox to see how Peri adapts to living back on Earth and swiftly returns for her because of what he has seen; Janine and Mrs Van Gysegham are killed when one half of the conversion device explodes because of unauthorised use. Kathy and Nate disappear and the Doctor comforts Peri, who feels that there is nothing left for her on Earth and returns with him to the TARDIS.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Colin Baker
 * Peri Brown - Nicola Bryant
 * Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs
 * Mrs Van Gysegham - Denise Bryer
 * Janine Foster - Claudia Christian
 * Natalie Hamilton - Allison Karayanes
 * Nate Chambers - Jeremy Lindsay-Taylor
 * Anthony Chambers - Stuart Milligan
 * Kathy Chambers - Jane Perry
 * Daniel Woods - Vincent Pirillo
 * Lt Doyle - John Schwab

Culture

 * Through the Gogglebox, the Sixth Doctor stated that you could see the first television performance of the Pussycat Dolls, every Police Academy film and the film Battleship Potemkin.
 * When talking to the Cyber-Leader, the Sixth Doctor does an impression of the 1970s British comedian and magician Tommy Cooper.
 * When searching for identification, the Doctor finds tickets for the opening night of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in his pockets.
 * The Doctor refers to George Orwell's novel 1984.

Individuals

 * Ethel Merman was an actress who died in 1984.

Politics

 * At an indeterminate point in the far future, though not before the 52nd century, the British monarchy was abolished and the last monarch was executed. Footage of that event could be viewed via the Gogglebox.

Species

 * The Mondasian Cybermen seem familiar with the Anno Domini Gregorian calendar.

Continuity

 * Throughout the story, the Doctor wonders why people are saying "8687". As revealed in The Gathering, this was his fifth incarnation trying to jog his memory about his reunion with Tegan Jovanka at a bar called the 8687, so that he could do his best to save Nathaniel Chambers. Unfortunately, his plan did not work.
 * The opening broadcasts refer to the launch of the British airship R101 in October 1930, (AUDIO: Storm Warning) the assassination of John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963 (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy; TV: Rose), the dawn of the year 2000, (TV: Doctor Who) the first manned mission to Mars in the 2000s, (AUDIO: Red Dawn) St Gart's Hospital, (AUDIO: The Harvest) the 2012 Olympic Games in London (AUDIO: Frozen Time; TV: Fear Her, Good as Gold) and the beginning of World War V in the 49th century (AUDIO: Singularity; TV: The Unquiet Dead).
 * Peri had previously requested that the Doctor take her home to Baltimore to let her family know that she was alright but the TARDIS accidentally materialised aboard the USS Eldridge on 26 October 1943. (AUDIO: The Macros)
 * The Doctor and Peri previously visited the Moon in 1872. (AUDIO: The First Sontarans)
 * Peri mentions almost drowning by Howard Foster's hand the day that she left with the Doctor. This led to the collapse of Howard and Janine Foster's marriage. (TV: Planet of Fire)
 * This story is resolved by the events of TV: The Tenth Planet, specifically the destruction of Mondas in December 1986. The original Mondasians of that story are briefly used.
 * Janine and Dominique van Gysegham met and became friends while they were both visiting Lanzarote in May 1984. (TV: Planet of Fire)
 * The Doctor intends to bring Peri to the Ice Caves of Shabadabadon but the TARDIS instead materialises in the Gogglebox inside the Moon in the far future. His previous attempted to reach the Ice Caves had likewise resulted in the TARDIS materialising in the then newly opened Gogglebox. On that occasion, the Fifth Doctor met Alan-56's progenitor Alan Fitzgerald. (AUDIO: The Gathering) The Eighth Doctor would eventually visit the Ice Caves in the company of Samson and Gemma Griffin. (AUDIO: Terror Firma)
 * The Doctor comments that 1984 is "never as good as the book." His eighth incarnation would later meet the novel's author George Orwell in Spain during its civil war in 1937. (PROSE: History 101)
 * The fact that the Doctor cannot remember meeting Peri's stepfather Professor Howard Foster on Lanzarote on 9 May 1984 (TV: Planet of Fire) may be designed to foreshadow his inability to remember meeting Kathy Chambers in Brisbane, Australia in September 2006 earlier in his personal timeline. (AUDIO: The Gathering)
 * The White Rabbit pub on the Embankment, that Mrs Van Gysegham's late husband once owned, is possibly the same "White Rabbit" where the Seventh Doctor's companion Hex would later have his 23rd birthday party on 12 October 2021. (AUDIO: The Harvest) Furthermore, Ace would later meet Henry Noone in the White Rabbit on several occasions between May and August 2027. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family)
 * Peri and Kathy reminisce about an embarrassing incident involving their high school classmate Candy which occurred at their senior prom. Peri had previously told her former travelling companion Erimem the same story. (AUDIO: The Veiled Leopard)
 * The virus that the Cyberman intended to use had the ability to turn flesh into metal. A similar virus appears in both GAME: Blood of the Cybermen and WC: Real Time.
 * The television interview with Lt. Doyle, who is under the control of the Cybermen, in which he 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'" is picked up by the Fifth Doctor while he is investigating unusual energy signatures which appear throughout Earth's history. Based on this evidence, he determines that his future self is already in Baltimore in 1984 and therefore decides to travel to the location of the next energy spike, namely Brisbane, Australia in September 2006, where he is reunited with his former companion Tegan Jovanka. (AUDIO: The Gathering)
 * Peri refers to her first meeting with the Fifth Doctor and Turlough (TV: Planet of Fire) and the circumstances surrounding the Doctor's most recent regeneration. (TV: The Caves of Androzani) The Sixth Doctor would later claim to have experienced problems with his memory since that regeneration, (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox) which could account for the fact that he does not recognise Kathy on this occasion in spite of having met her future self earlier in his personal timeline. (AUDIO: The Gathering)
 * The Doctor mentions that he has visited Earth's prehistory on several occasions. (TV: An Unearthly Child, City of Death, Time-Flight)