The War To End All Wars (audio story)

The War To End All Wars was the tenth story of the eighth series in the The Companion Chronicles audio range. It was produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Simon Guerrier and featured Steven Taylor.

Publisher's summary
Years after he gave up travelling in the TARDIS, Steven Taylor is the deposed king of a distant world.

From the confines of his cell, he shares his story with a young girl called Sida.

And one story in particular – a visit to a whole world at war, which will mark Steven for life...

The Good Soldier (1)
''Sida visits her grandfather, deposed king Steven, who has been reminiscing about his past in his cell, with a book containing a transcript of a speech by the corrupted copy of the Doctor's mind. He has no interest in the copy, however, and finally agrees to tell Sida why he gave up the throne.''

Steven, the Doctor and Dodo arrive on Comfort and notice how everybody is uniformed and seem to be almost hypnotised. The door to the TARDIS is blocked and a crowd surrounds them, taking the Doctor away to be shot for acting subversively whilst Steven and Dodo are taken to the evaluation centre and made to partake in physical and mental exercise. Steven scores better than Dodo, who scored poorly for coordination, and they are told that they will be sent to separate places on the front of Comfort's war. They make a failed escape attempt and are split up without the chance to say farewell.

Steven becomes institutionalised and is shot in battle before being dragged to the field hospital by a medical robot. As he recovers, he realises that his entire unit died for nothing and, when he returns to the front, he goes onto the battlefield and enters the enemy's trenches. He discovers that the enemy are humans in uniform identical to his side's and, whilst exploring, he is held at gunpoint by Dodo.

The War To End All Wars (2)
to be added

Cast

 * Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
 * Sida - Alice Haig

Continuity

 * Steven tells Sida that he and Dodo did not travel together for long. (TV: The Massacre - The Savages)
 * Steven refers to being held prisoner by the Mechonoids and meeting the Doctor on Mechanus. (TV: The Chase)
 * Steven recalls his encounters with the Daleks. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
 * Steven refers to the fact that the Elders tracked the Doctor's movements through time and space until he destroyed the device which allowed them to do so. (TV: The Savages)
 * Steven mentions that the Doctor, he and Dodo left the survivors of Earth too soon, and they were conquered by the Monoids. (TV: The Ark)
 * Steven recalls his encounter with the Rocket Men on Ulysses 519. (AUDIO: Return of the Rocket Men)
 * Steven tells Sida that he visited a monastery in Northumbria in 1066. (TV: The Time Meddler)
 * A copy of the Doctor's mind exists. (TV: The Savages)