The Miniaturist (audio story)

The Miniaturist was the second and final story in the audio anthology The Outlaws, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Lizzie Hopley and featured Stephen Noonan as the First Doctor and Lauren Cornelius as Dodo Chaplet.

Publisher's summary
Coulton Salt Mine: a rare environment for geological exploration on the North Yorkshire coast. The Doctor is fascinated by the experiments of Professor Medra on the Zechstein seabed, but Dodo is distracted. Didn’t her family settle in this part of Yorkshire?

As the Doctor delves deeper into the work of Professor Medra, Dodo is helped by security guard Mick Huff, who is concerned about the strange happenings in recent weeks. Who are the children that keep appearing around the mine workings? Why are local landmarks vanishing? And how can the bedrock of a geological ‘quiet place’ be screaming?

Part one
Mick Huff watches the North Yorkshire News, which covers a string of missing persons as well as the disappearance of Beggars Bridge, supposedly because of refurbishment. When there is a knock at the door, Mick finds nobody there and is unable to get in contact with his colleague by walkie-talkie. He investigates and finds that the Zechstein shaft has been opened and that a boy is trespassing near the edge; Mick recognises the child as his son, Simon, before he falls and disappears.

The Doctor and Dodo arrive nearby in the TARDIS and meet Mick who, disturbed by his encounter with Simon, takes them indoors and tells them about the people and landmarks which have been disappearing and reappearing in strange places. The Doctor and Dodo meet Professor Medra and descend into the mine with her, travelling to the laboratory in a geological quiet space free of any sort of noise pollution.

Mick calls Shel to hear her voice and tells her that he might have been seeing things in the dark.

At the lab, Dodo notices a sound which Medra cannot hear. The Doctor realises that this is why Medra has brought them down: to determine what energy they are picking up in the quiet space. When Dodo mentions the boy that Mick said he saw, she sees a girl walk past and goes after her despite the Doctor and Medra's protestations. The Doctor, using an oscilloscope, determines that the sound is a scream coming from a ten-foot fossilised shell and collapses when it seems to reach inside his being.

The Doctor refuses medical attention and tells Dodo, who recognised the girl but had to leave when she heard the Doctor scream, that the sound he heard was a dimensional disturbance. Mick elaborates on the disappearances, explaining that it started with farm animals, a post box and an ice cream van disappearing and reappearing before Saltburn Funicular vanished. It started happening to people, some of whom returned in a state of confusion whilst others stayed gone. He confides in them that he thought that the boy he saw was Simon, his deceased son.

There is another knock on the door and Dodo sees the girl, whom she goes after. She recognises her as Maureen, although Dodo's mother had called her "Mole".

In the quiet space, a frustrated Medra asks what the presence there wants.

After hearing about Mole, the Doctor insists that he and Dodo leave to avoid the potential catastrophes that can result from meddling with time tracks. However, they find that the TARDIS has disappeared. Mick sends word out about the missing police box and, on the way back to the security lodge, Dodo vanishes and the Doctor determines that something from the mine is taking special things.

On the cliffs, Dodo follows a voice calling out her and Mole's names. She reaches a cottage and, hearing her mother's voice, finds the Miniaturist, who looks like an older version of herself. The Miniaturist, surrounded by miniature furniture and model animals and people, asks Dodo who the Doctor is when she mentions him, making Dodo certain that she is not her from the future. However, the Miniaturist says that she might have simply forgotten him, so she tells her about the Ark, the Toymaker and the TARDIS, which she notices, miniaturised, in the room. The Miniaturist's face changes, frightening Dodo.

The Doctor has Medra approach the fossil. Whilst this does not cause any phenomena, the oscilloscope is destroyed when the Doctor does the same. He says that the fossil must not like him. The fossil's scream shatters glass in the lab and Medra sees two Doctors as the dimensions are torn apart. The Doctor hears the voice of the Miniaturist and screams.

Part two
The presence departs, although the Doctor believes that this is only the beginning and, as the voice knew about him, he surmises that it must be able to hear them in the quiet space or it has spoken to Dodo. Medra admits that she studies extremophiles and has come in search of them, but the Doctor also accuses her of having known that the disappearances were connected to the mine. As they go to leave, the lift shaft is blocked by rocks and Medra attempts to attack the fossil, but is shrunk via tissue compression.

Dodo demands to know the identity of the Miniaturist, who is wearing her face again, and realises that the thimble-sized TARDIS, bridge and train are the real things. Mick enters, having heard Dodo's voice, and recognises the miniaturised Pocket Rocket and his friend. The Miniaturist tortures Mick with visions of Simon before disappearing.

The Doctor awakens with Dodo, who mentions the Ark and how she mistook it for Whipsnade Zoo. He is not fooled, however, and demands to know where the real Dodo is; she tells him that her true appearance would hurt him and that she came to Earth for shelter. The fossilised shell exists between dimensions and is dimensionally transcendental, containing, among other things, a miniaturised neutron star. She is a Pertucaion as old as time and came to the cave for quiet, but her peace was disturbed by Medra.

Dodo and Mick try to move the TARDIS, which Dodo believes might have become a bomb because of all the energy within having been compressed.

The Doctor calms the distressed Miniaturist by telling her to find her still point. She takes him into her world where he sees her true form, looking like a thousand suns in stained glass; she invites him to travel with him and, after hearing the voices of Dodo, Susan and Vicki, he refuses and tells her that she could destroy the solar system if she messes with his TARDIS. The Miniaturist clears up after herself, removing the rocks, restoring Medra and taking on the form of Medra's mother.

Dodo and Mick take the TARDIS to the Doctor in a wheelbarrow. The Miniaturist causes the ship to grow and uses the TARDIS key to focus on the dimensions within, restoring it. She then takes on the form of Simon to allow Mick to say goodbye and promises to restore all the people that she shrank, as well as to never play with a living thing again. To make amends, Medra agrees to serve as custodian of the Miniaturist, protecting her as she sleeps. The Doctor, certain that they will encounter the Miniaturist again, enters the TARDIS with Dodo. Mick and Medra watch it dematerialise.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Stephen Noonan
 * Dodo Chaplet - Lauren Cornelius
 * The Miniaturist - Annette Badland
 * Professor Medra - Yasmin Mwanza
 * Mick Huff - Paul Copley
 * Child Voice - Benedict Briggs
 * Child Voice - Caroline Hrycek-Robinson

Crew

 * Cover Art - Claudia Gironi
 * Director - Nicholas Briggs
 * Executive Producer - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
 * Music & Sound Design - Toby Hrycek-Robinson
 * Producer & Script Editor - Mark Wright
 * Writer - Lizzie Hopley
 * Senior Producer - David Richardson

Worldbuilding

 * Mick makes himself a cup of tea. After collapsing, the Doctor says that hot sweet tea is all he needs as first aid.
 * Beggars Bridge is a bridge over the River Esk.
 * Ian Grunning is a farmer.
 * McCluckie works with Mick.
 * Brian McGee goes fishing with Mick. He has disappeared.
 * Zechstein is sedimentary rock from the late Permian Era, at least 260 million years before the 21st century.
 * The Pocket Rocket is a steam train which disappeared from Moors Railway and was found in a field.
 * Mick's postman disappeared before turning up in the bay at Whitby two weeks later.
 * Dodo thinks that she has family in North Yorkshire from before she was taken in by her great-aunt.
 * Mick believes that the Doctor and Dodo are at the mine because of dark matter.
 * Whilst it gets hotter as one descends a cave on Earth and many other planets, it is not the case on Neptune.
 * The Zechstein mine goes under the North Sea.
 * The mining teams extract polyhalite, which can be used as fertiliser.
 * Coulton is the deepest and quietest mine in Britain.
 * Mick is married to Shel.
 * Medra prepares a nitro chamber.
 * Medra has a fossilised shell which she initially thought was a subclass of amenite.
 * Dodo does not have a very good sense of direction.
 * Saltburn Funicular disappeared.
 * Dodo's mother called Maureen "Mole". She told Dodo that Mole had Dodo's ears.
 * Medra studies extremophiles and has done so at ice drifts, deserts and volcanic springs.
 * The TARDIS is shrunk to the size of a thimble.
 * The Miniaturist lives in Ellie Browning's cottage, which belongs on the other side of Saltburn.
 * The Doctor tells the Miniaturist to find her still point.

Continuity

 * Dodo mentions visiting the Ark (TV: The Ark) and the tricks of the Celestial Toymaker. (TV: The Celestial Toymaker)
 * She recalls how she must've looked awkward the first time she entered the TARDIS. (TV: The Massacre)
 * The Doctor's later encounters with the Master will include many examples of tissue compression. (TV: Terror of the Autons et all)