Maelstrom (audio story)

Maelstrom was the third and final story in the audio anthology Water Worlds, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Jonathan Morris and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush, Ruth Madeley as Hebe Harrison and introduced Cherylee Houston as Elise.

Publisher's summary
The Doctor, Mel and Hebe visit the archipelago world of Veludia, only to discover a planet beset by electromagnetic storms where three survivors traverse the seas in a ramshackle township. These survivors are 'corps' - bodies used as hosts for minds stored in the vessel's 'mind-drive' - and the Doctor, Mel and Hebe are seen as welcome replacements. But there's something lurking in the waters below, something of rage and power that wishes to destroy them all: the Maelstrom!

Part one
The TARDIS materialises in the rain on Veludia and the Doctor finds an injured manatee-like creature stuck on land. He sends Mel to the TARDIS for a medical kit and, able to understand the creature, learns that it used to be human. The tide comes in and the creature returns to the sea, after which the Doctor and Hebe go looking for Mel and find that the TARDIS has disappeared and a medical kit is floating nearby.

Having been knocked out after leaving the TARDIS, Mel is kidnapped by Jom and possessed by his daughter, Alef, who is appalled that she is wearing a stolen body and demands to be returned to the Mindbank. Jom is called away to the launch bay by Captain Vale and locks Alef inside.

The Doctor reconfigures the medical kit to serve as a life preserver for Hebe to protect her from the elements. They are found by Captain Vale, Vice-Captain Mada and Scavengineer Jom and taken to safety aboard an air boat, being given dry clothes and offered food. They learn that there are five hundred crewmembers in the Mindbank but currently only three bodies (or "corps") for them to be downloaded into; they are running low on fuel and are searching for an old ark tanker. Jom has Alef pretend to be Mel and presents her to the group.

The Doctor suggests that the crew use marine life as corps as well, so Mada swaps with neuroscientist Saskar to discuss it further. Saskar says that it would not work and is sceptical of the Doctor's claim to have spoken with a manatee creature. Jom draws his gun and demands that the travellers become new corps and tranquilises the Doctor whilst Vale and Saskar take Hebe and Alef to the transductor room. The exchange does not work, however, and the Doctor wakes up and promises that he and Mel can find the ark tanker thanks to their respective genius.

Jom tells Alef that he sabotaged the machine to prevent her from being detected in Mel's body. Alef does not want to go on pretending to be Mel and asks for Jom to return them both to the Mindbank, but it is damaged beyond Jom's ability to repair.

The Doctor detects an energy trace which does not belong to the TARDIS, suggesting that it is coming from the ark tanker. The Doctor and Hebe go down in a bathysphere with Jom to investigate, Alef staying behind as a hostage to ensure their good behaviour. Beneath the water, Hebe tells the Doctor that she saw evidence of Saskar experimenting with putting minds into marine animals, indicating that she is responsible for the manatee creature. Hebe hears telepathic screaming and sees a black hole of evil which she calls the Maelstrom. The bathysphere loses contact with the boat and the Maelstrom is approaching.

Part two
The Doctor uses a trick he learnt from a lama to calm Hebe and block out the voices she is hearing. Vale restores the power after Saskar reveals that she removed the power cable, after which the bathysphere is raised. The Doctor and Hebe expose Saskar's secret experiments and Vale takes Jom and Alef to see the cut transductor link, having deduced that Jom must have done it and wanting to know why. At Alef's suggestion, Jom claims to have cut it to prevent the travellers' bodies from being used as corps without their permission. For this, Vale orders him to repair the link.

Vale attempts to exchange Saskar with Mada, but Mada's consciousness is split in two. She hears the Maelstrom and passes out. The Doctor believes that he can unscramble the two minds by returning them to the Mindbank and begins to work on the machine. In the mess, Hebe confronts Alef, knowing that she is not the real Mel, and is locked inside before she can tell anybody. Alef demands that Jom returns her to the Mindbank, but he says that it is impossible and that they need to escape. Escape is also impossible, however, as the Maelstrom is approaching the form of a whirlpool.

Alef and Jom warn everybody about the whirlpool and claim not to know where Hebe is when the Doctor asks. When he finds her in the mess, Alef confesses and offers to be returned to the Mindbank so long as her father is forgiven for his actions, something that he says will be difficult. The Doctor manages to restore Mel and lowers her and Hebe beneath the water whilst Vale steers the ship into the storm, but Jom returns to the bridge to find that Saskar has killed the captain and cut the power to the bathysphere. Mada feels Saskar fighting for control and tells Jom to kill her. He refuses and returns both of them to the Mindbank in exchange for Alef.

Hebe feels the Maelstrom's anger and hatred again. After the bathysphere is electrified, the swarm is shocked and stunned. Those in the Mindbank have been downloaded into the group consciousness of the Maelstrom and have no reason to try to exact revenge. The Doctor awakens from a week-long coma thanks to the lightning he used to electrify the bathysphere and learns that the TARDIS has been recovered. As Alef and Jom have only a week to live, Mel suggests that the Doctor takes them back in time to live out their last days on their planet before the flood.

In the TARDIS, Hebe gets a phone call from her friend, Elise, who tells her that something is going on and that she wants to see her. Elise loses signal and activates one of Evelyn's SOS buttons, but Hebe doubts that it is anything important. The TARDIS receives an odd reading from the same place that the phone call and SOS came from, somewhere that the Doctor is very familiar with.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Colin Baker
 * Mel / Alef - Bonnie Langford
 * Hebe - Ruth Madeley
 * Vale - Kim Durham
 * Mada / Saskar / Alef - Nimmy March
 * Jom - Amerjit Deu
 * Elise - Cherylee Houston

Crew

 * Cover Art - Claudia Gironi
 * Director - Helen Goldwyn
 * Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
 * Music, Sound Designer & Remote Recording - Steve Foxon
 * Producer - Jacqueline Rayner
 * Script Editor - Robert Valentine
 * Writer - Jonathan Morris
 * Senior Producer - David Richardson

Worldbuilding

 * The Doctor loses his umbrella to the wind.
 * Hebe asks the Doctor if his last name is Dolittle.
 * Hebe sarcastically asks if she should ask Dame Margaret Rutherford to push her chair.
 * The TARDIS lands on the Blackrid Atoll.
 * Alef reminds Jom of Chylda and Task, who used stolen bodies.
 * Hebe has had bad experiences with airlines handling her wheelchair.
 * The crewmembers were uploaded to the Mindbank when the Final Floods came.
 * Mada offers plankton bread, gelfish stock and fried bladder shrimp.
 * Hebe says "jumping jellyfish".
 * Hebe describes the sights under the water as the underwater kingdom of painter Hieronymus Bosch.
 * Michael Faraday invented the Faraday cage.

Continuity

 * Hebe says "not again" when the tide starts coming in. (AUDIO: The Tides of the Moon)
 * The Doctor uses a technique implied to have been taught to him by Padmasambhava. (AUDIO: The Secrets of Det-Sen)
 * Elise has a distress beacon from Evelyn Smythe as Hebe did. (AUDIO: The Rotting Deep)