The Invention of Death (audio story)

 was the first audio story in the anthology The First Doctor Adventures: Volume Two. It was written by John Dorney and featured David Bradley as the First Doctor, Claudia Grant as Susan Foreman, Jemma Powell as Barbara Wright and Jamie Glover as Ian Chesterton.

Publisher's summary
After an experimental flight, the TARDIS crew find themselves on one of the strangest worlds they have ever encountered.

Alien life takes many forms, and on Ashtallah the travellers find all their preconceptions tested.

But this world is about to make a discovery – and it could mean the end of everything.

A World Without Fear (1)
As the TARDIS sails away from New York City, the Doctor explains, in layman's terms, that he is attempting to pull a "time slingshot", spinning the TARDIS, in a chronological sense, 180 degrees and back to Earth in Ian and Barbara's time. Confident in his math and bristling at Susan's worry, the Doctor arrogantly flips the switch. Without missing a beat, the TARDIS control room begins exploding before the ship crash lands. Activating the TARDIS scanner, the four see a blue/green landscape much like Earth but the other readings indicate that they are a galaxy away from Earth. When the Doctor tries to take off for Earth however, the engine refuses to turn over.

Elsewhere on the planet, Brenna and Sharlan discuss their observations of a disturbance in the ether, concluding that the new arrival is on the hill.

As Susan reads off the fault locator's seventeenth reading, the crew settles in for a long repair period. Confident that the natives can supply them with the resources to repair the ship, the Doctor and Ian set out, asking Susan and Barbara to remain behind in case the species, again, proves hostile. Enjoying the countryside, the Doctor and Ian spy a collection of buildings and make for them. As they walk, Ian discovers a translucent amoeba-like humanoid sleeping in the sun. Deciding not to wake it, the Doctor and Ian set off to find more of its kind. After finding five more of the creatures, all slumbering, the Doctor eagerly points out a kite, clearly the sign of an active intelligence and runs towards it.

Confident that they'll get into trouble, Susan and Barbara follow soon after but have barely left the TARDIS before Brenna and Sharlan arrive. At Susan's urging, the two duck behind a bush but are quickly found, introducing themselves as being from beyond the mountains.

Approaching the kite flyer, the Doctor only manages to scare them off. As he and Ian discuss the oddity of the species, the kite flyer returns with more of their kind, all fascinated by the opaqueness of the visitors. The Doctor asks to be taken to the leader but the creatures do not understand the word.

Guided by Brenna and Sharlan to the settlement, Susan and Barbara learn that this is the planet Ashtallah populated by the Ashtallans. As Susan and Barbara spin their cover story, Brenna and Sharlan reveal that they are primitive and complacent people but that they are their people's scientists. As they walk, the Ashtallans explain that their culture is a stagnant one of passive leisure, the very idea of fear is unknown on their world.

In the village, as the Doctor and Ian continue to be prodded, they note the bizarreness of the species. The Ashtallans have no visible age, no visible distinctiveness from one member to another, their willingness to so eagerly approach the unknown suggests a lack of the basic survival instinct and Ian even doubts, thanks to the aliens sleeping on the ground, that the buildings are habitats. As they theorise, the Ashtallans throw a spear at them. Confused at their anger, the Ashtallans explain that it was but a game, with the Doctor pondering if they even have a fear of death.

Entering the village, Susan and Barbara catch the Ashtallans' attention. Eager to play, an Ashtallan grabs the spear and lobs it, fatally impaling Barbara. As she bleeds out, Ian demands to know what the Ashtallans have done in the name of some game.

The First (2)
As Barbara dies, the Ashtallans question why Barbara does not heal like they do. At this, the Doctor understands the Ashtallans' lack of fear, they can heal instantly. After managing to impart enough understanding on the Ashtallans, Brenna detaches her hand and places it on Barbara's wound, closing it before the travellers' astonished eyes. And she will grow a new hand soon enough. When Barbara needs shelter, Brenna and Sharlan lead the way to their laboratory.

After Barbara is taken to one of the laboratory's antechambers, Brenna questions Ian about emotions while Sharlan demonstrates their manipulation of light to the Doctor and Susan. Amazed at the Ashtallan biology, the Time Lords question if it possible for Ashtallans to die, another concept that Sharlan is ignorant of. The Ashtallans have always existed. And they always will exist.

In the antechamber, Ian and Barbara discuss death with an equally ignorant Brenna who cannot grasp the idea of a lifespan. When Ian and Barbara ponder the loved ones they could see if humans were immortal, Sharlan asks what "love" is. After the teachers explain, Brenna asks if Ian loves with Barbara but this only leads to a discussion on the various types of love that can exist.

After going over Ashtallans society and biology, the Doctor praises Sharlan for breaking from their species' complacent lifestyle, noting that asking questions is a milestone in Ashtallan history. Sharlan however wishes that it was not just her and Brenna. Their people could be so much more and yet they play games all day. The Doctor however is confident that, one day, the rest of the Ashtallans will be asking questions. After all, being immortal, they have the time.

Slowly, Brenna tries to break down human sexes and reproduction, finding the process terribly inefficient. When Brenna reveals that Ashtallans do not die, Ian theorises that this is why they do not have children. Pondering this, Brenna asks if she loves Sharlan, but the teachers note that they must decide what kind of love that is. As the temperature drops, Ian goes off to build a fire.

Sharlan meanwhile insists that the Doctor and Susan explain more about death, the Doctor being willing to if they will aid him in repairing the TARDIS. When Ian enters, the travellers decide to have a camp out with the Doctor hoping to retrieve some scientific equipment with which to take a sample of Barbara's blood for analysis.

As the four sit around the fire, the Doctor reveals that Barbara is almost too healthy. Thanks to the Ashtallan cells, Barbara might theoretically have become immortal. To the Doctor's dismay, the campout is a very traditional one, reluctantly joining in singing London's Burning.

Hearing the campout from afar, Brenna and Sharlan observe a sample of Barbara's blood under a microscope before Brenna reveals that they love Sharlan. When Sharlan asks what that entails, Brenna cannot answer.

The next morning, Sharlan joins the Doctor and Ian in repairing the TARDIS while Brenna shows Barbara and Susan around town. Arriving at the TARDIS, Sharlan gapes at the interior, wondering how beings who live so little a time compared to them could achieve such a feat. Ian notes that this is the paradox of a lifespan.

As the women walk, Brenna notes how quiet it is before the three hear a commotion. Running after the sound, they find several Ashtallans surrounding an inert Shal, their body having turned a pinkish hue and losing cohesion. Barbara has only one conclusion to draw, despite its impossibility.

For the first time in history, an Ashtallan has died.

The Dying Art (3)
Before Susan and Barbara's appalled eyes, the Ashtallans do not take death seriously, regarding it as a mild curiosity that Shal can heal from. After convincing Brenna of the seriousness, Barbara sends Susan to find the Doctor. Privately, Susan and Barbara if they are the cause of the death. The timing is a bit too convenient to be a coincidence.

In the TARDIS, Sharlan marvels at the ship, still curious about the link between such a technological marvel and the short lifespan of its builders. After a brief discussion, Susan enters to inform everyone of the dead Ashtallan, beckoning them to follow her to the laboratory.

No sooner have Barbara and Brenna moved the body does the Doctor arrive, being shown the rapidly liquifying corpse. Examining the cadaver, the Doctor cannot ascertain the cause of death without conducting experiments on Shal. Susan voices her opinion that the travellers are the cause of death but the Doctor dismisses the death and their arrival as but a coincidence. Prodding the body further, the Doctor notes that his people have regenerative systems but that those abilities are limited in duration, postulating if the Ashtallans share that handicap. Deciding that the deceased should be left alone, Ian flags a flaw in the Doctor's theory. If Ashtallans are mortal, their lack of offspring will spell a quick extinction. Susan suggests, after an explanation to Ian and Barbara, that the Ashtallans turn to cloning as a means of reproduction. As the group heads off to gather cloning equipment, the Doctor notes that they will need to collect more equipment to study the corpse. If one death has occurred, others are sure to follow.

Talking with Brenna, Susan is convinced that the death is related to the travellers, confident that she is missing a vital clue before Barbara brings news of another death. Rekan has also died, their corpse identical to Shal's. As Susan and Barbara move the body, panic and fear begins to grip the Ashtallans.

As the Doctor and Ian gather their equipment, Susan enters with news of the death, Barbara dragging the corpse into the TARDIS. Entering, Brenna marvels at the cloning equipment and offers her flesh for the process. Explaining that the machine will bombard the flesh with radiation conducive to cellular growth while accelerating local time. Suspecting that the process will take a few hours, the Doctor leaves Susan to watch it while he and Brenna examine the corpse.

Still unsure about Ashtallan biology, the Doctor, despite his lack of qualifications on post-mortem, procures a tissue sample from the corpse for examination, asking for more of Brenna's flesh as a control sample. Hearing more commotion outside, the noise of another death, the group sets to work.

Returning to the TARDIS laboratory, Susan notes that Brenna's flesh is self-repairing but not growing into a new being. Ian notes that life on other planets begins from a variety of factors, postulating that the DNA of another Ashtallan might be the key to producing a new lifeform, Brenna being sure that Sharlan would donate the flesh. Susan suddenly notices that Sharlan is missing, Ian volunteering to go get them.

Continuing his examination, the Doctor is confident that the death was a result of a poison, an alien chemical substance added to the Ashtallan biology but that the breakdown has left the foreign contaminant unidentifiable. With the Doctor still hoping this a coincidence, the group wonders if someone deliberately poisoned the Ashtallans or if the plague is natural.

Getting directions from an Ashtallan, Ian heads off to find Sharlan. Entering a building, Ian hears someone begging, running to find a dying Ashtallan begging for help before they expire. Sharlan emerges and states that they can explain, confessing that they have been killing their people, using a sample of Barbara's blood. Advancing, Sharlan tries to explain her reasoning as Ian backs away. In the struggle, Ian falls out of an open window. Noticing the empty street and a lack of witnesses, Sharlan briefly eulogises Ian before leaving him.

The Invention of Life (4)
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Bradley
 * Susan Foreman - Claudia Grant
 * Ian Chesterton - Jamie Glover
 * Barbara Wright - Jemma Powell
 * Sharlan - Tracy Wiles
 * Brenna - Michelle Morris

Continuity

 * The TARDIS crew have recently visited Paris (TV: The Reign of Terror) and New York City (AUDIO: The Great White Hurricane).
 * Ian references an incident in which the Doctor claimed he needed to find mercury. The Doctor gets flustered at his remark. (TV: The Daleks)
 * Susan and the Doctor mention meeting Daleks (TV: The Daleks) and Sensorites. (TV: The Sensorites)
 * Ian has always wanted to say "take me to your leader". (TV: Voyage of the Damned)
 * Susan mentions the last time that the TARDIS crew had to make a fire. (TV: An Unearthly Child)
 * The Eleventh Doctor will later express the belief that "Doctor" is a good name for a child. (TV: Closing Time)
 * Barbara and Ian are both treated with Ashtallan cells, which the Doctor speculates could mean they will "never age". (TV: Death of the Doctor)