The Marian Conspiracy (audio story)

 was the sixth Doctor Who audio story release by Big Finish Productions. It is the first story to introduce a new companion for the Sixth Doctor: Evelyn Smythe played by Maggie Stables. This was the first (of many) audio-created companions to be created by Big Finish.

Publisher's summary
Tracking a nexus point in time, the Doctor meets Dr Evelyn Smythe, a history lecturer whose own history seems to be rapidly vanishing.

The Doctor must travel back to Tudor times to stabilise the nexus and save Evelyn's life. But there he meets the Queen of England and must use all his skills of diplomacy to avoid ending up on the headman's block...

Plot
to be added

Cast

 * The Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker
 * Dr. Evelyn Smythe - Maggie Stables
 * Reverend Thomas Smith - Nicholas Pegg
 * The Queen - Anah Ruddin
 * Lady Sarah - Jo Castleton
 * Francois de Noailles - Barnaby Edwards
 * George Crow - Sean Jackson
 * John Wilson - Gary Russell
 * William Leaf - Jez Fielder
 * Royal Guard - Alistair Lock

Foods and beverages

 * The Doctor agrees to take Evelyn to Mexico or Havana to pick up some chocolate for Evelyn's cakes.
 * Evelyn gives Mary some aspirin; she takes it with beer.

The Doctor

 * The Doctor once again uses his well worn alias, Dr John Smith, to gain access to the Queen's inner circle.
 * The Doctor does some serious name dropping during this story, mentioning meetings with Socrates (whom he told to "stick to his guns" when it came to his theories), Sir Francis Drake, Henry VIII, Lady Jane Grey (whom he met in the Tower of London), Sir Robert Cecil and Queen Elizabeth I.

Individuals

 * Evelyn was once married, but left her husband after a row about her attendance at an academic conference on the day of their anniversary. She doesn't seem to be too bothered about this, calling love a distraction. Her specialty is Tudor political history. She can pick locks with a hairpin after years of dealing with students who have locked themselves out of their rooms and she has a pathological love of cocoa and cakes.

Continuity

 * When viewing 1550s London in the TARDIS scanner, Evelyn muses that it will all be burnt down in the Great Fire of London in 1666, a statement that causes an embarrassed intake of breath from the Doctor. His fifth incarnation played a major role in starting that fire in DW: The Visitation. Ironically, the Fourth Doctor, arriving shortly before his future self's departure, was wrongfully accused of starting the fire only hours later. (DW: Pyramids of Mars, ST: The Republican's Story) A similar exchange occurred between the Doctor and Peri Brown in BFA: Point of Entry.
 * The Doctor says that he should "pop back and support Darwin." Evelyn and he would meet Charles Darwin in BFA: Bloodtide.
 * Both the First and the Third Doctors referred to being imprisoned in the Tower of London (DW: The Sensorites, DW: The Mind of Evil). The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa suffered the same fate in the late 17th century, charges of forgery having been levelled against them by Sir Isaac Newton (BFA: Summer). The Sixth Doctor was also briefly imprisoned in the Tower in 1590. (BFA: Point of Entry) Evelyn and he would return to the Tower in an alternative 2003 (BFA: Jubilee) and 2010 (The Crimes of Thomas Brewster). In the former case, Evelyn learned that alternative versions of the Doctor and she were imprisoned together in the Tower for decades before her counterpart died. She briefly met the alternative Doctor, who had been rendered practically insane by decades of isolation during the latter part of his hundred years as a prisoner of the English Empire. She chose not to tell the Doctor she had met his counterpart. (BFA: Jubilee)
 * The Sixth Doctor previously visited 16th century London at least twice. (BFA: Point of Entry, BFA: Recorded Time)
 * Queen Mary refers to her late stepmother, Anne Boleyn, the mother of her younger half-sister Elizabeth, as a "harlot." Earlier in his personal timeline, the Doctor and his former companion Peri Brown met Boleyn on 4 May 1536, shortly before her execution. (BFA: Recorded Time).
 * The Doctor tells Lady Sarah that he once destroyed an entire race. (DW: Terror of the Vervoids)
 * The Doctor and Evelyn would eventually visit Queen Elizabeth's court at some point before she departed the TARDIS. (BFA: Thicker than Water) Later in his personal timeline, the Doctor met her on at least three times. (BFA: Terror Firma, DW: The Shakespeare Code, DW: The End of Time)

For the Doctor

 * The Marian Conspiracy occurs after ST: There's Something About Mary
 * The Marian Conspiracy occurs before BFA: The Sirens of Time

For Evelyn

 * The Marian Conspiracy occurs before BFA: The Spectre of Lanyon Moor