Rise and Fall (audio story)

Rise and Fall is a 2010 Big Finish audio short story read by William Russell. It features the First Doctor and Ian Chesterton. It was the only story on Short Trips: Volume 1 by an author who was not making a Big Finish debut, as George Mann had previously written The Pyralis Effect in 2009. It was also by far the longest story on the anthology, being essentially the length of a televised episode from the First Doctor era.

Summary
Looking for a respite after their involvement in the French Revolution, the TARDIS materialises on a planet to which the Doctor has never been before. While the girls enjoy themselves in the TARDIS wardrobe, Ian and the Doctor step out onto a verdant, but scarcely populated world.

There, they encounter an equine humanoid species. In moments they watch the civilisation rise, flourish and fall. The perspective of the planet's inhabitants is entirely different. For them, time is passing very slowly and the Doctor, Ian and the TARDIS become a ubiquitous landmark of their society. Generations speculate on the meaning of the blue box and the two aliens near it.

The extreme difference in the way time passes for the observers and the observed makes communication between the two impossible. After witnessing the end of the planet's civilisation, the Doctor and Ian return to the TARDIS and dematerialise to a new adventure.

Full audio


Characters

 * First Doctor
 * Susan Foreman
 * Barbara Wright
 * Ian Chesterton
 * Call Box
 * Kilik
 * Ethric
 * Pol

Continuity

 * Ian refers to the TARDIS crew's recent involvement with local politics in France in July 1794. (TV: The Reign of Terror)
 * Ian thinks the Doctor's manipulation of the TARDIS console is apparently competent for once. He and Barbara had previously doubted whether the Doctor actually knew how to fly the TARDIS, partly based on his own admission that he could not really control it. (TV: An Unearthly Child, et. al)