The First Wave (audio story)

The First Wave was the forty-ninth release in the Companion Chronicles audio range. It was the fifth story of season 6. It was written by Simon Guerrier and featured Steven Taylor and Oliver Harper.

Publisher's summary
Caught in the inevitable path of its own history, the TARDIS arrives on the planetoid Grace Alone, where the Doctor, Steven and Oliver expect to face their fate. What they don’t expect to find is a massacred crew — and a race of alien invaders known as the Vardans.

When the Doctor is apparently killed, his companions attempt to survive against the odds. But those odds are narrowing. Their borrowed time has expired.

The First Wave (1)
to be added

The Last Wave (2)
to be added

Cast

 * Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
 * Oliver Harper - Tom Allen
 * The Vardans - Lisa Bowerman

Continuity

 * The Fourth Doctor would later encounter the Vardans in TV: The Invasion of Time and AUDIO: Wave of Destruction as would the Seventh Doctor in PROSE: No Future and PROSE: Return of the Living Dad.
 * Steven references the danger of changing history, mentioning someone "changing what happened at the Battle of Hastings" (TV: The Time Meddler) or "mucking around when the pyramids were being built" (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan).
 * Steven says he could always have escaped from the Mechanoids but that he had nowhere to escape to. (TV: The Chase)
 * Oliver is reduced to a non-physical form and remains within the TARDIS, seeing Steven travel in further adventures. He mentions seeing the Doctor when he was frail and walking through the snow and telling him that this is not the end. This would seem to imply that this takes place when the Doctor heads to the TARDIS after defeating the Cybermen on the Snowcap in December 1986 but before Ben Jackson and Polly Wright catch up with him to witness his regeneration into his second incarnation. The Doctor catches a final sight of him and he fades into the snow as the Doctor regenerates. (TV: The Tenth Planet) The Doctor would see other former companions during later regenerations. (TV: The Caves of Androzani, TV: The Time of the Doctor)