Thicker Than Water (audio story)

Thicker Than Water was the seventy-third story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Paul Sutton and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush and Maggie Stables as Evelyn Smythe, Gabriel Woolf as Rossiter and Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor.

A sequel to Arrangements for War, this story is set following Evelyn's first departure from travelling with the Doctor, which is presented in flashbacks in this episode and was briefly alluded to in The Juggernauts.

Publisher's summary
Three years after Világ was all but laid waste by the Killorans, the Doctor is back alongside a different companion. And a lot has changed.

Now elected Principal Triumvir, head of a tripartite government, Rossiter is working to secure a peaceful future for the planet by researching the technology the Killorans left behind. But he has to contend with opposition from his daughter, Sofia, who heads a public campaign demanding the destruction of all alien artefacts.

Politics has caused a rift between father and daughter, and as if that weren't enough, Sofia doesn't approve of her new stepmother either. Emotions soon boil over into violence — violence that seems to have gripped the entire city.

Friendships bind people close, but they say that blood is...

Part one
After saving a colony's biodomes, Mel scolds the Doctor for his rudeness and mentions in passing that she would like to meet Evelyn, with whom the Doctor credits the softening of his temperament. The Doctor decides to take Mel to Világ and recounts how he took Evelyn back there to see the planet's rebuilding following the Killoran invasion, after which she chose to stay with Principal Triumvir Rossiter and the upset Doctor did not give her a proper goodbye.

Two years after Evelyn's return to Világ, she is the chairperson of a controversial committee researching Killoran technology, a mission which is opposed by her stepdaughter, Sofia. Evelyn suffers from frequent headaches and, after storming off of Galen Today in a debate with Sofia and her ally, Sebastian Lawrence, promises her husband that she will take time to relax. After giving a speech at Memorial Park, she is approached by the Doctor and Mel, but the meeting is interrupted when shots are fired and a gas is released. Mel and Evelyn are captured by the attackers.

Part two
to be added

Part three
to be added

Part four
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Colin Baker
 * Evelyn Smythe - Maggie Stables
 * Melanie Bush - Bonnie Langford
 * Principal Triumvir Rossiter - Gabriel Woolf
 * Dr Sofia Rossiter - Rachel Pickup
 * Dr Andrew Szabó - Patrick Romer
 * Dr Sebastian Lawrence - Simon Watts
 * Jenner - Matt Dineen
 * Karnó - Ann Bryson
 * TV Interviewer - James Parsons

Uncredited

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy

Crew

 * Cover Art - Lee Binding
 * Director - Edward Salt
 * Music - Andy Hardwick
 * Producers - Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery
 * Sound Design - Gareth Jenkins and Andy Hardwick
 * Writer - Paul Sutton

Worldbuilding

 * Evelyn and Sofia appear on Galen Today.
 * Evelyn is chairperson of the Triennium Government's committee researching Killoran technology.
 * Stafford is Sofia and Sebastian's driver.
 * Sofia goes to Memorial Park.
 * At some point during their travels together, the Doctor and Evelyn eventually visited the court of Elizabeth I.

Continuity

 * Sofia Rossiter was the best friend of Princess Krisztina. (AUDIO: Arrangements for War)
 * Evelyn tells Mel about her encounters with the Daleks. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element, AUDIO: Jubilee), and mutant vampire hunters. (AUDIO: Project: Twilight, Project: Lazarus)
 * The Sixth Doctor mentions his aggressive post-regenerative phase. (TV: The Twin Dilemma)
 * Whereas Evelyn saw the Seventh Doctor from a distance in The 100 Days of the Doctor, she does not appear to recognise him in this story, though she correctly guesses from his manner that he is a future incarnation of the Doctor. They would later meet for a second and final time in A Death in the Family.
 * The Seventh Doctor informs Evelyn that his companion Hex is in actuality "Little Tommy", the son of Cassandra Schofield, whom they previously met in AUDIO: Project: Twilight and saw die in AUDIO: Project: Lazarus. Having seen him from afar in AUDIO: The 100 Days of the Doctor, Evelyn would later meet Hex formally in AUDIO: A Death in the Family.
 * The Seventh Doctor tells Evelyn that he stumbled across Hex, who chose to travel with him of his own volition. (AUDIO: The Harvest)
 * Shortly before travelling to Világ, the Seventh Doctor dropped Ace and Hex off in Monte Carlo in 1966 and instructed them to steal the Veiled Leopard while the Fifth Doctor's companions Peri Brown and Erimem were simultaneously trying to prevent it from being stolen. He briefly conversed with his past self and was observed doing so by Peri and Erimem, who remained unaware of his identity. Peri described him "as a goofy little guy in a weird pullover." (AUDIO: The Veiled Leopard)
 * The Sixth Doctor mentions using a fire extinguisher to repel enemies before. (TV: Inferno)
 * While living on Világ, Evelyn discovered a temporal device which transported her to Pelachan billions of years in the past. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family)