The Suffering (audio story)

The Suffering was the seventh story of the fourth series of The Companion Chronicles, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Jacqueline Rayner, narrated by Maureen O'Brien and Peter Purves and featured the First Doctor, Vicki Pallister and Steven Taylor.

Publisher's summary
The TARDIS materialises in England in the year 1912, a time of great social change. The Suffragette movement is lobbying for votes for women, and the skull of the so-called "missing link" has been discovered in Piltdown.

While Vicki falls victim to a strange influence, the Doctor and Steven investigate the fossilised remains. The Suffering has been unleashed. Can the travellers survive its rage?

An Unearthing (1)
to be added

The Piltdown Woman (2)
to be added

The Female of the Species (3)
to be added

The Sharing (4)
to be added

Cast

 * Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
 * Vicki Pallister - Maureen O'Brien

Characters

 * First Doctor
 * Vicki Pallister
 * Steven Taylor
 * Constance Arden
 * Thomas Arden
 * Drahvin
 * Servant
 * Forrest

Worldbuilding

 * The Doctor describes himself as "a student of science and the wonders of the universe."
 * Constance Arden is a suffragette.
 * The Doctor claims that he has friends in the Knights Hospitallers.
 * Steven was not aware that British women did not have the vote in 1912.
 * Thomas Arden is an enthusiast of "the newfangled motorcar."
 * Astra was established as an Earth colony at some point after the 23rd century.
 * A diagnosticator is a 25th century medical device.
 * Vicki considers 20th century medicine as being from the Stone Age.
 * Constance refers to Herbert Asquith, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
 * Vicki learned much about the 20th century from Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright as well as from the history machines in her own time.
 * Constance has never heard of the Beatles, the Concorde or the Millennium Dome. Vicki's apparent interest in beetles leads Constance to believe that she is a keen coleopterist.
 * The late Queen Victoria did not support women's suffrage.
 * The Suffering's home planet is in the Fourth Galaxy.
 * The Doctor tells Vicki that it would be discovered that the Piltdown Man was not the missing link but a human cranium and a filed down ape jaw in 1953.
 * In 1918, in the aftermath of World War I, certain British women over thirty gained the right to vote.

Continuity

 * Steven tells the Doctor that he has not eaten since 1066. (TV: The Time Meddler)
 * Steven refers to his two years as a prisoner of the Mechonoids on their native planet Mechanus and his first encounter with the Doctor. (TV: The Chase)
 * In her delirium, Vicki recalls that she and her father were to begin a new life on Astra before the UK-201 crash-landed on Dido in 2493 and the murder of her father by Bennett. (TV: The Rescue)
 * The Doctor refers to his visit to Peking in 1289. (TV: Marco Polo)
 * The Doctor uses the Aztec bracelet given to him by Cameca as an engagement present in Mexico during the 15th century to buy suits and top hats for himself and Steven. (TV: The Aztecs) However, it eventually re-entered his possession as the Seventh Doctor later wore it on the lapel of his cream linen suit. (PROSE: White Darkness) The Eighth Doctor would give it to his granddaughter Susan Foreman as a Christmas present. (AUDIO: Relative Dimensions)
 * The Doctor describes his theft of the ape jaw "as easy as pie". (TV: The Five Doctors)
 * Vicki refers to her appreciation for the Beatles' music. (TV: The Chase; AUDIO: 1963)
 * Vicki recalls stowing away aboard a Dalek time machine, (TV: The Chase) becoming involved in the machinations of Roman emperors (TV: The Romans) and English kings (TV: The Crusade) and leading an uprising on a distant planet. (TV: The Space Museum)
 * Vicki refers to her role in defeating the Daleks, (TV: The Chase) the Moroks (TV: The Space Museum) and the Monk. (TV: The Time Meddler)
 * Vicki mentions her skill at cutting hair. (TV: Galaxy 4)
 * The Doctor and Steven would return to London in 1762, (AUDIO: The Founding Fathers) February 1814, (AUDIO: Frostfire) 1966 (AUDIO: The Perpetual Bond) and, later in their personal timelines, March 1965. (TV: The Massacre)
 * The story that Constance tells whilst possessed by the skull fragment is implied to be the origin of the Drahvins. (TV: Galaxy 4)