Nightshade (audio story)

Susan  was the ninth story in Big Finish Productions' Novel Adaptations range. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Kyle C. Szikora and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Sophie Aldred as Ace.

Publisher's summary
Professor Nightshade - tea time terror for all the family, and the most loved show in Britain. But Professor Nightshade's days are long over, and Edmund Trevithick is now just an unemployed actor in a retirement home, fondly remembering his past.

It's the same through the entire village of Crook Marsham - people are falling prey to their memories. At first harmlessly, and then, the bodies begin to turn up.

The Doctor and Ace arrive on the scene - but, with the Doctor planning his retirement, it may be time for Professor Nightshade to solve one last case.

Plot
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Ace - Sophie Aldred
 * Edmund Trevithick - John Castle
 * Robin - Samuel Barnett
 * Jill - Katherine Jakeways
 * Dr Hawthorne - Edward Harrison
 * Lawrence - Jonny Magnanti
 * Sgt Barclay - Tom Price
 * Mrs Hollins - Louise Jameson
 * The Sentience/Susan - Carole Ann Ford

Uncredited

 * Insectoids - Samuel Barnett (BFX: Nightshade)

Continuity

 * The Doctor refers to enrolling Susan in Coal Hill School in 1963 (TV: An Unearthly Child) whilst he was still in possession of the Hand of Omega. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
 * The Doctor mentions the TARDIS' food machine. (TV: The Daleks, The Edge of Destruction)
 * The Doctor refers to Susan's departure from the TARDIS. He later recalls saying, "One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan. Goodbye, my dear." (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
 * Trevithick says to the Doctor, "When I tell you to run, run." (TV: The Power of the Daleks, et al.)
 * Ace refers to Gabriel Chase. (TV: Ghost Light)
 * Robin later began a relationship with Ace's mother Audrey Dudman. They attended the wedding of Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane in Cheldon Bonniface on 24 April 2010, as did Ace. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
 * The Eighth Doctor was a fan of Nightshade, judging by the fact that he once told Dave Young that he had "never really rated TV science fiction since they got rid of Nightshade." (PROSE: Escape Velocity)

Deviations from the original novel

 * The prologue and the epilogue are not included.
 * Vijay Degun, a major supporting character in the novel, is omitted from the audio adaptation. Holly Kidd, Constable George Lowcock, Jack Prudhoe and Tim Medway are mentioned but do not appear.
 * In the audio adapation, the Doctor confirms that Susan is his granddaughter. In the novel, he remains silent when Ace asks who Susan is to him.
 * The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver in the audio adaptation but he does not have one in the novel.
 * In the novel, Robin's mother Betty Yeadon is killed by the Sentience. In the audio adaptation, she is implied to have been dead for many years.
 * In the novel, the Sentience manifested in the form of Alfred Beadle when it appears to his sister Betty Yeadon. In the audio adaptation, Alf is Lawrence Yeadon's brother.
 * Hawthorne is 55 years old in the novel. He is much younger in the audio adaptation as he was a schoolboy when Nightshade was first broadcast in the 1950s.
 * In the audio adaptation, Hawthorne is given a more sympathetic treatment than in the novel, in large part because the racist dimension of the character has been removed.
 * No details of Trevithick's family are revealed.
 * Hawthorne is killed by the Sentience in the novel but survives in the audio adaptation.
 * In the novel, the Doctor refuses to allow Ace to leave and materialises the TARDIS on an alien planet instead of returning her to Crook Marsham in 1968. In the audio adaptation, Ace has second thoughts about leaving the TARDIS and the Doctor tells her that she is faced with a difficult decision, the audio ending with the Doctor going into the TARDIS and leaving Ace outside to decide if she will go with him or stay with Robin.