Night Thoughts (audio story)

 was the seventy-ninth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Edward Young and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace and Philip Olivier as Hex.

Produced three years before Big Finish began producing their range The Lost Stories, this is the first example of an unmade television story being adapted for audio.

Publisher's summary
"I warn you, things could get very nasty here before they get better."

A remote Scottish mansion. Five bickering academics are haunted by ghosts from their past. Reluctantly they offer shelter to the Doctor and his companions Ace and Hex.

Hex, already troubled by a vivid nightmare, is further disturbed by the night-time appearance of a whistling, hooded apparition.

Ace tries to befriend the young housemaid, Sue. Sue knows secrets. She knows why the academics have assembled here, and she knows why they are all so afraid. But Sue's lips are sealed — she prefers to communicate through her disturbing toy, Happy the Rabbit.

And then the killing begins. Gruesome deaths that lead the Doctor and his friends to discover the grisly truth behind the academics' plans, and — as the ghosts of the past become ghosts of the present — to recognise that sometimes death can be preferable to life...

Part one
The Doctor, Hex and Ace arrive on a Scottish island where Ace falls into the lake after going to investigate the source of the bubbles she saw. Once the Doctor and Hex help her out, Ace explains that she saw a woman drowning in the water and jumped in to help her, but then the weeds seemingly started pulling her down. They take her to a nearby house so that she can be warmed up.

At the house, the Doctor and his companions are greeted by Major Dickens who tells them that the house is heavily alarmed. As Joe Hartley runs a bath for Ace, she looks at a photo of a woman with her daughter which is taken by Hartley.

Hex is impressed with Major Dickens' collection of hunting trophies, which includes birds, fish and even a large stuffed bear. The Deacon tells him that Hartley is a taxidermist by trade before the Doctor starts telling a story about some people who experimented on a dying bear who did not dance to music.

Later that night, Hartley hears a voice calling for him in the cellar. As he goes to investigate, he is pushed down a flight of stairs and dies. His killer closes the door and walks away while whistling "Orange and Lemons".

The next morning, Dr. O'Neill introduces Hex to Sue and her toy rabbit, Happy who wishes to tell a story about a rabbit and a dog. Major Dickens soon informs everyone that Hartley has been found dead, seemingly from a heart attack. At 3 in the morning, Ace is woken up by Hex who has heard someone whistling "Oranges and Lemons". After Ace refuses to join him, Hex enters the kitchen to find the dead body of Hartley in the freezer with his eyes gouged out. After Hex hears the Doctor's voice emanating from a tape recorder, the hooded figure who killed Hartley approaches him whilst whistling "Oranges and Lemons".

Part two
Hex manages to get out of the kitchen and reunite with the others, only to find himself accused of murdering Hartley. The Doctor suggests that Hartley's body may be somewhere in the house.

The Deacon locates a locked fridge in the attic which she opens using a hacksaw. Horrified by what's inside the fridge, she hears the tape recording of the Doctor's voice and then says that she deserves to be punished, but begs for forgiveness. She is soon found dead after committing suicide.

Major Dickens activates his security system to lock Ace and Sue in the bedroom, but the girls manage to escape through the window and decide to go to a disused chapel that is half a mile away from the house.

When Ace and Sue get to the Chapel, they hear Hex calling out to them. After Ace leaves to look for him, Hex enters the chapel and tells Sue about the bear traps that Major Dickens has laid down to catch animals for taxidermizing. Ace hears Hex and Sue calling out to her and begins to make her way back to them, only to activate one of the bear traps.

Part three
To be added

Part four
To be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Ace - Sophie Aldred
 * Hex - Philip Olivier
 * Major Dickens - Bernard Kay
 * The Bursar - Joanna McCallum
 * Dr O'Neil - Andrew Forbes
 * Sue - Lizzie Hopley
 * The Deacon - Ann Beach
 * Joe Hartley - Duncan Duff

Individuals

 * Ace's maternal grandmother, Kathleen Dudman, died in 1973. She remembered that her mother Audrey cried for days afterwards.
 * Hex was raised by his father and maternal grandmother, the mother of Cassie Schofield whom the Sixth Doctor and his companion Evelyn Smythe had met on two occasions, in 1999 and November 2004. They witnessed her death at the hands of Nimrod on the latter occasion. Hex believed that his grandmother was actually his mother until he was six years old.

Cultural references from the real world

 * Ace refers to the Doctor as "Batman".
 * Ace asks the Doctor "What's up Doc?", while doing an impression of Bugs Bunny.
 * Ace later says that the Doctor is "smarter than the average bear".
 * Ace mentions late actress Thora Hird, in reference to a series of Churchill Stairlift advertisements which aired in Britain throughout the 80s and 90s.

Continuity

 * The Doctor refers to Kathleen Dudman, Ace's maternal grandmother whom they met at Maiden's Point in 1943. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)