A Home From Home (audio story)

A Home From Home was the nineteenth Subscriber Short Trips audio story. It was written by Nick Wallace and read by Stephen Critchlow. It featured the Third Doctor, Liz Shaw and John Benton and was initially released as a subscriber-only download, available to subscribers who purchased The Rani Elite.

Publisher's summary
A woman, a soldier, and a Time Lord walk into a bar. One of them is never seen again.

Where has the Doctor gone — and can he be rescued? Liz know she's his only hope. But she's not the only hunter at large tonight...

Plot
Following map references in the laboratory, Liz drives to the supposedly haunted Cardle Muir in the Scottish Highlands in search of the Doctor, stopping at a pub on the way and finding that the landlord Matthew has no memory of the Doctor visiting. Liz reaches the deserted hamlet and, finding nothing, heads back to the pub.

Liz orders a pineapple juice and, when her allergy does not flare up and Sergeant Benton joins her, she orders Matthew to stop altering her perception. He does so with a wand which Liz demands he hands over, taking it to Cardle Muir and revealing a secret settlement of aliens around her. She finds the Doctor seated in a barn and says that she has come to rescue him.

The Doctor reveals that Cardle Muir is a community of outcasts and refugees and that he joined them on a holiday. When Liz asks about Matthew, the Doctor says that he does not know of him and the settlement is suddenly attacked with lasers and grenades. Matthew demands that Gilleal surrenders, but the Doctor realises that the camouflage is keeping him from seeing all the residents. Using his sonic screwdriver and the wand, the Doctor modulates the overlap of the projector fields and pushes Matthew out of phase.

Liz explains to Benton, whom Matthew had knocked out, that Matthew is invisible and intangible now. She suggests contacting the Brigadier, but the Doctor wants to wait a few days so that the people of Cardle Muir can be relocated without UNIT finding them. She suggests a place in Cornwall.

Characters

 * Third Doctor
 * Liz Shaw
 * John Benton
 * Matthew
 * Gellial

Worldbuilding

 * Liz drives an Austin.
 * Liz orders orange juice and pineapple juice.
 * Liz is allergic to pineapple.
 * Cardle Muir is a small hamlet in the Scottish Highlands.
 * Liz has been with UNIT for six months.
 * Liz says that she knows of a cottage in Cornwall.
 * Liz sees an upright reptilian and a glowing human.
 * The Doctor reads The Times with a cup of coffee.
 * Gellial is a princess of the Srynai.
 * The gatekeeper for Cardle Muir is a woman who runs a post office.
 * Matthew is a bounty hunter.

Continuity
to be added