The Edge of the War (audio story)

The Edge of War was the second and final story in the audio anthology Conflicts of Interest, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Jonathan Barnes and featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa and Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka.

Publisher's summary
France in the summer of 1936. The village of Villy is in a state of contentment, tinged only slightly with unease. A kilometre away, construction is underway on a large underground fortification, part of the Maginot Line project which has seen the building of a series of defences against future invasion.

A young artist has arrived in the village to paint the landscape. Her name is Nyssa and she has taken a room in the local inn, run in its owner’s absence by a young Australian woman called Tegan. But she's not the only newcomer. A detective called the Doctor has just got in from Paris. And he has quite a mystery to solve...

Part one
Cycling across France, Nyssa meets Jean-Baptiste and learns that it is 21 August 1936. A buzzing sound washes over the two of them, with Jean-Baptiste telling Nyssa not to struggle; once it passes, Nyssa forgets about it and Jean-Baptiste tells her that she is a watercolourist and that she fell from her bicycle. She heads into Villy to get a room at the inn and is given a tour of the village by Corporal Armand Barbier and Tegan, who is currently running the inn and is unsure of how long she has been there.

Nyssa gets tired and decides to head back to the inn, but Armand is keen to take Tegan to the fortification, one of the Maginot Line, given the recent reports of ghost sightings there. Tegan wonders if Armand has made up the ghosts in order to get the two of them alone together, being aware of his feelings for her, but a ghost does appear and she suggests that it is from the future rather than the past.

At the inn, Jean-Baptiste is visited by Madame LaChappelle, sent by the self-titled Count to find out how aware Nyssa and Tegan are about what is happening in the village. LaChappelle then interrupts Nyssa as she sketches and invites her to the Count's party at the chateau, the existence of which Nyssa is surprised given that Armand did not mention it during his tour. Nyssa screams when she sees a shape in the shadows, attracting the attention of the Doctor, a detective from Paris. The shape becomes an aged Count who disappears with LaChappelle.

Part two
The three travellers remember their real lives. The ghost shoots Armand in the leg and Tegan, after noticing that the fortification is now empty and apparently firebombed, carries him out in search of the Doctor. LaChappelle gives them a lift, but a wave of temporal energy makes LaChappelle disappear mid-journey and causes Tegan and Armand to crash into a tree. They are unharmed, however, and it looks as though Armand was never shot. As they near the chateau, LaChappelle reappears and tells them to hurry as non-ghostly soldiers appear.

The Doctor and Nyssa let the temporal energy wash over them as they go in search of the chateau, making sure to hold on to their identities, and a ghostly Jean-Baptiste appears to try to stop them. They are greeted at the chateau by Jean-Baptiste, who has no memory of their previous encounter, and they are introduced to the Count. The Doctor accuses him of being a Time Lord and believes that the chateau is his TARDIS, but the Count claims not to understand what he is talking about. When the temporal energy returns, the Doctor becomes confused.

Part three
The soldiers halt outside of the chateau, allowing Tegan, Armand and LaChappelle to get inside. Armand shoots Jean-Baptiste when he draws his gun and LaChappelle stays with him whilst Tegan and Armand barricade the door against the soldiers. The Doctor and Nyssa hear the gunshot and find LaChappelle, learning that the Count came from the future and had dreams of a war which gave him the idea to build a time machine shaped like a chateau; he has been using it to rewind and loop time and, as he intends to do so again, the Doctor goes to stop him. Jean-Baptiste returns to life as the machine keeps the village's inhabitants from dying and faces the soldiers as they break through the barricade, wanting to see the enemy who is coming for France.

The machine fails because of entropy and the Doctor agrees to fix it in order to put it into overdrive and cause time to move forwards once again. The Count refuses to permit him to do so as he knows that France will soon be invaded, but he realises that it is the right thing to do. The release of energy ages LaChappelle, who agrees to look after the chateau and confirms that it is now 18 May 1940, the day that the Germans invade. The Doctor and Nyssa find Tegan and learn that she has been running the inn with Armand for a year and realised what it meant when the TARDIS materialised that morning; she let Armand go to his death and now wants to go anywhere else.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Davison
 * Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
 * Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding
 * The Count - Alistair Petrie
 * Madame LaChappelle - Poppy Miller
 * Jean-Baptiste - Matt Addis
 * Armand Barbier - Phillipe Bosher

Worldbuilding

 * Jean-Baptiste offers Nyssa bread and cognac.
 * Belgium is a few kilometres from Villy.
 * Villy reminds Nyssa of her home.
 * The Count drinks calvados.

Continuity
to be added