Scenes From Her Life (audio story)

 was the second story in the audio anthology Doom Coalition 2, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by John Dorney and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, Nicola Walker as Liv Chenka and Hattie Morahan as Helen Sinclair.

Publisher's summary
Investigating the appearance of the Voord on Earth, the Doctor, Liv and Helen follow a trail which takes them to the other side of the universe. There they discover a mysterious and almost deserted gothic city lost in space and time, in which the grotesque inhabitants are conducting a vile and inhumane experiment. The Doctor and his companions must hurry to save the lives of those in danger before the experiment is a success and the unimaginable consequences become all too real.

Plot
Locked up together, a husband shares his rations with his wife when their jailer, Swordfish, arrives to take the wife for his master's experiments. As nobody has yet returned from the experiments, the husband asks to take his wife's place and Swordfish accepts. Swordfish takes him to Lord Stormblood and Lady Sepulchra, who are enjoying wine with dinner, and he is subjected to the experiment which strips his flesh from his bones, killing him. The Lord and Lady are displeased, having wanted his atoms to be dispersed.

''In a classroom, Caleera is taught about temporal mechanics by an Educator and is admonished by her for daydreaming and wasting her potential. Caleera's frustrations causes things in the room to crash around and smash glass.''

The Doctor, Liv and Helen are in the TARDIS, looking at what little is left of the Voord homeworld. The Doctor detects chronon energy and attempts to trace it to its source.

Swordfish informs Lord Stormblood that a girl has been reinstalled into a machine. Lord Stormblood and Lady Sepulchra discuss how they need to expand the girl's mind so that she does not need the machine.

The Doctor finds that his way to the source through the Time Vortex has been blocked by an antique TARDIS, so damaged by the time winds that it has lost its outer shell. The Doctor's TARDIS beeps, warning him that it is on a collision course with the antique.

''Caleera meets with a senior Time Lord, who informs her that she is potentially the Time Lord Academy's most powerful telepath. Although she is excited by this, he tells her that she will have to take suppressants to quell her powers and that someone will soon arrive to begin the process of treatment. Caleera is horrified, seeing her powers as an intrinsic part of her.''

The Doctor again seems to see something out of the corner of his eye at the console and the Cloister Bell rings. He manages to materialise the TARDIS within the antique, which is heard by Lady Sepulchra, and Lord Stormblood has Swordfish take over so that they can go to meet their visitors. The Doctor observes that the antique looks other than it should and that the people within would be affected by the time winds. He asks Liv and Helen to wait at the TARDIS, which they agree to do, although Liv then tells Helen that they should wait only three minutes before following.

The Doctor is welcomed by Lord Stormblood and Lady Sepulchra, who cannot remember a time that they had not lived within the antique TARDIS and are unaware of who the Voord are. He agrees to join them for dinner and, aside, they agree that having a doctor around could be quite useful.

Liv and Helen leave the TARDIS, hearing a woman in pain, head off in search of her.

''Caleera is told that her readings now show her as normal, indicating that treatment had successfully suppressed her psychic powers and that she can return to her classes. She is upset that she is no longer special.''

The woman inside the machine screams and is told unsympathetically by Swordfish that her pain is temporary and will pass. Liv and Helen see what is going on and, once Swordfish has left, try to save the woman, surmising that the machine was built around her. The wOman wakes and asks what Liv and Helen are doing there.

Lord Stormblood and Lady Sepulchra take the Doctor to the console room, which they call the Grand Dining Room, and eat food cubes from a broken-down food machine. The Doctor asks about their pasts and they both remember an orange sky, making the Doctor wonder if they are from Gallifrey.

The woman tells Liv and Helen that she is in a neural amplifier and cannot safely be removed. Liv leaves Helen with the woman and goes looking for the Doctor for help.

''Caleera meets with a Time Lord who, despite her test scores, assigns her to become an assistant to a junior archivist for "a regeneration or two" due to her latent psychic powers. Although greatly disappointed, she agrees.''

Liv wanders the corridors of the antique TARDIS and comes across the prison cells, learning of Swordfish and his masters from the wife whose husband was taken away. She tells her that the keys for the cells are carried by Swordfish and Liv goes off to get them.

The Doctor asks Lord Stormblood and Lady Sepulchra how they do not know of the Voord when the flight log says that their TARDIS was at the Voord homeworld when it was destroyed and tells them that he thinks they are insane Time Lords. Whilst he believes that they are incapable of obliterating planets, he believes that they must know who did it. They agree to help him if he gives assistance to their "infirmed relative below".

The woman uses her psychic powers to touch Helen's mind and relates to her history of being oppressed by men and kept from her true potential.

To be completed.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Paul McGann
 * Liv Chenka - Nicola Walker
 * Helen Sinclair - Hattie Morahan
 * Lord Stormblood - Vincent Franklin
 * Lady Sepulchra - Jacqueline King
 * Caleera - Emma Cunniffe
 * Swordfish - Hamish Clark
 * Wife - Janet Fullerlove
 * Husband - John Banks
 * The Eleven - Mark Bonnar

Continuity

 * The Voord homeworld has been destroyed. (AUDIO: Beachhead)
 * Liv mentions her visit to Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Eleven)