The Dreams of Avarice (audio story)

 was the third story of the eleventh series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Guy Adams and featured Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and John Heffernan as the Nine.

Publisher's summary
The Nine isn't your average robber. A ferociously intelligent and murderous kleptomaniac Time Lord with regenerative dissonance, he's a far more dangerous adversary than most security details are used to. So it's useful that the Doctor is on hand to stop him.

This time more than ever - as the Nine is about to pull off the greatest heist of his criminal career. Though could the consequences be far worse than the crime?

Part one
The Doctor is arrested by Detective Inspector Alan Probert in a high-security research centre on Sandak Minor and admits to trying to steal an experimental compound mass reducer before somebody else did. As the Doctor is interrogated, the Nine and his drones break into the facility and steal the device, taking it and several others to his TARDIS where his companion Thana is reading.

The police station is attacked by a Class-14 Attack Robot, stolen by the Nine from the Tsar of Opek. Probert and Boyd are cornered, but the Doctor saves them by blocking its gun barrel with a cricket ball, triggering a safety feature which shuts it down to prevent a backfire. One of the Nine's drones brings him the last object required to initiate his plan and he approaches the Doctor wearing a personal force field to find out what has happened to his Attack Robot.

After the Nine returns to his TARDIS, the Doctor has Probert lead him to the evidence room where his own TARDIS has been moved from the research centre's roof. The Doctor discovers that the Nine has stolen his dimensional control and, without it, his TARDIS is no longer dimensionally transcendental.

Part two
The Doctor questions one of the Nine's drones, who has the memories of thief Danny Ellis, and learn that the Nine is heading to Glimmer on Luxuriana. The drone tethers the Doctor's TARDIS to the Nine's, allowing the Doctor and Probert to follow the artron trail and warn Mayor Polska. They confront the Nine and Thana at the Luxuriana Metropolitan Art Gallery and watch as the Nine steals the building using the compound mass reducer and dimensional control.

The Nine places the shrunken gallery in his vault and has trouble deciding what he wants to steal next. Unable to make a choice, he routes his machine through his TARDIS and uses it on Luxuriana to take all of its remaining treasures in one go. Thana believes that it is impossible, but the Nine succeeds and soon holds the entire planet in his hands.

Part three
Inside a fabricated reality field which keeps Luxuriana safe, the Doctor wonders what will happen to the God Crystal which passes the planet every hundred years or so and, with his TARDIS having followed the Nine's, asks Polska for access to scientific instruments. He creates a dimensional bridge and uses rocket boots to get himself and Probert out of the fabricated reality and into the Nine's TARDIS, where they are chased by the last of the Pikas and hide in a cupboard.

The Nine decides to steal the God Crystal just as he did Luxuriana, but he is affected by its soporific effects and has trouble with his machine. He causes the God Crystal to grow and has Thana put out the fire when one of the power linkages combusts. She tells him to stop as the TARDIS is being torn apart and the Cloister Bell tolls, but he refuses to give up even when the ship is pulled towards the God Crystal.

Part four
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Tom Baker
 * The Nine - John Heffernan
 * Detective Inspector Alan Probert - Richard Dixon
 * Drones / Aide / Sergeant - Mark Elstob
 * Thana / Mayor of Glimmer - Ronni Ancona

Continuity

 * The Fourth Doctor says that he has "more" than nine incarnations. He previously revisited a number of old faces during a mind battle with Morbius. (TV: The Brain of Morbius) He's also met the Tenth Doctor, (AUDIO: Out of Time) was once kidnapped alongside ten other incarnations (COMIC: Endgame) and, although he cannot remember, once joined up with "all thirteen" Doctors to save Gallifrey on the last day of the Last Great Time War. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * The Nine and the One talk about CIA plots regarding displacing planets in space. (TV: The Mysterious Planet, The Ultimate Foe; PROSE: The Eight Doctors)