House of Cards (audio story)

House of Cards was the sixty-fourth release in the Companion Chronicles audio range. It was the eighth story of season 7. It was written by Steve Lyons and featured Jamie McCrimmon and Polly Wright.

Publisher's summary
The TARDIS has landed in a futuristic space casino, where the Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie find fun, games… and monsters everywhere. There are vicious robot dogs, snake-headed gangsters from the Sidewinder Syndicate and a mysterious masked woman called Hope.

In this place, time travellers are to be tracked down and arrested. Yet, as events spiral out of control, time may be Polly's only ally…

Part one
to be added

Part two
to be added

Cast

 * Polly Wright / The Sidewinders - Anneke Wills
 * Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines

The Doctor

 * The Doctor has brought Ben, Polly and Jamie to the casino for a holiday.
 * Polly notes that the Doctor grabs his lapels in the same manner as his first incarnation used to do.
 * The Doctor tells Polly that he keeps the pockets of his coat finely balanced.

Casino

 * The casino has robot croupiers which were made to resemble playing cards.
 * One of the games at the casino is Three Card Vulcan Hold 'Em.
 * The casino has a time travel alarm.

Jamie

 * After Polly explains to Jamie what a casino is, he tells her that there were gambling dens in London in his time.
 * Although he is from 1746, Jamie knows what a cowboy is.

Polly

 * Polly has always been afraid of snakes.
 * Polly has never gambled.

Sidewinder Syndicate

 * The Sidewinder Syndicate's ancestors were stranded on Old Earth in Chicago during the 1920s and adopted the method and mannerisms of the Chicago gangsters enthusiastically.
 * The Sidewinder Syndicate's rivals are the Ratler Mob.

Continuity

 * Jamie refers to being attacked by a Selachian in the Galacti-Bank. (AUDIO: The Selachian Gambit)
 * Jamie mentions that he has fought "metal beasties" before. (TV: The Moonbase)
 * Polly tells Hope that she has learned her lesson about attempting to change history. (AUDIO: Resistance)
 * Jamie tells Ben that the last time that the Doctor gambled, he lost the TARDIS to Kublai Khan, the Emperor of China, in a game of backgammon. (TV: Marco Polo)
 * The Tenth Doctor, Jamie's descendant Heather McCrimmon and Wolfgang Ryter would later encounter the Sidewinder Syndicate in the United States (COMIC: Snakes Alive!) while the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond would encounter them in a Ratlings bank in circa 40,412 (COMIC: Money Troubles).