The Final Beginning (audio story)

The Final Beginning was the first story in the audio anthology Beyond War Games, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Mark Wright and Nicholas Briggs and featured Michael Troughton as the Second Doctor and Emma Noakes as Raven.

Publisher's summary
Believing he has escaped exile - and a change to his appearance - by the Time Lords, the Doctor finds himself lost on a snowy, alien world. He is not alone – prospectors Catrona and Silas are stranded on this nightmare planet, but without his TARDIS, the Doctor is powerless to help them.

Seeking answers – and freedom – the Doctor's hopes and suspicions are aroused when a crashed TARDIS is discovered in the snow. Are Catrona and Silas as innocent as they seem? And who is Raven, the young woman who watches from afar?

Long buried secrets are about to be revealed in this icy wasteland, and the Doctor discovers that every end has a terrifying new beginning...

Part one
The Doctor, protesting as the Time Lords order his regeneration and exile, unexpectedly finds himself on a snowy world and assumes that the Time Lords fumbled in enacting his punishment. When he wishes that he had his fur coat, it appears and he gives it to Raven when he finds her in the cold. He sees his next self and the Brigadier in the storm and agrees to rest when Raven says that it is due to delayed trauma.

Silas and Catrona track a signal across the planet and find and break into a powerless TARDIS. They begin to feel unwell and hallucinate their extermination by a Dalek.

Awakening from his dreams about his next self's adventures, the Doctor is suspicious of Raven's knowledge and resources but goes with her when it seems that she might have seen his TARDIS. The snow moves in synchronised funnels and the Doctor hears the voices of the Daleks and their Emperor. They find the powerless TARDIS with its dimensions seeping out and enter, but Raven suddenly disappears and Catrona fires her weapon at the Doctor.

Part two
The Doctor is unharmed thanks to the scrambled internal dimensions of the TARDIS and asks Silas and Catrona about Raven, but they claim that he came in alone and take him to their ship/habitat module, unaware that Raven is watching them. The Doctor learns that the couple are scientists and that they are prospectors who were dragged down to this planet when it unexpectedly appeared in their path a week ago.

Planning on repairing the damaged TARDIS to get them off of this planet, the Doctor, Silas and Catrona head out in the morning and a snow funnel causes Catrona's hand to age at a molecular level. They flee from the snow funnels to a ridge and, looking out, see the broken and frozen city of the Daleks. The Doctor realises that the Time Lords have sent him to Skaro and demands answers, but the snow funnels turn into Daleks.

Part three
As the Daleks approach, time slows and the Doctor finds himself with Raven. She reveals that she is a Time Lord of the Celestial Intervention Agency on a covert mission; the Agency have removed the Doctor from his time stream a quantum second before his regeneration and, in return for his liberty, want him to work for them as a secret agent when required. She shows him his next self in exile on Earth and, should he refuse the offer, he will be dropped back into his timeline to become him.

The Doctor agrees and demands to be returned to his TARDIS, but Raven says that it is not so simple. The destruction of the Daleks three hundred years ago, caused by the civil war that he brought about, damaged established history and sent Skaro out of time. Somehow, it has returned, and for whatever reason the Agency have not heard back from their agent, Celestine. The Doctor is tasked with recovering him.

Returned to Skaro, the Doctor finds that the Daleks cannot kill him, Silas and Catrona due to time being out of sync. The trio run to the damaged TARDIS and the Doctor finds a personal retrieval system which should lead them to Celestine. They head to the city and Catrona begins to hear the voice of a Dalek in her head telling her to obey.

Part four
Being a Time Lord and thus more resistant to the time fluctuations, the Doctor leaves Silas and Catrona behind and heads deeper into the city, soon finding the empty and rusting casing of the Emperor of the Daleks and a delirious Celestine. Catrona senses that the Doctor is going the wrong way and heads off, followed by Silas, into an empty room. The control banks suddenly come alive and the snow funnels appear, leading the couple to flee.

Hearing the cries of the Daleks, the Doctor rejoins with Silas and Catrona and leads them back to the Emperor's chamber. The Doctor realises that Catrona's ageing is a result of her being infected by Dalek particles and that she is mutating into one; he calls out for Raven to save them, having completed the mission, and his TARDIS materialises in the chamber. Silas is killed by the Daleks, but the Doctor, Catrona and Celestine are able to escape.

The Doctor demands that the Time Lords give Catrona urgent medical care and hands Celestine and his storage case over to Raven. She congratulates him on completion of his mission and, when he finds that his TARDIS has been modified, tells him that it is now under the Agency's control. Although he does not have the liberty he was promised, he agrees to work for them and is told that his next mission is "a little treat". He dematerialises.

Despite having promised to help Catrona, Raven deems her to be beyond help and has her restrained. Catrona's cries become that of a Dalek.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Michael Troughton
 * Raven - Emma Noakes
 * Silas / The Third Doctor - Tim Treloar
 * Catrona - Anna-Maria Nabirye
 * Celestine / The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs
 * Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Jon Culshaw

Continuity

 * In a delirious state, the Doctor mutters, "They'll forget me won't they?", which he had asked Socra earlier on after Jamie and Zoe were sent back to their own times. (TV: The War Games)
 * The Doctor's dreams include scenes from Spearhead from Space, The Ambassadors of Death, Terror of the Autons and The Three Doctors.
 * Prior to their Civil War, the Daleks forced the Doctor to engineer the Dalek Factor, an indoctrinating virus intended to be released throughout Earth history. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)
 * Silas mentions the 22nd century Dalek invasion, an event that is no longer taught in schools. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
 * The Second Doctor expresses a distaste for his successor. (TV: The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors)