The Light at the End (audio story)

The Light at the End was Big Finish's Doctor Who story to celebrate the show's fiftieth anniversary. It was notable for being the audio story with the most Doctors to date — all eight that the company has license for. The only other stories to feature all eight previously were EDA novel The Eight Doctors, DWM comic Happy Deathday and short stories The Glass Princess and Categorical Imperative.

Publisher's summary
November 23rd 1963 proves to be a significant day in the lives of all eight Doctors...

It's the day that Bob Dovie's life is ripped apart...

It's also a day that sets in motion a catastrophic chain of events which forces the first eight incarnations of the Doctor to fight for their very existence. As a mysterious, insidious chaos unfolds within the TARDIS, the barriers of time break apart...

From suburban England through war-torn alien landscapes and into a deadly, artificial dimension, all these Doctors and their companions must struggle against the power of an unfathomable, alien technology.

From the very beginning, it is clear that the Master is somehow involved.

By the end, for the Doctors, there may only be darkness.

Part 1
On November 23, 1962, Bob Dovie was at his home at 59A, Barnsfield Crescent in Totton, Hampshire with his two children, Kevin and Linda. While the two kids were playing, the radio that Bob was listening to went out for a few seconds. During that period Kevin claimed to see a police box, but Bob didn't see it. But then the police box appeared again, crashing into the Dovie's garden shed, before vanishing again. It then reappeared again, crashing into their chimney. Kevin asked if Father Christmas has come, to which a stunned Bob can only point out that it's too early for him to be here.

The leader of the Vess was talking to the Master. The Master was being given one of the weapons created by the Vess. The leader was intrigued by the choice the Master made. He asked if the weapon pleased the Master, who admitted to such. With just a stray thought, he would be able to take his revenge on the Doctor.

The Eighth Doctor was making adjustments to the TARDIS, while Charley was enjoying the arboretum. She returned to the console room just as the Doctor finished his adjustments. While the two were talking, the TARDIS went haywire, and suddenly was on the verge of destroying itself. A few seconds later, everything returned to normal, except a flashing, red light had appeared on the console, one that hadn't been there before. Checking everything, the Doctor discovered that the red light had appeared when the TARDIS passed through a specific place and time. The coordinates were for 17:03 on November 23, 1963, at 59A, Barnsfield Crescent in Totton, Hampshire. The Doctor decided to investigate and set the TARDIS to land at that specific place and time.

The TARDIS materialized on a strange planet, one that was definitely not Earth. While trying to figure it out, the Doctor and Charley were interrupted by a large machine that passed near them. It caused them to be separated from each other and the TARDIS. The Doctor quickly located Charley on the opposite side of a deep and wide hole. The machine returned and the Doctor told Charley to run and that he would meet her later.

Charley ended up locating the TARDIS and used her key to enter it. To her dismay, the Doctor hadn't arrived yet. Suddenly, the doors started opening and closing on their own.

Meanwhile, the Doctor was trying to use his sonic screwdriver to locate the TARDIS, but instead ended up passing through a forcefield and into a viewing gallery in the Vess weapons factory. There, he met a visiting alien that was complaining about the pathetic demonstrations that the Vess were using to show off the effectiveness of their weapons. The strange planet that the TARDIS had landed on was a simulation. The alien left, leaving the Doctor confused about who the Vess were.

Back in the TARDIS, Charley was trying to find the door controls, when the doors finally shut and stayed shut. At that moment, ghost-like images started appearing and disappearing, images of the previous Doctors and their companions. All of them notice Charley in those few seconds that she could see them. She tried to talk to them, but couldn't get anywhere. Suddenly, space warped around Charley, and she found herself in a different TARDIS control room, along with the Fourth Doctor and Leela. She had somehow been transported to the Fourth Doctor's TARDIS.

The Eighth Doctor had used his sonic screwdriver to hack into the reality orientation controls. He started to adjust the viewscreen so that he could try to locate the TARDIS. He succeeded in doing so, not realizing that he was looking at the Fourth Doctor's TARDIS. He then met one of the Vess security drones who informed him that while the planet was fake, the creatures were real, as the Vess believe that using their weapons on living beings was the only way to prove the effectiveness of their weapons.

The Fourth Doctor explained regeneration to both Leela and Charley, getting Charley to realize that this man is a past version of the Doctor she knew. The Fourth Doctor then pointed out the red, flashing light on the TARDIS console was now brighter than before. Like the Eighth Doctor and Charley, the near destruction of the TARDIS and the strange appearance of a light that hadn't been there before had also happened to the Fourth Doctor and Leela. They had headed for the same time and space coordinates that the Eighth Doctor had aimed for and had ended up in the same place.

He decided to go out and explore, but Charley filled them in on what she and the Eighth Doctor had seen while they were out there. The Fourth Doctor activated the scanner, confirming what Charley had said. The Doctor then moved to dematerialize the TARDIS, despite Charley's protests, when the TARDIS went haywire.

The Eighth Doctor watched the TARDIS dematerialize, wondering what was going on.

The Fourth Doctor was only planning to move a short distance away, but now realized that, somehow, time was folding in on itself. The ghost-like images of the other Doctors and their companions appeared again, along with an image of a man saying, "This is impossible." The images disappeared again.

The Eighth Doctor noticed that the TARDIS was now in the same room as him. The drone from before pointed out that the TARDIS had been there for some time. The door opened and Charley stepped out, followed by the Fourth Doctor and Leela. They inform the Eighth Doctor on what they discovered and the two Doctors decided to contact the Time Lords.

Before they could enter the TARDIS, the Vess security drone covered it with slime, proclaiming that the TARDIS would be impounded. The two Doctors and their companions have been identified as intruders. The Vess then decided to capture the four, but only succeeded in capturing Charley. The Eighth Doctor tried to free her from the slime, but was unable to do so. He then detected the presence of another TARDIS. With the Vess closing in on them, the two Doctors and Leela were forced to abandon Charley and headed off to find the other TARDIS.

Meanwhile, the Sixth Doctor and Peri were going through the same events that the other two Doctors had gone through, with the near destruction of the TARDIS and the flashing, red light. The Doctor pondered on how to proceed from there.

The Vess facility had gone into a security lockdown, but the two Doctors were still able to proceed, thanks to their sonic screwdrivers. They ended up at another viewing gallery, filled with visiting aliens. They watched as the Vess demonstrated one of their weapons on living beings.

The three were unaware that they were being watched by the Master. The Master turned his attention to the security drones that brought Charley to him. He introduced himself to Charley and proclaimed that soon, she will have never heard of the Doctor. A few seconds later, she disappeared.

The Sixth Doctor had noted the coordinates that came with the red light, but decided not to go there, seeing it as an obvious trap. The ghost-like images of the Doctor's past and future selves appeared. The Doctor then noticed that there was a large energy source with incredible power at the mysterious coordinates, and that it was drawing energy from another place in time and space. The TARDIS then accidentally flew into the energy stream, getting pulled to where the power was being drawn from, the Big Bang.

The two Doctors and Leela found themselves in a military museum, along with the mysterious TARDIS, which was in the form of a Vess military tank. The security drones entered the museum and Leela tried to fight them off with a crossbow she picked up. The two Doctors touch their sonic screwdrivers together, releasing enough temporal energy to force the door to the TARDIS to open.

The Master watched all this happen, complimenting the two Doctors on gaining entry to his TARDIS. However, he knew it would make no difference, and that nothing the Doctors could do would make no difference. Time was already running out for them.

The trio quickly got inside the Master's TARDIS and closed the doors. They were only able to relax for a few moments, because a few seconds later, Leela vanished. The scanner activated, showing the Master. He refused to tell them what had happened to Leela and Charley, stating that the same would happen to all the others as well. The Fourth Doctor shut off the scanner, proclaiming that the Master was just trying to distract them from the fact they could summon one of their TARDISes using the Emergency Homing Beacon. The Fourth Doctor summoned his TARDIS to them and they watched as the security slime fell off. The two then entered the TARDIS.

The Master chuckled at how the Doctors thought they were so clever, but he knew that it was all futile and that things were going to get worse for the Doctor and his TARDIS. All he had to do was just sit back and enjoy the view.

Inside their TARDIS, the two Doctors tried to dematerialize, but something went wrong. The Fourth Doctor noticed that the Vess facility was located in a pocket dimension, one that could only be accessed by going to the specific space time coordinates that the two Doctors had gone to, and now they were trapped inside that pocket dimension. The Eighth Doctor tried to give them the power to break through, but it failed. The two noticed the red light again, and the ghost-like images of the other Doctors appeared again. Space warped around them again, and the two Doctors found themselves in the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS.

The ghost-like images appeared once again, with the Eighth Doctor taking notice of his immediate predecessor, who asked him if he knew anything about the power source of the pocket dimension, before disappearing. He then saw the Sixth Doctor and Peri heading for the Big Bang, followed by the appearance of the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa, talking about November 23, 1963.

The images disappeared again, but the red light was still flashing. The two heard a strange noise, prompting the Eighth Doctor to check the console. He discovered that the Fourth Doctor wasn't entirely correct. It wasn't time that was folding in on itself, it was the TARDIS that was doing so. The TARDIS was destroying herself inch by inch, second by second, but in no particular temporal order.

The power went out, trapping the two Doctors inside the TARDIS. The only thing left on was the mysterious, flashing, red light, the light at the end of the TARDIS. The image of the mysterious man saying, "This is impossible," appeared again. A few seconds later, the TARDIS was destroyed, taking the Fourth and Eighth Doctors with it.

Meanwhile, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa went through the same experiences that the other Doctors went through. The Doctor took note of the coordinates and decided to investigate. However, he took a precaution. He set the TARDIS to land at 17:02, one minute early. They two found themselves in a garden shed. They stepped back into the TARDIS and waited the few remaining seconds before it was 17:03. Once the time came, nothing happened, except that the red light had vanished and there was no sign that there had ever been one. However, something strange had come up. The TARDIS had detected the energy of another TARDIS.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace have arrived in the pocket dimension, having gone through the same experiences as the other Doctors and deciding to go directly to the coordinates. The Doctor was wondering where the pocket dimension was getting the power to sustain it, when the ghost-like images of the other Doctors appear, including one of the Fourth and Eighth Doctors trapped in the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS. The Seventh Doctor tried to ask his future self about the power source of the pocket dimension, but the images vanished, leaving the Doctor to explain to Ace about regeneration. The two decided to go out and investigate the pocket dimension.

Meanwhile, Bob Dovie seemed to be in an odd state, talking to himself.

The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa exited their TARDIS, only to realize that in a very short amount of time, it was suddenly nighttime. The Doctor activated the scanner he had brought with him, and noticed that some kind of temporal folding was occurring, and that it may be being caused by the other TARDIS. As they tried to locate the mystery TARDIS, they were spotted by Bob Dovie, who mistook them for the police. His wife and children had gone missing. Noticing that Bob took no notice to their strange clothes, the Doctor and Nyssa decided to look into it.

Bob got tea for the two, who asked him some questions about what has happened. Bob was oddly distracted throughout the conversation, unable to focus properly. Bob seemed to recognize the Fifth Doctor from somewhere before, and then remembered that when his kids had vanished, someone was at the door.

The Doctor then sent Bob to get some biscuits, so he could point out to Nyssa that the phone was disconnected. When Bob came back, the Doctor had him call his friends to see if they had seen his wife and kids. Bob does so, apparently having a conversation with said friends. This was impossible, meaning that someone had messed around Bob's mind.

Bob had gone into the children's room, where he started up a music box, once more in a distracted state. He was surprised when the Doctor and Nyssa entered the room, having forgotten about them. The two brought up the man who was at Bob's door when his family disappeared, and Bob was able to recall that the man had a burned appearance.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace were investigating the area their TARDIS had landed in, but wherever it was, it was pitch dark. The two ended up at a wall, and decided to head in another direction. The two started hearing strange noises. They ended up at another wall. The strange noises persisted, so the two decided to head back to the TARDIS. They noticed that something that looked like a wall of mud filled with junk and corpses was moving, and it was heading for them.

Nyssa took a look inside the dollhouse and found the corpses of Bob's family. A Tissue Compression Eliminator had been used on them, meaning that the Master was the culprit and the other TARDIS was his, but that it was the Master as he was before he took the body of Tremas. On the Dovie's television, the Master's face appeared. The Doctor confronted him on why he has crossed his own timeline, but the Master proclaimed that his timeline in regard to the Doctor's doesn't have any significance anymore. The Master told the Doctor to come to him.

Bob confronted the Doctor, having overheard the truth that his family was killed. The Doctor promised to get the man responsible, and both he and Nyssa rushed out of the house in time to see the Master's TARDIS dematerialize. They tried to go back to their TARDIS, but Bob was in their way again, somehow recognizing the TARDIS and the Fifth Doctor, but not being able to properly remember. They decided to take him into the TARDIS with them.

Once inside, Bob was shocked at what he saw and only had one thing to say, "This is impossible." The TARDIS exploded, taking the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, and Bob with it.

Part 2
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - William Russell
 * The Doctor - Frazer Hines
 * The Doctor - Tim Treloar
 * The Doctor - Tom Baker
 * The Doctor - Peter Davison
 * The Doctor - Colin Baker
 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * The Doctor - Paul McGann
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
 * Peri - Nicola Bryant
 * Ace - Sophie Aldred
 * Charley Pollard - India Fisher
 * Ian Chesterton - William Russell
 * Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford
 * Vicki Pallister - Maureen O'Brien
 * Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
 * Sara Kingdom - Jean Marsh
 * Polly Wright - Anneke Wills
 * Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines
 * Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury
 * Jo Grant - Katy Manning
 * Tegan - Janet Fielding
 * Turlough - Mark Strickson
 * The Master - Geoffrey Beevers
 * Bob Dovie - John Dorney
 * Straxus - Oliver Hume
 * The Vess - Nicholas Briggs
 * Kevin Dovie - Benedict Briggs

Continuity

 * Nyssa mentions meeting the Master on Logopolis. (TV: Logopolis), whilst the Master has not yet met Nyssa.
 * Charley mentions being on the R101. (AUDIO: Storm Warning)
 * Peri knows who the Master is, after meeting him in TV: Planet of Fire and The Mark of the Rani. She also recognises the Second Doctor, because of the business with Dastari (TV: The Two Doctors)
 * Bob Dovie listens to the Common Men on the radio. (AUDIO: 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men)
 * The Fourth Doctor notes that the Eighth Doctor is wearing a Wild Bill Hickok outfit. (TV: Doctor Who)