Death-Dealer (audio story)

Death-Dealer, also known as The Death-Dealer, was an audio story read by Louise Jameson and featuring Leela and the Fourth Doctor produced by Big Finish Productions. It is by far the shortest of the stories on the anthology release Short Trips - Volume I and recounts the time when Leela unwittingly paid to be killed.

Summary
On an arid market world, not dissimilar to a middle-eastern bazaar on Earth, the Doctor treats Leela to a day of shopping.

Plot
Leela struggles to understand the fundamentals of commerce during a shopping trip on a market world with the Doctor. Then, she spots a knife that appeals to her. Paying the merchant, she is slain by his knife. The Doctor discovers her dead body and demands answers. A local policeman explains that no laws have been transgressed; Leela has bought a legal death experience, instead of the knife. Soon, she springs back to life. Jason, the merchant, explains that the knife's edge contained not only a fast acting poison, but also restorative microscopic robots. Whole again, Leela returns to the TARDIS with the Doctor, musing on the newfound appreciation she has for life now that she has died. The Doctor, having come back from the dead himself, can appreciate her point.

Characters

 * Fourth Doctor
 * Leela
 * Jason

Continuity

 * Leela had previously explored the experience of her own death in TV: The Face of Evil and would later re-examine it AUDIO: The Catalyst, Empathy Games and The Time Vampire.