Divine Intervention (audio story)

 was the fourth and final story in the audio anthology Stranded 1, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by David K Barnes and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, Nicola Walker as Liv Chenka, Hattie Morahan as Helen Sinclair, Rebecca Root as Tania Bell and Tom Price as Andy Davidson.

Publisher's summary
As the Doctor becomes desperate, Helen and Liv advise him to accept their situation.

Liv makes a date - but gets more than she bargains for when the whole household comes along.

And when a threat from the future finally arrives, the Doctor is placed in real danger. It’s time for the truth to emerge...

Plot
The Doctor takes part in the quiz show You Either Know It or You Don't, watched at home by Liv, Helen, Tania and Robin, and wins £80,000. Ron and Tony hear them celebrating and say that he deserves it given the circumstances, the details of which they cannot yet tell the Doctor, Liv and Helen. The Doctor arrives home and senses something strange. Nearby, Teeja reports to Bourakai that she has found a "trace".

The Doctor tells Liv and Helen that he plans on continuing to win television shows before investing in or purchasing tech companies with the goal of diverting their resources towards the repair of the TARDIS. Liv and Helen suggest that he invest in the house instead which he argues with before Aisha asks them to quieten down. The Doctor goes to Tania and rambles about the situation in her kitchen, which he agrees to have done up, and she recommends that he go to a tech shop in Kilburn. Once the Doctor has left, Tania calls Andy and tells him that she sent the Doctor to Mr Crusoe.

The Doctor takes a hot chocolate to Liv and apologises, telling her that he will do-up the house and take everybody to dinner, hijacking her plans for a date with Tania. Andy scolds Tania for sending the Doctor to Mr Crusoe's, but she excuses it by saying that they did not need a "broken man" for their plans. She puts down her phone and Liv tells her about the dinner situation.

Helen and Robin are shopping on the High Street when Raf approaches them, inviting Robin to do a test to determine if he meets the standards to join Divine Intervention. He agrees to, despite Helen's protestations. She hopes that aliens are not involved. Meanwhile, the Doctor visits Mr Crusoe's shop, finding Andy inside and Mr Crusoe dead. Helen is sceptical of Raf, who says that Divine Intervention offers solutions to people's problems and that Helen is not their kind of person, but promises to explain what Divine Intervention is.

The Doctor identifies Mr Crusoe as a Valenti and that he was killed using an energy weapon. Andy gives the Doctor his name and tells him that he felt car sick outside just before the killing happened. Helen learns from Raf that Divine Intervention hopes to manipulate people into creating a utopia.

Tania, lying in bed with Liv, asks her if she plans on staying around long enough to explore their relationship, but are interrupted by Ron asking if Tania wished to travel to Wakefield's with him and Tony. Raf tells Robin that he is perfect for Divine Intervention and that they could be his family if he wanted, which Helen believes is more than a little "culty" and escorts him away, worrying that she plans on exploiting him. Nearby, Bourakai reports to Teeja that he has detected a time trace, but Teeja calls him away.

The Doctor tells Andy that he suspects Mr Bird of being behind Mr Crusoe's killing due to the presence of scorch marks at the scene. He spots Teeja and flees from her gunfire with Andy. Helen and Robin arrive at Wakefield's where Ken is waiting for them, but he soon has to answer a call from work. The Doctor has another bout of sickness, after which Bourakai and Teeja appear, saying that they want to kill him. Ken apologises to Robin that he has to leave for work, upsetting Robin.

Teeja and Bourakai admit to killing Mr Crusoe and tell the Doctor that they plan on killing him to ensure that the Doctor never reaches their future. The Doctor activates their chrono-warp engines, sending the would-be assassins elsewhere and buying them time. Fifty minutes late, the Doctor arrives at the restaurant where Liv, Helen, Tania, Ron, Tony, Robin, Aisha and Zakia are waiting, with Andy in tow, when he feels a third bout of sickness and the aliens appear. They burn out every energy source in the room and tell the Doctor that they hope that they will restore the timeline and save their people if they kill him.

Ron knocks Teeja over when Bourakai demanded that she kill Robin, destroying her chrono-warp engine, whilst Bourakai's is broken by the Doctor using a champagne cork. However, they take Robin as a hostage and force the Doctor to come with them. Ron gets a taxi for everyone home whilst Liv, Helen, Tania and Andy go after the Doctor, who leads the Rakilians to the TARDIS. The TARDIS feeds off of the Rakilians' residual time energy, jump-starting its regeneration, but the energy proves not to be enough. The Rakilians shoot the Doctor but the paradox of his death begins restoring the TARDIS, which heals the Doctor and keeps the Rakilians in two separate time zones. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to propel them elsewhere, but they say "Divine Intervention" before they disappear.

The Doctor tells Liv that the TARDIS is only partly restored and she heads to a pub with Tania and Robin to tell them the truth of who she, the Doctor and Helen are. The Doctor tells Helen that he plans to get the TARDIS to identify when things will go wrong for the Rakilians, after which he will take it for a test flight.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Paul McGann
 * Liv Chenka - Nicola Walker
 * Helen Sinclair - Hattie Morahan
 * Tania Bell - Rebecca Root
 * Sergeant Andy Davidson - Tom Price
 * Robin Bright-Thompson - Joel James Davison
 * Rafaella Hicks / Teeja - Aurora Burghart
 * Bourakai / Ken Bright-Thompson - Alan Cox
 * Zakia Akhtar - Avita Jay
 * Aisha Akhtar - Amina Zia
 * Ron Winters - David Shaw-Parker
 * Tony Clare / Jack Addison - Jeremy Clyde

Popular culture

 * The Doctor goes on the television programme You Either Know It or You Don't.
 * The Doctor is a personal friend of Peter Sellers. He claims he convinced him to take his role in The Pink Panther, citing Ustinov's prior involvement.
 * Andy watches Carry On when he's feeling hopeless.
 * Andy claims to have learned about energy weapons from Star Trek.

Species

 * The Doctor tells Tania he deals with Daleks, Cybermen, and Voord.
 * The Ichneumon wasp reproduces by injecting its eggs into the larvae of other insects using its extra-long stinger.
 * Mr Crusoe was a Valenti.
 * Bourakai and Teeja are Rakilians.

Technology

 * The Doctor identifies a busted Arcturan transmitter in Crusoe's shop.
 * Bourakai and Teeja are equipped with high energy phase disruptors, laser rifles and chrono-warp engines.

Locations

 * Helen takes Robin down the High Street.
 * The Doctor visits Mr Crusoe's alien tech shop in Kilburn, on Tania's suggestion.
 * Woolworths closed down "years back".
 * The Doctor takes the others at 107 Baker Street to Wakefield's in Camden.
 * The Doctor takes Bourakai and Teeja through Camden Lock on the way to the TARDIS on Camden Road.

History

 * In January 1982, England engaged India in three cricket test matches, held in Calcutta, Chennai and Kanpur.
 * The Doctor knows that humans don't encounter the Rakilians until well beyond the 60th century. He was present for this first encounter.

Continuity

 * The Doctor participates in a game show. (COMIC: The Night Walkers, TV: Bad Wolf)
 * The Doctor remembers reading the newspaper as the Fifth Doctor at Heathrow Airport, Terminal One, in 1982, and being disappointed with the England's performance in the latest cricket matches. (TV: Time-Flight)
 * The Doctor wishes that he still had his umbrella. (TV: Delta and the Bannerman, etc.)
 * The TARDIS can be recharged over time from just one "spark of life", (TV: Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel) and a time paradox can act as a major source of energy. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan)
 * The Doctor mentions Mr Bird. (AUDIO: Must-See TV)