Vanguard (7DTNA audio story)

Vanguard was the second story in the audio anthology The Seventh Doctor: The New Adventures: Volume One, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Steve Jordan and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Yasmin Bannerman as Roz Forrester and Travis Oliver as Chris Cwej.

Publisher's summary
The planet Vanguard was once ravaged by a war between its peoples: the Dauntless and the Intrepid. Now, robotic titans stalk the desolation, searching for survivors. Their mission: to end the war for one side or the other. But which side will the Doctor take?

Plot
Despite Blue's protestations that all he will do is give their position away, Green triggers a distress beacon. Blue shoots his way into the room and destroys the device, telling Green that Vanguard has fallen and, because of her, they will too.

Having detected the signal, the Doctor, Roz and Chris arrive on Vanguard, which he explains was desolated by the War of Vanguard, a conflict fought between the Dauntless and the Intrepid. The trio find themselves caught between Keepers of both sides and are separated by a landslide when Roz loses her grip on Chris's hand. Blue arrives in an ambulance cruiser and takes the Doctor to be interrogated whilst Roz, who was hiding, goes in search of Chris.

Green tells the Doctor about Contessa, a Dauntless spy who took control of the weaponised bacteria known as Takers to wipe out almost everybody in Vanguard. The Keepers have infected the Doctor with Takers and he will be dead in about an hour, so he promises to take Green away in return for her help and enters a voluntary stasis, prolonging his life by fifty minutes. In his subconscious, he meets two Takers, whom he names Peter and Beatrix, and learns that both clans made ineffective Takers which were perfected when infected children from both sides played together. The Takers give away where the control deck that controls them is.

Chris is found and taken to the Dauntless City by Contessa, who uses the Takers to heal him after assuming that he is the pilot of the TARDIS. She tells him that the Doctor and Roz are dead and asks him to take her away, but he refuses to believe that his companions are dead and goes looking for them, stealing Contessa's control deck when she tries to have Tank stop him. He uses the device to detect the Doctor and Roz and is soon found by Contessa in an empty shop. She convinces him to return the control deck and takes him to the recovered TARDIS, reversing the Takers' healing process when he refuses to leave with her and sending her Keepers after the Doctor.

Roz encounters Cannon and Sabre and, exploiting the fact that she is outside of their parameters as she is neither Dauntless nor Intrepid, asks them about Chris and learns that he has been taken by Contessa and could be alive. She agrees to tell the Keepers where the survivors that she saw are in return for their help in finding Chris and comes up with a battle strategy to take over Vanguard City. The Keepers tell her, however, that she is infected with Takers and has only eight hours to live.

Green is to be sentenced to death for activating the distress beacon, but the Doctor interrupts and tells Blue that they can and must continue to live together in peace. The Dauntless Keepers arrive and forcibly take the Doctor, Blue and Green to the Dauntless City, but they are able to escape when the Intrepid Keepers attack. Roz saves Chris and destroys the control deck, disabling the Takers and the Dauntless Keepers. The Intrepid Keepers take over the city and the Doctor recommends that Green and Blue cooperate with Contessa to rebuild Vanguard.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Roz Forrester - Yasmin Bannerman
 * Chris Cwej - Travis Oliver
 * Contessa - Sara Powell
 * Green - Olivia Morris
 * Blue - Connor Calland
 * Cannon - Jacob Dudman

Crew

 * Cover Art - Will Brooks
 * Producer, Script Editor & Director - Scott Handcock
 * Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
 * Music - Ioan Morris
 * Sound Design - Joe Meiners
 * Writer - Steve Jordan

Worldbuilding

 * Green is accompanied by Red.
 * Tank and Knight are part of Dauntless Keeper Squadron Delta.
 * An ambulance cruiser looks for survivors.
 * The Takers are weaponised bacteria. They wiped out most of Vanguard.
 * Chris does not have a TARDIS key.

Continuity
to be added