The Conservitors (audio story)

The Conservitors was the second story in the audio anthology The Return of Jo Jones, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Felicia Barker and featured Tim Treloar as the Third Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Jones.

Publisher's summary
On the planet Viltris in the 49th Century, a regime obsessed with statistical analysis of risk has created a force of robots to protect its citizens. But when Jo Jones arrives with the Doctor on her first space-time voyage for decades, she discovers that long-held grudges from a past conflict are about to bubble over into outright rebellion.

Part one
The Doctor takes Jo to 49th century Viltris where they learn from Wendell Bearce that each Viltran has a rating based on risk, with a high rating restricting people from actions such as driving a hovercar without an autodrive. Laire, Wendell's child, slips Jo a business card which leads her and the Doctor to a secret meeting where Vykane gives a speech on the tyranny since Premier Overon Maldon's coup d'état and how they need to rise up against him and the Conservitors who police the system. Conservitors raid the building, but the Doctor gives Jo his sonic screwdriver to use against them and escape whilst he saves Vykane.

The Doctor gets Vykane to safety but, like Laire, is captured by the Conservitors and taken to be held without trial at the Conservitory whilst Vykane escapes in a vehicle with Jo. Jo insists on being dropped off and goes to speak with Wendell, teaming up with him to save the Doctor and Laire and using the sonic screwdriver to prevent the Conservitors from stopping them mid-journey. Wendell finds Vykane setting up iodide munitions to destroy the Conservitory and Jo is arrested, hoping that she will be taken to the Doctor. Maldon recognises how much of a threat the Doctor is to his regime and has the Conservitors neutralise him and subject him to the ultimate sanction.

Part two
Convincing the Conservitors that separating her from the Doctor would be more dangerous than putting them together, Jo is put in the same cell as the Doctor, who tries to use the sonic screwdriver to open the door but is prevented from doing so by nanites. Jo uses the screwdriver instead, but he is unable to leave the cell until Wendell tells him that Vykane is going to destroy the Conservitory and the nanites recognise that he is in more danger where he is. Jo gives the screwdriver to Wendell to save Laire and, after disarming a bomb, goes to inform Maldon of the threat whilst the Doctor goes to stop Vykane. When the Doctor gets close enough to her, the nanites incapacitate her.

The Doctor takes Vykane to Maldon, who has followed Jo's advice and sent the Conservitors out to defuse Vykane's bombs. The Doctor and Jo make Maldon realise that his coup and subsequent rule have actually brought about the catastrophe that he was hoping to prevent in taking over Viltris and Vykane holds him at gunpoint, ordering him to tell the Conservitors to kill her to prove that the system is flawed. In authorising lethal force, the Conservitors encounter a paradox and reboot to their original orders, leading them to charge Maldon and Vykane. Wendell and Laire take the Doctor and Jo back to the TARDIS.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Tim Treloar
 * Jo Jones - Katy Manning
 * Wendell - Paul Copley
 * Laire - LJ Parkinson
 * Vykane - Poppy Miller
 * Maldon - Gary Turner
 * Petroz / Conservitors - David O'Mahony

Continuity

 * Jo remembers Spiridon (TV: Planet of the Daleks) and Peladon. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
 * Jo mentions what happened to Atlantis. (TV: The Time Monster)