The Church and the Crown (audio story)

 was the thirty-eighth monthly Doctor Who audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. It was, broadly, an historical examination of the era of the, although it featured original musketeers, rather than those created by Alexandre Dumas.

It was the second story to feature Caroline Morris as Erimem and her first as a companion travelling with Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor. As with several other historicals in the first five years of Big Finish's main Doctor Who line, it was a so-called "pure" historical without any science fictional elements aside from the TARDIS.

It also gave Nicola Bryant an expanded acting opportunity, since it featured her as both Peri and Queen Anne. Like Romana I before her, Peri had an exact doppelgänger in a royal family.

Publisher's summary
A nation divided...

A Queen's life at risk...

A net of conspiracy closing in...

Sometimes being a time travelling adventurer just isn't easy...

For a start there's a temperamental TARDIS that lands a few thousand years off course in 17th century Paris. But why shouldn't the Fifth Doctor, Peri and their travelling guest Erimem take a look around the city on the morning of King Louis' annual State Ball?

As Peri becomes embroiled in a plot to kill Queen Anne and smash the unity of the Church and the Crown, the Doctor finds himself duelling musketeers on the streets.

With Peri missing, Erimem catching King Louis' eye and a Musketeer's sword at your throat, could things get any worse?

Probably...

Plot
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Davison
 * Peri Brown / Queen Anne of France - Nicola Bryant
 * Erimem - Caroline Morris
 * King Louis XIII of France - Andrew Mackay
 * Cardinal Richelieu - Michael Shallard
 * The Duke of Buckingham - Marcus Hutton
 * Delmarre - Peter John
 * François Rouffet - Andy Coleman
 * Captain Morand - Robert Curbishley
 * Madame de Chevreuse - Wendy Albiston

The Doctor

 * The Doctor tells Erimem that, earlier in his personal timeline, he met an older version of Louis XIII in 1638. He claims to have "had a nip and tuck since then," indicating that it was one of his first four incarnations.
 * The Doctor has a lifetime membership to the Marylebone Cricket Club.

Foods and beverages

 * The Doctor offers to take Peri and Erimem to Barastabon for a chocolate cake.

Individuals

 * Erimem names her new pet cat Antranak.
 * The Doctor dislikes Alexandre Dumas, and thinks he totally miscast Cardinal Richelieu as a villain.

Locations

 * Before landing in France, the Doctor was trying to reach the Braxiatel Collection.
 * The Doctor has visited the Louvre since its modern retrofit with the glass pyramid and didn't like it.



Continuity

 * The Fourth Doctor's companion Romana previously encountered a double of her first incarnation, namely Princess Strella on Tara. (TV: The Androids of Tara) The Fifth Doctor's former companion Nyssa encountered a double of herself in the form of Ann Talbot in June 1925. (TV: Black Orchid) For his part, the Doctor has encountered a double of his second incarnation in the form of Ramón Salamander in 2017. (TV: The Enemy of the World) His former companion Steven Taylor encountered a double of the First Doctor in the form of the Abbot of Amboise in Paris in August 1572, though the Doctor himself had no contact with the Abbot. (TV: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve)
 * The Doctor refers to his former companion K9. (TV: The Invisible Enemy)
 * The Doctor mentions that he was the protégé of the American escapologist Harry Houdini. (TV: Planet of the Spiders) Prior to their arrival in 1963, his first incarnation and his granddaughter Susan Foreman met Houdini in the United States. Houdini taught the Doctor how to perform sleight-of-hand tricks. (PROSE: The Sorcerer's Apprentice) His fourth incarnation had previously told the Iceni cook Bragnar that Houdini kept numerous lock picks on his person. (AUDIO: The Wrath of the Iceni)