False Coronets (audio story)

False Coronets was the fourth and final story in The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Alice Cavender and performed by Jacob Dudman. It featured the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald.

Publisher's summary
On the trail of a temporal anomaly, the Doctor and Clara arrive in a London dungeon, where an unlikely prisoner awaits her execution. This is a 19th century England where the King has been dethroned, and Republicans bearing false coronets hold sway.

While the Doctor seeks out the source of alien interference in the timelines, Clara recruits some local help - and gets invited to a party.

History has gone awry, and Jane Austen must help rewrite it.

Plot
Investigating a space-time anomaly reaching to the 21st century, the Doctor and Clara arrive at Newgate Prison in 1815 and find that the United Kingdom is a republic with a metropolitan railway. They meet Jane Austen, imprisoned and due to be executed for her royalist views, and head back to 1800 to find out what has happened to the timeline.

The Doctor saves Thomas Frane, who was sheriff in 1815, during a protest against King George III and sees a young man, James Hadfield, inside an apothecary's with a device that reinforces new memories on his head. The Doctor and Tom follow Hadfield from the building to a theatre where he unsuccessfully attempts to kill the King and is arrested. With a gun in the Doctor's back, William Adastra escorts him and Tom back to the apothecary.

Clara dresses up as a man and, after almost being kidnapped by a vanishing carriage, meets the younger Jane Austen and goes with her to Steventon Rectory. Jane is invited to the mysterious Lord Rutland's masquerade at Deane Manor and takes Clara with her. Clara tells her the truth about her identity and mission and steals a key from Rutland, allowing her and Jane to get into his study and find his plans for the 1815 railway and a reorientation coronet. Clara kisses Jane to allay suspicion when a servant enters the study, but Rutland takes Clara away.

The Doctor arrives at Deane Manor dressed as Father Time and learns that Adastra is Lord Rutland. He leaves Tom with Jane and uses his sonic screwdriver to discover that Adastra's carriage is a Malthasian Shift Tomb transmat pod. He is taken captive by Adastra, who is actually a Malthasian woman hoping to get off of the planet, and realises that Tom was sent to track him when he brings in Jane. The Doctor and Jane convince Tom that Adastra does not care about his revolution and he shoots her.

With Clara's help, the Doctor gets Adastra into the TARDIS and sends a message to Adastra's mothership. He sees to her wound and sends her back to Malthasia University, using his authority as an honorary fellow to forbid her from further day trips. The Doctor and Clara say goodbye to Jane and dematerialise, leaving the author with a head full of stories.

Cast

 * The Narrator / The Doctor - Jacob Dudman
 * Jane Austen - Nathalie Buscombe

Uncredited

 * Adastra - Nathalie Buscombe (BFX: False Coronets)

Worldbuilding

 * The Doctor especially likes Northanger Abbey.
 * The Doctor mentions Clara's mother and father.
 * The Doctor mentions Lincoln's assassination at a theatre.
 * Clara dresses as Dick Turpin.
 * By 1800, James Watt had invented the steam engine.
 * Dr Brown is a neighbour of Jane's.
 * Jane mentions her brother, who received treatment for unspecified ailments.
 * Adastra utilises a transmat pod.
 * The Doctor mentions the Malthasian University.

Continuity

 * Clara is introduced as "Lady Clara of Coal Hill", suggesting that she has already started working at Coal Hill School. (TV: The Day of the Doctor, The Caretaker)
 * Clara will later recall that Jane Austen is a "phenomenal kisser". (TV: The Magician's Apprentice)
 * The Doctor wears a top hat again. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler)