The Wrath of Medusa (audio story)

 was the first story in the audio anthology Escape from Reality, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Rochana Patel and featured Derek Jacobi as the War Master.

Publisher's summary
Crashing into a universe of fiction, the Master finds himself lost in a world of Greek mythology...with a Dalek assault squad close behind.

Plot
While dismembering a captured Dalek’s casing, the Master trips a tracking device; the Daleks had learned he was scavenging parts from his victims and fitted such devices in the hope of finding him. Discovering a Dalek assault squad were already en route, the Master escapes by engaging his TARDIS’s telepathic circuits and entering the Land of Fiction.

The Master lands in a fictional version of Ancient Greece, meeting the hero Perseus, who had just prayed to the gods for assistance. He briefly claimed to be Hades, but abandoned this when the goddess Athena arrived. She recognised him as being from outside her realm, and was also impressed with his TARDIS, and he agreed to serve her and help Perseus in his quest to slay Medusa, initially by using his TARDIS to transport Perseus.

He first took Perseus to the Graeae, three sisters of the Gorgons who shared a single eye and single tooth. While Perseus confronted them alone, the Master argued with Athena, who can tell he does not intend to server her faithfully, telling him the story of how she transformed Arachnae into a spider as a warning. Meanwhile, Perseus steals the Graeme’s eye but cannot persuade them to reveal Medusa’s location or weaknesses. Athena sends the Master to check on Perseus, and he destroys their eye before successfully bribing them with three new ones: Dalek eyestalks salvaged from previous victims. He took Perseus back to his TARDIS before the power in the eyestalks ran out, and they travelled to the Garden of the Hesperides, where Athena collects some powerful weapons of the gods for Perseus: Zeus’s unbreakable Adamantine blade; Hades’ Helm of Darkness, which confers invisibility; a “trans-dimensional satchel” from the Hesperides themselves; and Athena’s own shield. The Master, after questioning that Perseus has not also been given Hermes’ sandals, also pockets several of Hera’s golden apples before attempting “a runner” with Perseus and his weapons in the TARDIS.

Zeus, warned by Athena, diverts the TARDIS to Mount Olympus, where he confronts the Master and reveals the truth: the gods, oldest denizens of the Land of Fiction, have become aware of the other fictional realms in their universe, including Lilliput, Sherwood and Wonderland. But Zeus has designs on the universe beyond the Land of Fiction, proposing an alliance with the Master to destroy the Time Lords. He also offers to destroy the Daleks who are guarding the exit from the Land, but insists the Master help Perseus secure the head of Medusa so Athena can use it to lead the assault on Daleks and Time Lords both.

Promising to do as asked, the Master returns to the TARDIS and takes Perseus - to whom he tries to explain his fictional origins - to the home of the Gorgons in a ruined temple to Athena. They discover many heroes turned to stone - including Hermes, proving that Medusa’s power is a threat to the gods. The Master uses the Helm of Darkness to advise Perseus as he tries to sneak up on the Gorgons, but the Master wakes the sleeping Gorgons, declaring he wants them as allies. As her sisters chase Perseus back to the TARDIS, the Master speaks with Medusa and gives her the Helm of Darkness, allowing her to circumvent her curse. Back in the TARDIS, the Master tells Perseus how and why Athena turned Medusa into a monster for the “crime” of being so beautiful she tempted Poseidon, who defiled Athena’s temple. Perseus is convinced to help him overthrow the gods - as is Medusa, who has been listening.

Back at Mount Olympus, the Master and Perseus pretend to hand over Medusa’s head before she and her sisters attack, turning most of the gods to stone. Perseus faces Zeus, resisting his thunderbolts with help from the Master’s technology. Together they force Zeus over the edge of Mount Olympus’s balcony. Having overthrown the gods, the Master sends Perseus to meet Andromeda, but only after taking the sword and shield for himself. Without his gifts from the gods or the head of Medusa, Perseus and Andromeda are devoured by the sea monster Cetus.

The Master explains that Medusa’s true origin is monstrous, for how could the true Gorgons be her sisters if she was once mortal? Her story, and Perseus’s, had been altered with retellings. Medusa, embracing her true nature, wishes to leave her world, so the Master sends her and her sisters through the time corridor opened by the Daleks into the Land of Fiction. After retrieving more eyestalks for the Graeae, they travel onto the Daleks’ ship. They kill many of the Daleks, who retaliate by activating their ship’s self destruct, destroying the Gorgons and Daleks and leaving the exit clear. The Master, happily forcing the nymphs of Mount Olympus to serve him ambrosia and nectar, decides to remain in the Land of Fiction and plunder it for more impossible weapons to use in the Time War.

Cast

 * The Master - Derek Jacobi
 * Perseus - Greg Austin
 * Athena - Sakuntala Ramanee
 * Medusa - Ella Smith
 * Hobgoblin - Safiyya Ingar
 * The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

Worldbuilding

 * The Dalek squad receives advice from a science corps.
 * The Master says that "Zeus is no Laurence Olivier" when explaining that the Zeus sounds English due to the influence of the pop culture of the 20th century. Laurence Olivier played Zeus is 1981's Clash of the Titans.
 * The Master tells Medusa that the story of her being turned into a monster by Athena is a later addition to the myth by Ovid, to "fit with his Roman sensibilities." That in earlier versions of the myth she was always a monster, fathered by Phorcys, which is why her sisters are gorgons too.

Continuity

 * The Master's TARDIS takes the form of a doric column, which he notes is an "old favourite". (TV: Logopolis, Castrovalva)
 * The Master mentions enslaving Kronos. (TV: The Time Monster)