Fugitives (audio story)

 was the second story in the audio anthology Dark Eyes, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Nicholas Briggs and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Ruth Bradley as Molly O'Sullivan.

Publisher's summary
With the first objective of his mission reached, almost nothing is going to plan for the Doctor. He finds he cannot contact or return to the Time Lords' home planet, Gallifrey. And just when Molly O'Sullivan thinks she's escaped one conflict, she finds herself in the thick of another one.

What is it that connects the Doctor, the Daleks and the mysterious Ides Scientific Institute?

Plot
On 6 July 1970, at the IDES Scientific Institute, advanced experimental voice-activated computer VSAI 001 announces to its creator and operator, Dr Sally Armstrong, that it has a message for her - surprising since it’s not connected to anything yet. The message contains funds and instructions on how to build a device - and the message is from “the Doctor”...

In World War I France, the Doctor and Molly escape attacking Daleks on horseback, then in a small plane, but they are shot down by flying Daleks just as they locate the TARDIS in No Man’s Land. They crash but both survive unscathed, to the Doctor’s astonishment. The Doctor realises the unusual metallic noise reported by several people is actually the sound of Daleks scraping against barbed wire; they’ve been following them, unseen, all along, without attacking - until now. The Doctor and Molly get into the TARDIS and take off. The Daleks report in to the Dalek Time Controller, who considers the first phase of the plan complete.

Straxus lands his TARDIS on a mountain on the planet Srangor, where he asks a local inhabitant to kill him. When the local refuses, he throws himself off the mountain, against the local’s protests.

Inside the TARDIS, Molly realises she's been in it before, though she can’t remember when or why. The Doctor admits he doesn’t know why he’s saving her, and looks up Molly’s name in the TARDIS database, noting that one of the meanings of O'Sullivan is “dark-eyed”, which matches her unusually dark eyes. Molly complains about the Doctor’s treatment of her, and he relays the story of Straxus recruiting him to save her - she is the “random human female” at the centre of an insane plan to destroy the Universe.

The Doctor tries to contact Gallifrey, but there’s no response, so he sets the TARDIS controls to travel there. Molly opens the door, and it turns out the TARDIS has instead landed in Dunkirk aboard the HMS Grenade on the 29 May, 1940, just as it is struck by enemy fire and sunk, sending the TARDIS into the sea. The Doctor and Molly are washed up on shore but avoid enemy fire and return to the TARDIS underwater. The Doctor asks how Molly knew which control opens the door, but she doesn’t know; he again tries to get to Gallifrey.

On Srangor, the falling Straxus is saved part-way down the mountain by a flying drone, which then disappears with a TARDIS-like noise. He prepares to throw himself off again, but the drone returns to stop him.

The TARDIS lands in 1972 London, specifically 107 Baker Street - a house owned by the Doctor. They meet Sally Armstrong, who has built the device in the instructions she received, and recognises both of them since the message included a captioned photo of the Doctor and Molly in Dunkirk. The Doctor knows nothing about this - as also mentioned in the message - and the device turns out to be a time-space portal, and it activates, allowing Daleks to emerge. The Doctor and Molly escape in a cab with Sally, doubling back to the Doctor’s house to return to the TARDIS. Sally follows them and is killed by a Dalek just as she expresses a desire to travel with the Doctor. This death is a final straw; he can’t face the idea of endless death in a war against the Daleks, and refuses to run when the Daleks catch up. He demands they kill him, but they hesitate. Molly knocks him out and drags him into the TARDIS; by the time he comes to, she is unsucessfully trying to take off. She talks him down from his despair and they become playful, Molly deciding that since they can’t make to Gallifrey, they should go somewhere nice.

The Doctor takes them to Halalka, a planet with a beautiful gravity-suspended waterfall in which tourists can swim. Oddly, Molly can’t understand a local policeman with whom the Doctor speaks - the TARDIS is not translating for her. While they swim amongst local dolphin-like creatures, the policeman reports to Kotris that the Doctor and Molly are here, and one of the dolphin-creatures is compelled to attack. The Doctor is forced to kill it in self-defence, and notices a mind control device attached to it just as a Dalek saucer attacks.

The Doctor and Molly make it back to the TARDIS, where Molly activates the controls flawlessly to take off - without knowing how she did so. On Halalka, the saucer lands and Kotris arrives, demanding to see security footage of the Doctor and Molly. He is pleased to see the pair are bonding, and the Daleks kill the policemen before reporting the TARDIS has re-entered the vortex - again pleasing Kotris, who says the Doctor will soon be caught in their trap.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Paul McGann
 * Molly O'Sullivan - Ruth Bradley
 * Sally Armstrong - Natalie Burt
 * Straxus - Peter Egan
 * Kotris - Toby Jones
 * The Daleks/Dalek Time Controller/VSAI 001 - Nicholas Briggs
 * Dunkirk Sergeant/Srangor Herder/Window Cleaner/Halalkan Policeman - John Banks
 * Cab Driver/Baker Street Security Guard - Alex Mallinson

Individuals

 * Prior to World War I, Molly worked in Eaton Place in London.
 * Molly compares the Daleks to Kaiser Wilhelm II.
 * Molly refers to Gallifrey as "Galilee".
 * The Doctor and Molly are pursued by a Dalek time squad.

Species

 * Molly initially believes that there may be Germans inside the Daleks. The Doctor tells her that there is "something far worse than Germans" inside the Dalek casing.

TARDIS

 * Upon entering the TARDIS, Molly realises that she has been inside it before. Although she consistently refers to it as the "Tardy-box", she is nevertheless able to operate the console and dematerialise the TARDIS.
 * The TARDIS translation circuit does not work for Molly.

Technology

 * Upon arriving in 1972, Molly is surprised that electric lights have replaced gas lights and that cars have entirely replaced horse-drawn carriages.
 * The Doctor and Molly arrive on the HMS Grenade in 1940.

Time travel

 * The Daleks refer to World War I-era France as "Earth's 20th century, Zone One."

Continuity

 * The Doctor knows how to fly a plane, and proceeds to do so. He has forgotten how to do so by the time of his eleventh incarnation. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
 * The First Doctor previously witnessed the evacuation of Dunkirk in May 1940. (PROSE: Just War, Byzantium!)
 * Molly assumes that Gallifrey is in Ireland. (TV: The Hand of Fear, Human Nature)
 * The Doctor visits 107 Baker Street, the house in which he lived during his fifth incarnation from November 1866 to November 1867. (AUDIO: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster) Henry Gordon Jago and George Litefoot lived in the house while they were fugitives in 1894 (AUDIO: The Monstrous Menagerie) while Molly did so in 1918 (AUDIO: The White Room). In 2008, the Doctor left the house to his companion Thomas Brewster. (AUDIO: A Perfect World)
 * Straxus tells the Doctor that the Time Lords have foreseen "something terrible in the time tracks." (TV: Rose, The End of the World, et al.)
 * Due to the fact that Kotris was erased from history, these events never happened. The Doctor, Molly and the Dalek Time Controller are the only individuals who remember the original timeline. (AUDIO: X and the Daleks)
 * Molly again refers to the Doctor as "the Doctor" in a sarcastic way. (AUDIO: The Great War)