The Transcendence of Ephros (audio story)

The Transcendence of Ephros was the first story in audio anthology The Third Doctor Adventures: Volume 2, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Guy Adams and featured Tim Treloar as the Third Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant.

Publisher's summary
The Doctor and Jo arrive on the dying planet Ephros, where Galactux Power Inc is exploiting the world's remaining resources. But something is stirring beneath the surface...

Part one
The Doctor and Jo arrive on Ephros and find that, rather than the verdant paradise that they were expecting, it is hot, the ground is covered in sand and the stars are in a grid pattern. A tremor opens the earth and swallows the TARDIS, forcing them to leave a tracker and go in search of help. They are soon cornered by two creatures and saved by Temper, who takes them to a valley full of followers of Sortan, camping in anticipation of the Transcendence.

Pretending to be from Galactux, the Doctor and Jo are taken to meet Mother Finsey. She agrees to help them and speaks with the Doctor whilst Jo goes to see Temper and his infant daughter, Shilly, and learns about the prophet Sortan. The Doctor goes with Temper to retrieve the TARDIS, leaving Jo to care for Shilly and gather information from Mother Finsey, and the sky (actually an extraction sphere) suddenly lights up not long after. The sphere, the two travellers learn, is going to absorb the energy released tomorrow when the planet explodes.

Part two
Mother Finsey and the other believers plan on ascending to a higher level of consciousness, just as Sortan did, by being on the planet when it is destroyed. The Doctor and Temper descend into the hole, chased by a giant worm, and enter the TARDIS. The Doctor looks in the data banks to identify the worm creature, which seems familiar to him.

Jo is forced to admit that she and the Doctor are not from Galactux and goes to find him so that they can leave before the destruction of Transcendence in about fifty hours, but she is held at gunpoint by Quail. Unable to convince him that she is not a spy, she escapes and meets Bartram, a Galactux employee who disagrees with the Ephros operation and is suspicious of the company. They go in search of the Doctor and Temper, finding their vehicle, and Jo falls when another tremor occurs.

Part three
Jo is saved by Bartram, but the TARDIS is transmatted aboard a station where Karswell interrogates the Doctor and Temper. The Doctor is soon given free reign by the President and discovers that the cause of the tremors and the reason that Ephros will be destroyed is due to Throxian Lavaworms, deliberately brought to this planet by somebody. Temper, who welcomes the planet's destruction, knocks the Doctor unconscious.

Jo and Bartram return to the camp and find that Quail has been killed. They realise that there is some sort of conspiracy and that the planet is behaving in a way which science cannot explain. Mother Finsey tells Jo that, just as she learnt from her mentor, they each must find their own way. Jo and Bartram continue their investigation, but Mother Finsey takes them captive and reveals that she is behind the events, having been inspired by her mentor, the Master.

Part four
Mother Finsey tells Jo and Bartram of how she travelled with the Master before he tried to kill her, only succeeding in rendering her blind, and that she created this religion and came up with this scheme as a way to make money through Galactux. She leaves them both and goes to central control where she shoots and kills Temper, who renounces his faith and asks the Doctor to care for his family with his dying words. The Doctor contacts Jo and has her change the frequency of Mother Finsey's frequency modulator, which is agitating the worms, and gives Mother Finsey the chance to redeem herself. She refuses.

Jo distracts a creature whilst Bartram extracts DNA from the worms, allowing the Doctor to draw them out. As he is unable to kill them, Karswell takes charge and does it instead. Afterwards, the Doctor and Jo try to explain to the followers that they have been saved, but they are angered by the prevention of the Transcendence and boo them away. Jo is upset by this and gives a final goodbye to Bartram before she and the Doctor leave, unaware of what has happened to Mother Finsey.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Tim Treloar
 * Jo Grant - Katy Manning
 * Temper / Follower 1 - Simon Bubb
 * Mother Finsey - Richenda Carey
 * Karswell - Bernard Holley
 * Quail / Deputy - Nigel Peever
 * Bartram / Follower 2 - Karen Henson

Worldbuilding

 * Mother Finsey makes curry with spiral chilis.
 * Jo says that Galactux sounds like the name of a washing powder.
 * The Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver like a sonar to find the TARDIS in the tremor.
 * Temper says that Sortan was a prophet from the Deltar Configuration who worked as a debt collector for Brinsell Max. He went travelling for six years after becoming disillusioned by his job and visited Palchek Minor where he experienced a rebirth.
 * Temper is married to Horse. She works in the canteen.
 * The Time Lords had the Throxian Lavaworms wiped out.
 * Finsey attempts a hyper-space jump.
 * Finsey is listening to Dutton Trio Hollow Note Label.

Continuity

 * The Doctor refers to the recent business involving Draconians, Daleks, and Ogrons. (TV: Frontier in Space)
 * The Doctor claims he's been offered as a sacrifice by a fair few religions. (TV: The Daemons, AUDIO: The Entropy Plague et al.)
 * The Doctor mentions the Timelords are his people. (TV: The War Games et al.)