A Storm of Angels (audio story)

A Storm of Angels is the seventh audio story in the 'Doctor Who Unbound' series produced by Big Finish Productions. Serving as a sequel to Auld Mortality, the first story in the Unbound range, it features Geoffrey Bayldon returning in his role as an alternate First Doctor, with Carole Ann Ford reprising her role as Susan. Notably, this story is double the length of its predecessor, spanning four parts across two CDs, compared to the single-part story of Auld Mortality.

Publisher's summary[]

What if... the Doctor really had changed History, even just the tiniest bit?

1480: Leonardo da Vinci visits the stars.

1508: Vasco da Gama sets foot on Mars.

1585: Francis Drake begins charting the Asteroid belt.

1588: Earth is destroyed by a storm of angels.

The Doctor was really enjoying his freedom. But now there's a Temporal Agent on his tail. Gloriana and the President of Gallifrey are not amused. And Susan's none too well either.

Possibilities, like the Doctor, have a habit of running away with themselves. But who cares, when the jewels are so dazzling...

Plot[]

Part One[]

The Doctor, travelling with Susan, is intercepted in the time vortex by Zeuro of Gallifrey's Central Office of Temporal Observation, accused of timeline interference. Attempting escape, the Doctor reverses his TARDIS's time vector drive, accidentally tearing a rift and throwing both ships into a parallel universe's 1588. Marooned near Earth with minimal power, their TARDIS (disguised as a barrel) is salvaged by the steam-powered space galleon, the Golden Hind, captained by Francis Drake. They learn they are in an alternate history where Queen Elizabeth rules an Elizabethan space empire from the orbital Nonsuch Palace.

Part Two[]

Aboard the Golden Hind, the Doctor and Susan find the ship's navigator, Doctor John Dee, communicates with entities he calls "angels", whose voice emanates from an obsidian Shewstone. The ship carries a cargo of crystalline jewels mined from asteroids, which possess a psychic influence, affecting the crew, particularly Anthony Fettiplace, who dies mysteriously after becoming obsessed. Susan, meanwhile, requires regular treatment in the TARDIS revitaliser for a life-threatening virus; with the TARDIS powerless, her condition worsens. She later confides in Francis Drake that the treatment is failing and she is dying. The Hind is attacked by a Mayan Alliance ship, the Quetzal. Susan helps repel the attack by directing power to the cannons.

Part Three[]

Zeuro's TARDIS is retrieved from the Quetzal's wreckage, and Zeuro arrests The Doctor under orders purportedly from President Susan of Gallifrey. Francis Drake intervenes, imprisoning Zeuro instead. Anthony Fettiplace's corpse is found reanimated, encrusted with the growing jewels, revealing the "angels" are the jewels speaking through the Shewstone and animating corpses. The Golden Hind arrives at Nonsuch Palace. Drake presents the jewel tribute to Queen Elizabeth. Dee unveils the envoy "Moses" – Zeuro's jewel-encrusted body. The jewels infect the court. Dee, horrified, tries to destroy the Shewstone but is killed and assimilated. The Doctor retrieves the stone.

Part Four[]

President Susan arrives via time ring, confronting the Doctor about creating this timeline through his meddling. She reveals the Susan with him is a fading construct from his TARDIS's possibility generator – dying because the generator is failing – and that Earth is doomed by the jewel swarm drawn to the Shewstone. The palace succumbs to chaos as the jewel creatures infest the court. The two Susans secretly swap places. The construct-Susan uses the President's time ring to return to Gallifrey, intending to protect the Doctor's identity and legacy, while also using her final moments to permanently cure the President's illness. The now-cured President Susan stays with the Doctor. Together with Queen Elizabeth and Francis Drake, they board the Golden Hind. Using the Shewstone, they lure the crystalline swarm away from Earth and Nonsuch Palace, embarking on an endless chase across the void to keep the planet safe.

Cast[]

Crew[]

Cover Art - Paul Vyse
Director - John Ainsworth
Executive Producer - Jacqueline Rayner
Music and Sound Design - ERS
Producer - Jason Haigh-Ellery and John Ainsworth
Script Editor - Nicholas Briggs
Writer - Marc Platt

Worldbuilding[]

The Doctor made a hearing aid for Ludwig van Beethoven. The real Susan reminds him of this.
The Doctor refers to Isaac Newton as "tedious but earnest," implying prior interaction.
When the TARDIS materialises on the Golden Hind, the chameleon circuit disguises it as a brandy barrel. On another occasion, the TARDIS took the form of a Morris Oxford.
On their travels, the Doctor and Susan encounter Thaleks and Elvis Presley.
The Angels are ethereal beings that manipulate reality through harmonic frequencies and etheric music, influencing both matter and mind.
Elizabethan scientists like John Dee combined alchemy with recovered alien technology to project and harness these harmonics, creating unstable gateways to the stars.
Agent Zeuro hints that violations of the non‑interference policy can result in **exile** or **reassignment** for Time Lords.

Notes[]

This audio drama was recorded on 31 May and 1 June 2004 at The Moat Studios.
This story was released as a two-disc set. It is now currently available as a download only.
This story features Geoffrey Bayldon's final portrayal as the Doctor.
This is a sequel to Auld Mortality.
At the beginning of the story, during the Doctor's travels, he encounters a creature that says "Resistance will be crushed." While the creature is never identified in any way, its voice resembles that of a CyberTelosian of N-Space, implying that the creature may be a Cyberman.
In Susan’s trance state, she describes the Angels’ arrival with phrases such as "they will sing the firmament into flame."
The story was reissued in the audio anthology Unbound: 1–8 Collected in September 2022.

Continuity[]

In N-Space, the Sixth Doctor visited Elizabeth I's court in the company of Evelyn Smythe. (AUDIO: Thicker Than Water) The Eighth Doctor also did so in the company of Samson and Gemma Griffin. (AUDIO: Terror Firma) Furthermore, the War, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, in the company of Clara Oswald encountered her in 1562, during which she married with the Tenth Doctor. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) Later in her timeline, but earlier in the Tenth Doctor's, he and Martha Jones briefly encountered her in 1599. (TV: The Shakespeare Code)
The Doctor and Susan travelled with Leonardo da Vinci. The Doctor took Leonardo to visit the Ore, a race who had ships which travelled by astrodynamic principles derived from the harmonies of the Spheres. This experience allowed Leonardo to master the power of flight, altering history so that humanity had developed spaceflight by the 16th century. (PROSE: The Innocents)
The Doctor saved the Princes in the Tower. (AUDIO: The Kingmaker)
The Doctor warned the Aztecs of Hernando Cortez's approach. While in Mexico, he was mistaken for their reincarnated High Priestess. (TV: The Aztecs)
The Doctor has encountered the Thaleks. (AUDIO: Auld Mortality; PROSE: The Innocents)
In N-Space, the First Doctor and Dodo Chaplet travelled aboard another version of the Golden Hind which was not a space galleon. (AUDIO: Maker of Demons)

External links[]

Official A Storm of Angels page at bigfinish.com
DisContinuity for A Storm of Angels at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
A Storm of Angels at Doctor Who Reviews
A Storm of Angels at TARDIS Guide
A Storm of Angels at Goodreads
A Storm of Angels at TV Tropes