- You may be looking for the unproduced Torchwood story or the Torchwood audio drama.
Deadline was the fifth Doctor Who Unbound audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. Unlike the previous Unbound stories, this story does not strictly attempt to portray an alternate version of the Doctor, but instead an alternate version of the history of the Doctor Who television series.
The story blurs the lines between a version of the "real world" and a version of the Doctor Who universe. Elements and alternate versions of key sequences from An Unearthly Child, The Daleks and The Masters of Luxor are presented and acted out throughout the story.
Publisher's summary[]
It's been forty years since Martin Bannister encountered the Doctor. They were different men back then. Martin was young and talented and The Times' seventh Most Promising Writer To Watch Out For. The Doctor was mysterious, crotchety, and possibly Oriental.
It was an encounter that destroyed both their lives.
Pity poor Martin now. His career is in ruins, all forgotten. His estranged wives keep dying in the wrong order. And there's a nasty green stain by the wardrobe that could be an alien footprint. Or possibly just mould.
Martin's life is about to change unexpectedly. Impromptu poetry readings, elephant expeditions, an obligatory Bug-Eyed Monster. And a last desperate chance for love, before it's too late.
Sounds like it's time for the Doctor to come into Martin's life again, and sort him out. Permanently.
Plot[]
Martin Bannister, an elderly, reclusive writer in a nursing home, seemingly lost in memories or delusions of being the Doctor. He is cared for by Barbara Wright, a nurse whose name mirrors the Doctor Who character. Martin appears confused, his room is messy, and he seems detached from his present circumstances, sometimes addressing Barbara as if she were the companion. His son, Philip Bannister, arrives for a visit.
Philip initially pretends his mother, Amy, has recently died and they held the funeral without Martin, seemingly to gauge his reaction or confront him. Martin reacts with detached curiosity rather than grief. Philip expresses bitterness over Martin abandoning the family years ago for his writing career. Martin learns he has a grandson, Tom. Martin reminisces about his past writing career, particularly his unproduced pilot script for a show called "Doctor Who" featuring a grumpy old man in a police box TARDIS, a project cancelled by the BBC after Sydney Newman's departure. He dismisses his later, successful work on shows like "Juliet Bravo" as hackwork.
A fan journalist named Sydney interviews Martin about "Juliet Bravo", but Martin is cantankerous, proud only of his early, unsuccessful plays and his lost "Doctor Who" script, dismissing the show that made his career. Sydney leaves, confirming Martin's stories for the show are widely disliked by fans. Barbara, revealing she also writes poetry, forms a connection with Martin. She shares her own past heartbreak involving a fiancé named Ian Chesterton who disappeared years ago. Martin becomes increasingly obsessed with his wardrobe, which he believes is his TARDIS and is growing larger inside. Barbara makes romantic advances, which Martin awkwardly rejects, leading her to tear up his remaining script pages in anger.
Philip returns with his son, Tom. Philip confesses he lied about Amy's death (using guinea pig ashes as a prop) because his own marriage is failing and he needed to confront Martin about his past abandonment and its perceived effect on him. Martin, increasingly detached from reality, tries to persuade Tom to join him as his companion and enter the wardrobe/TARDIS to travel in time and space. Tom rejects him forcefully. Distraught, Martin attacks Tom and attempts to force him into the wardrobe. Philip and Barbara intervene. Martin finally retreats fully into the wardrobe, experiencing a vision where Susan confronts him, asking him to choose between his fantasy and reality. He seems to reject the fantasy, writing his characters out of the story. The ending leaves ambiguous whether he remains lost in his delusions or finds a measure of peace.
Cast[]
- Martin Bannister / Doctor Who - Derek Jacobi
- Amy Bannister / Susan Who - Genevieve Swallow
- Philip Bannister / Ian Chesterton - Peter Forbes
- Barbara Wright / Barbara Wright - Jacqueline King
- Sydney / Sydney Newman / Supreme One - Ian Brooker
- Tom Bannister - Adam Manning
Crew[]
- Cover Art - Clayton Hickman
- Music, Sound Design, Script Editor & Director - Nicholas Briggs
- Executive Producer - Jacqueline Rayner
- Producers - Jason Haigh-Ellery and John Ainsworth
- Writer - Robert Shearman
Worldbuilding[]
- Martin was named one of the Ten Writers to Watch in The Times in 1961. He was number seven.
- Barbara believes that a TARDIS is a type of shrub.
- Martin cannot remember if Sydney Newman was Canadian or Australian.
- Martin had written fourteen episodes for Juliet Bravo.
Notes[]
- This audio drama was recorded on 12 and 13 June 2003 at the Moat Studios.
- Almost every voice actor in this play performs multiple roles, typically a "real" individual with some connection to Martin Bannister and said person's Doctor Who counterpart in Martin Bannister's imagination. Of the two actors whose characters who do not have direct counterparts in Martin Bannister's imaginary version of Doctor Who , Ian Brooker, as well as voicing Sydney the Juliet Bravo fan, voices Martin Bannister's imagined version of Sydney Newman, as well as the Supreme One, leaving Adam Manning as Tom Bannister the only member of this story's cast who is not required to "double up" at any point.
- This story is largely allegorical for both early Doctor Who and Robert Shearman's own career.
- There are references to the elements of the television stories An Unearthly Child and The Daleks, as well as The Masters of Luxor, an unmade serial from Season 1 which was later produced in audio drama form by Big Finish Productions as The Masters of Luxor.
- There are many similarities between this story and Auld Mortality, another audio drama in the Unbound series. Both stories are about a struggling writer penning stories about travels in time and space as the Doctor, and being reunited with a family member as they begin to get fiction and reality confused. They also both feature alternate versions of the First Doctor. However, in Auld Mortality, the main character actually was the Doctor, whereas Martin Bannister just believes himself to be. In a way, this story could be seen as a dark parody of the other. This story's ending is a dark mirror of that story's, with Martin believing himself to be leaving in the TARDIS with Susan, as the Doctor did in this story, as he in reality suffocates to death in a wardrobe. The TARDIS being disguised as a wardrobe is also mentioned in Auld Mortality as a theoretical possibly.
- The story was reissued in the audio anthology Unbound: 1-8 Collected in September 2022.
Continuity[]
- The creation of the version of history seen in the story is explained in PROSE: All Our Christmases.
External links[]
- Official Deadline page at bigfinish.com
- DisContinuity for Deadline at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
