Didn't You Kill My Mother? (audio story)

Another day, another set of clients needing arbitration. However, this case is special. It's the kind of case that could make a career. It could definitely earn you a promotion. The case? Lockwood versus Hendricks.

Plot[]

The Eleventh Doctor, going by "Mr Doctor", acts as an impartial arbiter in a legal matter in which Valarie Lockwood seeks restitution from Mrs Arabella Hendricks for several deaths, including her mother's, which Mrs Hendricks claims were necessary to create a weapon to save the universe from the Daleks. Neither party can remember the name of the Time Lord who was involved in the incidents discussed and the Doctor has no memory of being involved in them and they break for lunch, after which the Doctor is confused by Tim, a colleague, saying that it is Tuesday when it had previously been a Monday and is concerned that he cannot remember his job interview or his boss.

Following a brief lunch, the Doctor has Tim take him to the boss's office in the hopes of finding answers and enters using his sonic screwdriver, which he uses instinctively despite not knowing what it is. He finds that the boss's paperwork comprises solely of the word "choose" written over and over again and answers the boss's telephone when it rings, hearing a familiar voice say "nothing we do seems to hold them back for long". When he returns to Valarie and Mrs Hendricks, they complain that they have been unable to leave and that there is no lift for them to leave by, despite the Doctor having arrived in one earlier. The Doctor calls an end to the day as the clock indicates that they have overrun, although Mrs Hendricks says it has only been a few minutes since lunch.

The Doctor decides to wait for the boss to come back and then step down from Valarie and Mrs Hendricks's case as Tim tells him it would be unprofessional to do so immediately. He again finds that time flies by and, the next day, Valarie argues that Mrs Hendricks's actions in developing the Darinthian Blight and the Surge were wrong because her Time Lord friend said so. The Doctor nears his verdict and finds a Dalek gunstick in his briefcase which they agree means that he will have to exterminate the person who loses their case, after which he confronts Tim about where they are working and what the date is. Tim does not have an answer, but does eventually tell him that the other people who worked at the office were killed because they did not make a choice in their arbitration.

Refusing to pass his judgment, the Doctor is teleported to Tim and realises that he is Valarie's Time Lord friend and that Tim is Mrs Hendricks's consultant. Tim confirms that this is the case and restores everybody's memories before explaining that he was created by the Cult of Skaro to infiltrate TARDISes and showing him to the console room of the dimensionally transcendental time machine they are in. When Valarie shoots a light fitting whilst threatening Mrs Hendricks with a gunstick and Tim feels pain, the Doctor realises that he is the interface of the time machine. Tim believes that the Daleks should be wiped out and has been testing the Doctor to see if he is capable of killing somebody before asking him to kill him. Should he do so, the time machine will explode and the Doctor will be able to change time by distributing the Surge before the New Dalek Paradigm's war begins.

Valarie chooses not to kill Mrs Hendricks so as not to go against her mother's ethos and starts damaging the office, forcing Tim, whose request the Doctor has declined to grant, to teleport to her and take the gunstick before Mrs Hendricks can kill him. As the Doctor looks for the TARDIS, he hears Hayden and Roanna and deduces that the TARDIS has been trying to alert him to what is going on outside of the office; the Daleks are attacking Medrüth. Tim painfully restores Mrs Hendricks to how she used to be and suffers himself when the time machine's systems malfunction thanks to the Doctor, who picks Valarie up in the TARDIS and takes her to save Medrüth.

Cast[]

Crew[]

Director - Helen Goldwyn
Music - Borna Matosic
Script Editors - Matt Fitton and Alfie Shaw
Writer - John Dorney
Senior Producer - John Ainsworth
Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
Producer - Alfie Shaw
Sound Design - Lee Adams

Worldbuilding[]

The Doctor and Tim act as deadly arbiters.
Following in the footsteps of many an office, the office which Tim is pretending to be serves tacos on Tuesdays.
Tim is a massive fan the Ellery Quest series, going so far as to recommend the Doctor get into it as well. He is also fond of Sunday lunches, becoming appalled when the Doctor even implicitly scorns them.
The Doctor suspects that Tim is a villainous Time Lord. Tim, in turn, mockingly suggests he could be connected to the Master or the Rani.
Tim's interior so closely resembles that of a TARDIS, it initially fools the Doctor. Like a TARDIS, it can be disguised, being concealed by Tim as a labyrinthine office.
Tim was built by the Cult of Skaro during the Time War.

Notes[]

The title may be a play on "Didn't You Kill My Brother?", a comedy single recorded by Alexei Sayle, who played the DJ in TV: Revelation of the Daleks.

Continuity[]

Mrs Hendricks brings up her use of the Darinthian Blight she unleashed on Research Rig 6 (AUDIO: The Inheritance ^[+]Alfie Shaw, Geronimo! (The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles, Big Finish Productions, 2022).) and the Surge she unleashed in Chicago. (AUDIO: All's Fair ^[+]Max Kashevsky, Everywhere and Anywhere (The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles, Big Finish Productions, 2023).)
Mrs Hendricks pulls the same bluff employed by the Seventh Doctor on Terra Alpha by goading the Eleventh Doctor to shoot her in the full knowledge that he won't have the heart to do it. (TV: The Happiness Patrol ^[+]Graeme Curry, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1, 1988).)
Valarie knows that Mrs Hendricks will kill her in her future and in Hendricks's past. (AUDIO: All's Fair ^[+]Max Kashevsky, Everywhere and Anywhere (The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles, Big Finish Productions, 2023).)
Tim was reading Jeremy Castle's biography of the Doctor when it was suddenly replaced by An Unearthly Quest, the first Ellery Quest novel. This occurred thanks to the deletion of the biography by the Doctor, Valarie, and Quest himself, (AUDIO: All of Time and Space ^[+]Tim Foley, All of Time and Space (The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles, Big Finish Productions, 2023).) and it would not have been possible without the temporal chaos caused by the explosion of the TARDIS. (AUDIO: The End ^[+]Rochana Patel, Geronimo! (The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles, Big Finish Productions, 2022).)

External links[]

Official Didn't You Kill My Mother? page at bigfinish.com