Double was the sixty-ninth/seventieth story in the Torchwood - Monthly Range by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Guy Adams, and introduced and starred Louise Jameson as Roberta Craven.
Publisher's summary[]
Part One
1970s London is a place of suspicion and murder. The assassination of an entire embassy comes to the attention of Torchwood.
There's a global energy crisis. There's an alien invasion. Petrochemical companies are subject to hostile take overs by the mysterious Nessoil. Extremely hostile take overs.
Roberta Craven was once a spy. Now she's broken. But she can still see the patterns in the world. And they're closing in around her.
Part Two
A lot of people have died, and not for the first time in her life, Roberta Craven has changed sides.
Travelling the world with a dead man, she’s negotiating world peace. Or is she starting a world war?
The Autons are coming. And Torchwood won’t stop them...
Plot[]
Part one[]
On 23 October 1973, the entire staff of the Libyan embassy are found with their necks broken in St James's Square. Herman Baker of the Department of Trade and Industry starts supporting Nessoil instead of Ossam and has an Auton suffocate Toby Green, the latter's managing director, before placing his body in a brothel. Following Mr Green's death and Ossam's takeover, journalist Neal Hart unsuccessfully attempts to interview Nessoil's managing director David MacClean, a prostitute from the brothel and Mr Baker and is threatened by Cornwell of MI5 into dropping the story upon returning home.
Roberta Craven of Torchwood One stakes out Mr Baker's house whilst speaking with a ghost or hallucination of Patty. She steals Neal's wallet during his brief visit, and meets up with a woman in a sauna to confirm that the Americans did not kill the Libyans. She is told by Cornwell, her old colleague, to stop looking into the "Libyan business" and that Nessoil are being protected, but she refuses and lets him know that she is aware of the presence of Autons in the UK. At a meeting regarding the merger of Nessoil and Ossam, MacClean and his men reveal themselves to be Autons by shooting down Ossam's board whilst Neal manages to escape.
Neal tells Roberta what he has seen and asks for assistance, so she tells him about Torchwood and the Nestenes and how she was forced to leave MI5 after causing several deaths, including Patty's, by failing to defuse a controlled reality imploder whilst under the influence of alcohol, which she finds focuses her brain due to her Asperger's and hyperkinetic disorder. Mr Baker bursts in with several Autons who fire their weapons. Neal screams.
Part two[]
Roberta helps the Nestenes by travelling to Kuwait with an Auton with the murdered Neal's brainwaves and threatening Al Sabah of OAPEC into negotiating with the British government. After visiting Cornwell, who is looking into the murder of an MI5 agent, she escorts Al Sabah to Mr Baker in London where he is presented with two facsimiles: one who smothered his mother and another who killed his sons. Al Sabah subsequently agrees to supply oil to the United Kingdom at a low price.
Having deduced that the Nestene Consciousness is in the North Sea given Nessoil's presence there, Roberta sends Cornwell to kill it. He takes a helicopter to the oil rigs with Mac MacDonald and destroys the Nestene, but Mr Baker, whose house Roberta has broken into, does not feel anything as he is not an Auton as Roberta thought. Instead, she realises that she is an Auton and has been working with Mr Baker to exploit the Nestene with the intention of killing it once it was no longer of use, after which the Autons would be welcomed as British citizens. She took part in the killing at the embassy and killed the MI5 agent in Kuwait, having been replaced with an Auton whilst Nessoil was being set up.
Roberta shoots Mr Baker and destroys any records of Torchwood. She recruits Neal and Cornwell to the organisation and tells Patty that she will be sure to be amazing in her role as leader of Torchwood to make up for all the bad things that she has done in the past.
Cast[]
- Roberta Craven - Louise Jameson
- Patty - Emma Lowndes
- Herman Baker - Don Gilét
- Neal Hart - Omari Douglas
- Cornwell - Anthony Howell
- Al Sabah / Mac - Reda Elazouar
- Veronica - Kim Ismay
- Simeon - Barnaby Edwards
- The Nestene Consciousness - Sam Stafford
Crew[]
- Senior Producers - David Richardson and John Ainsworth
- Additional themes - Ben Foster
- Cover Art - Sean Longmore
- Director - Barnaby Edwards
- Executive Producers - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
- Music - Blair Mowat
- Producer & Script Editor - James Goss
- Sound Design - Toby Hrycek-Robinson
- Writer - Guy Adams
- Theme Music - Murray Gold
- Autons and Nestene Consciousness created by Robert Holmes
Worldbuilding[]
- Roberta used to work for MI5.
- Toby Green works at Ossam.
- Kingsley is Neal's cat.
- Roberta mentions the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC).
- Roberta has Asperger's and hyperkinetic disorder.
- Roberta gives Neal whisky.
- Roberta tried to defuse a controlled reality imploder at the MI5 office in Wood Green.
- Roberta does not like sweet coffee.
- Marlon Brando is on the front of a magazine.
- Roberta has read files on Drahvins, Macra and Autons.
- Mrs Morecambe looks after Kingsley when he is away and steals from him.
- Martin Rogers is killed in Kuwait. Roberta believed that he and his wife were boring.
- Roberta smashed all the mirrors in her home to avoid seeing herself.
- Neal kills Al Sabah's bodyguard.
Notes[]
- This audio drama was recorded on 25-27 July 2022 at the Soundhouse.
Continuity[]
- Neal says that it would be sensible for the Nestenes to take over a plastics factory. (TV: Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons)
External links[]
- Official Double part one page at bigfinish.com
- Official Double part two page at bigfinish.com
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