Neverland (audio story)

Neverland
Script release:	The Audio Scripts
Doctor:	Eighth Doctor
Companion(s):	Charley
Featuring:	Romana II, Vansell, Rassilon, Dalek Emperor
Main enemy:	Sentris
Main setting:	Time Station The Matrix Antiverse
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Alan Barnes
Director:	Gary Russell
Producer:	Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery
Music:	Nicholas Briggs
Sound:	Alistair Lock
Cover by:	Clayton Hickman
Release details
Number of parts:	2
Release number:	33
Release date:	12 July 2002
Format:	2 CDs Download
Production code:	8L
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-90365-462-0 (physical) ISBN 978-1-84435-738-3 (digital)
Main Range
← Previous	The Time of the Daleks
Next →	Spare Parts
Production order
← Previous	The Time of the Daleks
Next →	Bloodtide

Neverland was the thirty-third story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Alan Barnes and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, India Fisher as Charlotte Pollard, Lalla Ward as Romana II, Anthony Keetch as Vansell and Don Warrington as Rassilon.

This story concluded the arc of stories beginning with Invaders from Mars concerning the paradox of Charley Pollard's surviving the R101's destruction.

Neverland was one of three audio stories to feature Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor alongside Romana as played by Lalla Ward. The others were the audio adaptation Shada, which itself was an extended release of the webcast of the same name, and Zagreus.

Publisher's summary

The Web of Time is stretched to breaking. History is leaking like a sieve. In the Citadel of Gallifrey, the Time Lords fear the end of everything that is, everything that was... everything that will be.

The Doctor holds the Time Lords' only hope — but exactly what lengths will the Celestial Intervention Agency go to in their efforts to retrieve something important from within his TARDIS? What has caused the Imperiatrix Romanadvoratrelundar to declare war on the rest of creation? And can an old nursery rhyme about a monster called Zagreus really be coming true?

The answers can only be found outside the bounds of the universe itself, in a place that history forgot. In the wastegrounds of eternity. In the Neverland.

Plot

Part One

A mechanical voice reads out key dates in the Humanian Era, including the crash of the R101. This voice is overlapped by a female voice, which reads out key dates in the Sensorian era. The first voice is still going, and lists dates and events in the Rassilon era, but when it gets to the Dalek Fleet being captured in the vortex, it begins breaking up, and screams that it "can't remember".

In the TARDIS, the Doctor explains to Charley that although the Daleks are trapped in a paradox, a time pocket, they may still be brought back by the Time Lords to avoid disruption to the timeline. They are in the Acteon galaxy, which the Doctor describes, saying that he hasn't been there since he "was an old man. Probably". Then, on the scanner, they see a large number of grey battle TARDISes, and realise they are there for them. Meanwhile, Vansell tells Romana that they have located the Doctor, and are blocking entrances to the vortex across 5 million consecutive years. The time station they are in heads towards them. The Doctor receives a message ordering them to power down their TARDIS, which the Doctor ignores, and is shot at by time torpedoes. However, a time slip hits them, which sends their TARDIS through time.

When it's over, the Doctor asks Charley how long they've been travelling together, and Charley guesses it to be about six months. The Doctor wishes her a happy birthday, and says she's going to an amazing party, inside the Jovian Fold. Acting excited, he says he won't be attending, and will pick her up in a year. The Doctor will go and see the Time Lords in the meantime, and try to sort out the paradox of Charley's existence. Charley doesn't want to hide away, saying that it's time to stop dreaming, time to grow up, but the Doctor doesn't want to give up on her. She hits the fast return switch.

Kurst and Levith, CIA agents, enter the TARDIS, which has been frozen for a few hundred years. The Doctor awakens and mutters about adventures he's had, and they take him for his "date with the President". They use a time-space converter to wake up Charley. The Doctor comes to his senses in a metal room in a 7C Supra-Orbital Time Station, where he teases Vansell about their time in the Academy. Vansell lists the many occasions on which Vansell has been traced to in different time periods after her death. Romana gives her word that no injustice will be carried out against Charley.

Charley is prepared for a procedure by the CIA agents while Vansell continues interrogating the Doctor about recent time slips. This leads the Doctor to explain the theory of Anti-Time, which he doesn't believe in, but is convinced when Romana shows him the time slips and disruptions originating from the 1930s. They describe Charley as patient zero; a rip in the fabric of space-time. Time is "running out", and the Matrix cannot cope. The Doctor is standing on a door to the Matrix, which he enters unwillingly.

Inside the Matrix, he sees the future if the slips continue: Gallifrey burning, Mount Cadon obscured by smoke. He meets an old man, who tells him Gallifrey is dead, and the people who are left alive have turned cruel. This is now the Empire of Zagreus. He sees Romana as an Imperiatrix, who has become cruel. She takes the Dalek Emperor and it's fleet as prisoners.

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Paul McGann
• Charley Pollard - India Fisher
• Romana - Lalla Ward
• Rassilon - Don Warrington
• Coordinator Vansell - Anthony Keetch
• Kurst - Peter Trapani
• Levith - Holly King
• Undercardinal - Lee Moone
• Rorvan - Mark McDonnell
• Taris - Nicola Boyce
• Matrix voices - Jonathan Rigby, Dot Smith, Ian Hallard
• Dalek Emperor - Alistair Lock

Crew

• Cover Art - Clayton Hickman
• Director - Gary Russell
• Executive Producer - Jacqueline Rayner
• Music - Nicholas Briggs
• Producers - Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery
• Sound Design - Alistair Lock
• Writer - Alan Barnes

Worldbuilding

Botany

• In a Matrix projection, there are no Cadonwood trees left alive.

Conventions

• The Doctor invokes the Archetryx Convention on Charley's behalf.

Galaxies

• The Doctor hasn't visited the Acteon Galaxy for some time.
• The Doctor mentions the Seven Galaxies.

Gallifreyan culture

• The origins of Zagreus are explored.
• Kurst swears saying "by Thalia's bones".
• Gallifreyan Presidents are made aware of: the War Perceptives, Jasquig Records, Cavox Imperatives and the Oubliette of Eternity.

Gallifreyan history

• The Matrix (while recounting dates) mentions: the Cult of Morbius, the Master's theft of plans for the Doomsday Weapon, Chancellor Goth's visit to Tersurus, and the Daleks' failed invasion of Gallifrey.
• Rassilon is: Conqueror of Yssgaroth, Overpriest of Dronid, First Earl of Prydon, Patris of the Vortex, Ravager of the Void.
• Rassilon used the Eye of Harmony to anchor all of space-time into a single continuity.

Gallifreyan technology

• The Oubliette of Eternity erases people and Time Lords from history. They end up in the Antiverse.

Space-time vessels

• The Time Station is a class 7C supra-orbital time station made from triple-bonded Polysium and Tinclavic. It runs on Artron fuel. Its temporal engines are protected by a Zybanium shield.

Other realities

• Anti-time cannot pass Gallifrey's transduction barriers.
• In a Matrix projection the Doctor sees Romana as Imperiatrix of Gallifrey.

Species

• The Doctor mentions Megaluthian slimeskimmers.
• Vansell mentions the Monan Host and the Warpsmiths of Phaidon.

TARDIS

• Charley uses the fast return switch to fly the TARDIS back into the path of time torpedoes.

Theories and concepts

• The Web of Time is stretched to breaking point. Even Gallifrey's own continuity is ready to break.
• The theory of Anti-Time is given even less credence than the Flat Galaxy Society, but has been around for far longer.
• The theory of Anti-Time is the idea that the Web of Time could not exist until Rassilon had built the Eye of Harmony, anchoring time, but this Web must also have it's shadow: anti-time. A "perpetuity of meaningless chaos".

Timeline

• There is time distortion present in the Humanian Era, Sensorian Era and Sumaran Era.

Time Lords

• When Romana was a young girl of sixty, her family went to the shores of Lake Abydos on Gallifrey.

Literature

• Charley makes various reference to Peter Pan.

Gallery

Original CD cover

Illustrated preview by Martin Geraghty in DWM 318

Review illustration by Roger Langridge in DWM 321

Notes

• Don Warrington's name was not included in any of the cast lists printed in Doctor Who Magazine, www.doctorwho.co.uk or the CD's inner booklet in order to conceal the character's identity. His name does, however, appear on the cover of the CD.
• Despite Neverland being publicised as a traditional Big Finish Productions four-part story, it was released as "a special two-part, feature-length" presentation with episodes of seventy-two minutes each.
• Part 2 of Neverland leads directly into Zagreus. However, there was a gap of a year and five months between the release of Neverland in June 2002 and the release of Zagreus in November 2003.
• This audio drama was recorded on 24 and 25 January 2001 and 27 February 2002.

Continuity

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

• The paradox of Charley's survival started in AUDIO: Storm Warning.
• The Daleks were stuck in the vortex in AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks.
• The Time Lords first tried to get the Doctor in AUDIO: Embrace the Darkness.
• The Doctor tells Charley that he never gives up because he's the Doctor. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
• The Doctor originally tells Charley that the Time Lords want the Doctor to report at an inquiry into the recent Nimon incursion on Earth in AUDIO: Seasons of Fear, before giving in and telling her it's about her survival.
• Vansell makes note of the Doctor and Charley's presence in Beauvais, France on 5 October 1930, (AUDIO: Storm Warning) the cargo ship Vanguard in 2503, (AUDIO: Sword of Orion) Venice in 2294, (AUDIO: The Stones of Venice) Malebolgia in 2003, (AUDIO: Minuet in Hell) New York City in 1938, (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars) and London. (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight)
• AUDIO: Seasons of Fear first showed the Neverpeople entering the normal universe.
• AUDIO: Project: Twilight, PROSE: Instruments of Darkness and AUDIO: Seasons of Fear mentioned Zagreus.
• The Matrix noted Rassilon Era date of 6978.3. This is incorrect, and should have been 6798.3.
• The Library of St John the Beheaded appeared in PROSE: All-Consuming Fire; Yssgaroth appeared in PROSE: The Pit, and Gallifrey's Mount Cadon comes from PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation.
• The Doctor recalls his and Romana's adventures in E-Space. (TV: Full Circle, TV: State of Decay, AUDIO: The Invasion of E-Space, TV: Warriors' Gate)
• The Doctor mentions his encounter with Mary Shelley and Lord Byron near Lake Geneva in Switzerland in June 1816. (AUDIO: Mary's Story)
• The Matrix voices refer to the crash of the British airship R101 on 5 October 1930, (AUDIO: Storm Warning) Adolf Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) the abdication of King Edward VIII on 10 December 1936, (PROSE: Players) the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, (AUDIO: A Blind Eye) the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk on 27 May 1940 (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus, AUDIO: Fugitives), the admission of Peladon into the Galactic Federation (TV: The Curse of Peladon, TV: The Monster of Peladon), the election of Mavic Chen as Guardian of the Solar System in 3950, (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) the Daleks' forces assembling on Kembel in 4000, (TV: Mission to the Unknown) the establishment of the Cult of Morbius in 5725.3, (TV: The Brain of Morbius) the theft of the plans for the Doomsday Weapon by the Master on 5892.9, (TV: Colony in Space) Chancellor Goth's visit to Tersurus in 6241.1, (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) the disappearance of Lady President Romana and Etra Prime in 6776.7 and the repulsion of the Dalek invasion of Gallifrey by Romana in 6796.8. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element)
• After Vansell's death, he would be succeeded as coordinator of the CIA by Narvin. (AUDIO: Weapon of Choice)
• The Doctor says he's "nine hundred and fifty something" years old.
• During their visit to Light City in the Divergent Universe, the Doctor and Charley's memories were contributed to the pool of information used to programme the Proles. An edited version of their visit to Gallifrey was included in an infotainment broadcast which the Proles were obligated to watch. (AUDIO: The Natural History of Fear)
• After Charley escaped from the Ever-and-Ever Prolixity, a Viyran agent was stationed on Gallifrey to search for her. (AUDIO: The Fall of the House of Pollard)
• The Doctor mentions previously being in Rassilon's Tomb. (TV: The Five Doctors)
• The Doctor mentions having been to the Acteon Galaxy before, but not for a while. (TV: Carnival of Monsters)
• Kurst compares the TARDIS interior to an "Ormellian brothel". (AUDIO: Last of the Titans)
• Charley mentions the "Mountain Mauler of Montana". (TV: The Romans)

External links

• Official Neverland page at bigfinish.com; note that it is out of print and is available as download only.

• Neverland Transcript
• Neverland at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• DisContinuity for Neverland at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide