Serpent Crest

Serpent Crest
Doctor Who audio play
Cast
Doctor Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor)
Companions Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates) Susan Jameson (Mrs Wibbsey)
Production
Writer	Paul Magrs
Producer	Kate Thomas
Series	3
Length	5 episodes 60 minutes each
Originally broadcast	8 September - 8 December 2011 (CD release)
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → Demon Quest The Ribos Operation

Serpent Crest is an audio play in five episodes based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is written by Paul Magrs, and stars Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Richard Franklin as Captain Mike Yates. It was released on five CDs by BBC Audiobooks between September and December 2011 and is a sequel to 2009's Hornets' Nest and 2010's Demon Quest. They feature multiple actors, but all five episodes contain some degree of narration by different characters, with the exception of the first episode, Tsar Wars. As with all Doctor Who spin-off media, its relationship to the televised serials is open to interpretation. ^{[1] [2]}

Contents 1 Serpent Crest 1.1 Tsar Wars 1.1.1 Cast 1.2 The Broken Crown 1.2.1 Cast 1.3 Aladdin Time 1.3.1 Cast 1.4 The Hexford Invasion 1.4.1 Cast 1.5 Survivors in Space 1.5.1 Cast 2 Crew 3 Continuity 4 Notes 5 External links 6 References

Serpent Crest

Tsar Wars

(released 8 September 2011)

• The Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey are kidnapped by menacing robots and transported through a wormhole to an extravagant palace, floating in space, a hundred thousand years in the future. A colony of humanoid robots have overthrown their creators and forged a longstanding galactic empire. But now the humans are threatening to overthrow their Robotov Tsars. In an attempt to bring peace, the Tsarina creates Alex, a cyborg infant. And at his heart is a deadly Skishtari Egg.

Cast

• The Doctor / Father Gregory - Tom Baker
• Mrs Wibbsey - Susan Jameson
• Tsar - Michael Jayston
• Tsarina - Suzy Aitchison
• Boolin - Simon Shepherd
• Servo 53 / Lucius - Sam Hoare
• Servo 96 / Kani - Paul Chequer
• Servo 51 / Bellis - Gabriel Vick
• Servo 14 / Tarnak - Grant Gillespie

The Broken Crown

(released 6 October 2011)

• Wibbsey and the Doctor traverse the wormhole back to Nest Cottage. But Nest Cottage hasn't been built yet. This is Hexford Village in the year 1861. And the TARDIS is a century and a half in the future. They also discover a thirteen year old boy with a paper face. And his favourite toy is the powerful Skishtari Egg.

Cast

• The Doctor - Tom Baker
• Mrs Wibbsey - Susan Jameson
• Mr Bewley - Simon Shepherd
• Andrew - Guy Harvey
• Reverend Dobbs - Terrence Hardiman
• Mrs Audley - Joanna David
• Harold - Geoff Leesley
• The Cook - Su Douglas
• Jake - Charlie Mitchell
• Sally - Elinor Coleman

Aladdin Time

(released 3 November 2011)

• Alex, Wibbsey and the Doctor have been pulled within the Skishtari Egg. Now they find themselves trapped in Aladdin's Cave, a labyrinth of magical rooms and strange characters.

Cast

• The Doctor - Tom Baker
• Mrs Wibbsey - Susan Jameson
• The Magician - Simon Shepherd
• Aladdin - Guy Harvey
• Scarf - Andrew Sachs
• Gryphon - Terrence Hardiman
• The Storyteller - Sophie Ward
• Toad - Su Douglas

The Hexford Invasion

(released 8 December 2011)

• The Doctor is reunited with his TARDIS and uses it to return Alex and Boolin to the Robotovs. Mrs Wibbsey is back at present day Nest Cottage, with the Skishtari Egg buried deep beneath it, as it always has been. While the Doctor is away, nine months quietly go by for her. Then Mike Yates returns, along with his former employers, UNIT, on the trail of alien activity. Even more incredulously, Mike has teamed up with a strange little man claiming to be the Second Doctor.

Cast

• The Doctor - Tom Baker
• Mrs Wibbsey - Susan Jameson
• Captain Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
• The Visitor - David Troughton
• Reverend Tonge - Cornelius Garrett
• Deirdre - Nerys Hughes
• Tish - Joanna Tope

Survivors in Space

(released 8 December 2011)

• The Skishtari spaceship failed to find their precious Egg and in the process, the entire village of Hexford is accidentally thrown threw a wormhole and dumped on a barren moon in a strange galaxy. For three months, the villagers cope, with only Captain Yates and his mysterious, mop-topped little friend to maintain order. But the Robotovs' guards are closing in, as are the Skishtari. Finally, the TARDIS tracks down the misplaced hamlet. The Fourth Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey make their final confrontation, bringing with them the Skishtari Egg, just as it is about to hatch.

Cast

• The Doctor - Tom Baker
• Mrs Wibbsey - Susan Jameson
• Captain Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
• The Visitor - David Troughton
• Reverend Tonge - Cornelius Garrett
• Deirdre - Nerys Hughes
• Tish - Joanna Tope
• Lucius - Sam Hoare
• Tsar - Paddy Wallace

Crew

• Writer - Paul Magrs
• Producer & Director - Kate Thomas
• Script Editor & Executive Producer - Michael Stevens
• Cover Illustrators - Brian Williamson

Continuity

• This story is a sequel to Hornets' Nest and Demon Quest, with the Fourth Doctor, Yates and Mrs Wibbsey reuniting. Serpent Crest begins by picking up from the cliffhanger at the end of Demon Quest.
• The Fourth Doctor mentions that the Time Lords removed certain events from his memory, just before they force regenerated him at the end of The War Games. In particular, they hid memories of adventures he had with his other incarnations. The Second Doctor encountered his previous and following selves in The Three Doctors. He met them again in The Five Doctors, along with the Fifth Doctor. He also met the Sixth Doctor in The Two Doctors. The idea that these adventures occurred at a point when the Second Doctor was working under the orders of the Time Lords, after his trial in The War Games, but before he begins his new incarnation in Spearhead From Space, is known as Season 6B.
• The Fourth Doctor investigates his past by checking his 500 Year Diary, which was seen with the Second Doctor in The Power of the Daleks and The Tomb of the Cybermen.
• The visiting Doctor recalls his adventures with the Cybermen in The Invasion and The Tomb of the Cybermen, the Yeti in The Web of Fear and the giant crabs in The Macra Terror. He also mentions an encounter with the Daleks in the diamond mines of Marlion, as mentioned in the Paul Magrs novel Verdigris.

Notes

• Tsar Wars mirrors the 1971 biographical film Nicholas and Alexandra, which starred Michael Jayston as Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Tom Baker as Grigori Rasputin.
• Michael Jayston also played the Valeyard in the 1986 Doctor Who television story The Trial of a Time Lord.
• Paul Chequer played Eugene Jones in the 2006 Torchwood episode, Random Shoes.
• Terrence Hardiman played Hawthorne in the 2010 Doctor Who television episode The Beast Below.
• David Troughton is the son of Second Doctor actor Patrick Troughton. He has also appeared in the television stories The War Games in 1969, The Curse of Peladon in 1972 and Midnight in 2008.
• Nerys Hughes was in the 1982 Doctor Who story Kinda and the 2008 Torchwood episode Something Borrowed.
• Tsar Wars is the only episode in all of the Nest Cottage stories to contain no narration.

External links

• Press Release
• BBC Store
• Big Finish Store
• AudioGO Store

References

Fourth Doctor audio dramas Sarah Jane Doctor Who and the Pescatons Exploration Earth: The Time Machine Leela The Catalyst Empathy Games The Time Vampire The Foe From The Future/The Valley of Death Destination Nerva The Renaissance Man The Wrath of the Iceni Mrs Wibbsey Hornets' Nest Demon Quest Serpent Crest Romana I and K-9 The Stealers from Saiph Ferril's Folly Tales from the Vault The Auntie Matter The Sands of Life War Against The Laan The Justice of Jalxar Phantoms of the Deep Romana II and K-9 The Beautiful People The Pyralis Effect Romana II, K-9 and Adric The Invasion of E-Space Other The Kingmaker

UNIT audio dramas UNIT The Coup • Time Heals • Snake Head • The Longest Night • The Wasting Doctor Who The Paradise of Death • The Ghosts of N-Space • The Spectre of Lanyon Moor • The Fires of Vulcan • Death Comes to Time • The Blue Tooth • Old Soldiers • The Doll of Death • The Magician's Oath • Shadow of the Past • Find and Replace • A Death in the Family • Animal • Tales from the Vault • The Many Deaths of Jo Grant • Serpent Crest • Binary • UNIT Dominion Torchwood Lost Souls • Submission Unbound Sympathy for the Devil