Big Finish Doctor Who/Recap/050 Zagreus

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


A 40th anniversary story for Doctor Who, and the 50th Big Finish Doctor Who audio. Written by Gary Russel and Alan Barnes, it is notable for featuring five Doctors and 18 companions.

Tropes

  • Acceptable Targets: Invoked Charlie pondering "Not heaven then... Hell? Oh, and what do you know, it looks like Wales."
  • Accidental Innuendo: "Three Doctors? One at a time is enough!"
  • Actor Allusion: Bonnie Langford plays Goldilocks, an evil fairy, mainly to allow her to let loose her famous piercing scream. Langford also spent much of her time previous to Doctor Who in the theatre, playing fairies and other girly characters.
  • All-Star Cast
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: The TARDIS is sapient (voiced by Nicholas Courtney, the Brigadier himself) and not at all pleased with the way the Doctor has treated her.
  • Backdoor Pilot: For the Gallifrey series of audios. We see Romana and Leela meet for the first time, and learn of Braxiatel's role on Romana's council.
  • Badass Baritone: Rassilon and The TARDIS / Brigadier.
  • Battle Butler: Leela, for President Romana.
  • The Cassandra: An actual character named Cassandra (whom no one believes about Rassilon until it's too late).
  • The Chains of Commanding: Lady President Romana.
  • Chevocs Gunmen: The three somewhat minor characters who are revealed to carry some of the Doctors knowledge.
  • Complete Monster: Rassilon, who stole regeneration from the vampires, went all ethnic cleansing on the "lesser species", and stuck the Divergents in a completely new universe so his secret wouldn't get out. And that's before the story even begins. During the story, he deposes Romana and tries to kill her, kills the Doctor-avatars the TARDIS has conjured, and manages to Batman Gambit the TARDIS - well, the bits of Zagreus possessing the TARDIS - into trapping the Doctor in the Divergent Universe. Fortunately, Zagreus decides he's had enough of being Rassilon's puppet.
  • Continuity Nod: Braxiatel, previously only seen in the Bernice Summerfield Universe, appears in the Doctor Who audios for the first time.
    • "Splendid fellows, all of them".
    • "And I fear the moment's not been prepared for."
    • "[Peri] tried [killing me] with carrot juice. Nearly succeeded, too."
    • "A better exit than I ever had, a bang on the head, I ask you!"
  • Continuity Reboot: In a way - this is the end of the Charley Paradox storyline, and sees the Doctor and Charley temporarily leave this universe.
  • Damsel Scrappy: Charley, to much of the fanbase.
  • Demonic Possession: Zagreus to The Doctor. And also, the TARDIS. On a lesser note, Leela is 'possessed' by Rassilon into trying to kill Romana.
  • Determinator: The Doctors.

"No matter what happens, no matter the odds, we never, ever, ever give up!"

  • Dirty Communists: Miss Stone, who is sabotaging the Dionysus Project.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: Two of them:
    • The TARDIS is the Dragon to Rassilon, and she's doing it because she's ticked at the Doctor. Or so she thinks. She's really being controlled by Zagreus.
    • Zagreus is also the Dragon to Rassilon, but he becomes a Dragon Ascendant after deciding he's had enough of Rassilon's oppression of the Divergents.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Zagreus.
  • Enemy Within: Zagreus has possessed both the Doctor and the TARDIS.
  • Executive Meddling: In-universe Uncle Winkie wants to prevent this happening to his creations.

I wanted to ensure they could never be sold off, never be rented out to some cheap downmarket operation, never be licensed out to a third party who might dilute their charm and beauty or use them to promote fast food restaurants or appear in pop videos.

  • Expy: Sylvester McCoy as "Uncle Winkie", who's basically "Walt Disney In Space".
  • Fairy Companion: An evil version in Goldilocks.
  • Fake American: Nicola Bryant, who is well-known for playing American Peri Brown (and having her accent mocked because of it) actually does a passable American accent as Lady Ouida.
  • Fan Wank: Oh God, pretty much everything. We revisit the Dark Tower, and nearly every companion actress appears. Jon Pertwee also has a cameo, despite the fact that he's dead.
  • Foreshadowing: Due to this being the Whoniverse, this doubles up as a retrospective example - it's when the Doctor asked when Romana will become corrupt like Morbius and Rassilon. Apparently, it is in the EDA 'The Ancestor Cell'.
    • If you were familiar with this audio before watching "The End of Time", Rassilon's predilection toward Complete Monster-hood and Big Bad-ery wasn't such a shock.
    • If you listened to it before becoming familiar with the Eleventh Doctor story "The Doctor's Wife", it shows how the TARDIS can take a human form and how she's quite possessive of her Doctor.
  • Gambit Pileup: Which has a lot to do with who's possessing who and who's working for or against who. Just try and keep track of Zagreus and the TARDIS in this.
  • Gambit Roulette: The TARDIS is running one against Zagreus, the Doctor, and itself. Shame it's also being controlled by Rassilon.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: "If I'd have known the afterlife would be full of young girls kissing me, I'd have chosen death sooner." and "Oh, hug away dear, hug away." The tone of voice makes this even less subtle.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat: Paul McGann has HTHC against himself in the scenes where he's voicing both the Eighth Doctor and Zagreus.
  • Hearing Voices / Laughing Mad / Sanity Slippage: The Eighth Doctor.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: If they've played a major part in Classic Who and were alive in 2004, they were in this.
    • Also, very few companions actually play the roles they previously made famous, the exceptions being India Fisher as Charley Pollard, Lalla Ward as Romana and Louise Jameson as Leela.
    • Don Warrington, also known as the President from "Rise of the Cybermen", plays Rassilon.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • The Matrix going haywire at the beginning, unable to stabilize itself.
    • The evil TARDIS, which by the way, sounds like our beloved Brig, going psychotic and hunting down Charley, and torturing the Eighth Doctor.
    • He may be a bit hammy in this, but the scenes of Paul McGann as Zagreus, especially when hunting Charley, are completely frightening.
  • Humanoid Aliens: The reason for the proliferation of so many bipedial, human-shaped aliens in the Whoniverse is given a roundabout explanation here. Basically, Rassilon was a big ol' xenaphobe, and ensured any species he didn't like the look of never actually came to pass. So born were the Divergents.
  • Ironic Nursery Tune: "Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead/Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you when you're sleeping..."
  • Jerkass: Peter Davison as the utterly dickish Reverend. Talk about Playing Against Type...
  • Lampshade Hanging:

So what have you gat squirelled away [here]? The Hairdryer of Rassilon? The Hoover of Rassilon? The Rassilon Patent Trouser Press? 'These creases last forever!'

Monster, am I? Monster? I am what the monsters have nightmares about.

  • The Nth Doctor: An odd example - all of the Doctor's previous incarnations are incarnated into bizarre manifestations such as an English clergyman (Peter Davison) or an ancient vampire (Colin Baker) or a children's toy designer (Sylvester McCoy), in order to protect the Doctor from Zagreus.
  • Older Than They Think: Was one of the first stories to have the TARDIS take the form/body of someone else and converse with the Doctor, predating the Neil Gaiman-penned Moffat episode "The Doctor's Wife" by eight years.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: They had regeneration before the Time Lords and were wiped out by Rassilon because they were too much of a threat.
  • Playing Against Type: A good deal of the companions, once you look past the surface.
    • Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) playing a scientist who's also a Communist spy.
    • Nicola Bryant (Peri) playing a sinister vampire.
    • Sophie Aldred (Ace) playing an anthropomorphic duck.
    • Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane) playing an uptight schoolmarm.
    • Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor) playing a scaredy-pants clergyman.
    • Colin Baker (Sixth Doctor) playing a sinister vampire.
    • Nicholas Courtney (the Brig) playing a bitchy, jealous, and angry TARDIS
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "I AM BECOME ZAGREUS!!!".
  • The Sadistic Choice: Romana swears that the Doctor and the possessed TARDIS cannot return to the true universe from the Divergent Universe.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Both subverted and played straight. No one wants Zagreus or the other Divergents to escape, but to do that, the Doctor himself must be imprisoned, since he's possessed by Zagreus.
  • Significant Anagram: Neither Eight nor Charley gets "Saviltride" until it's too late - "Evil TARDIS".
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Rassilon, who just wants Gallifrey to be all-powerful again.
    • Zagreus, too, who just wants revenge on Rassilon for screwing over the Divergents.
  • Wham! Line:
    • "Either we get the Doctor back from Zagreus- and if he can't be helped, we kill him." - Romana.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: Alice in Wonderland.
  • The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: Romana.
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