Relative Dimensions (audio story)

Relative Dimensions was the seventh release of the fourth series of The New Eighth Doctor Adventures and also the Big Finish's 2010 Christmas special release. It featured Lucie Miller, Susan, and Alex Campbell. In this adventure, the Doctor intended to spend Christmas with Susan and Alex, his great-grandson whom he had met for the first time in the audio story An Earthly Child. But a present he got for Susan a long time ago, in the audio story Quinnis, may jeopardize the perfect Christmas he had promised Lucie to make it up to her for their previous disastrous Christmas described in Death in Blackpool. This story was the only story on television or audio where the Doctor celebrated Christmas with his family.

Publisher's summary

Christmas is a time for family, they say — which is why the Doctor has invited his grand-daughter Susan and great-grandson Alex for Christmas dinner in his time and space machine. But who, or what, is the spectre at their yuletide feast?

Venturing deep into the dark heart of the TARDIS, Susan uncovers her past, Alex is told his future — and the Doctor finds himself caught in a deadly dangerous present!

Plot

to be added

Cast

References

At Lucie's suggestion, she and the Doctor do their Christmas shopping during the subsequent January sales. He is able to pay for the gifts using his previously untouched UNIT salary, which has accrued a great deal of interest over the years.
The TARDIS contains a colony of bats known as fledershrews.
Alex's full name is Alexander David Campbell. He is 18 years old.
The TARDIS' Christmas tree is a Norwegian spruce, which Lucie picked out herself. They intend to return it once Christmas is over.
Although Alex is the Doctor's great-grandson, he nevertheless refers to the Doctor as "Granddad."
During their travels together, the First Doctor and Susan travelled to the planet Ambrosia, where everything smelled of ambrosia apart from their sovereign.
Alex is studying the history of European architecture in London.
Alex is not telepathic and cannot regenerate. The Doctor analyses his DNA and discovers that his Gallifreyan genes constitute only 7% of his genome.
The Doctor, Lucie, Susan and Alex are attacked in the TARDIS library by an eight foot alien fish with "fearsome spines and quills" and an armoured, electric carapace. It is able to swim through the air and travel between different dimensions as well as through time.
Both Susan and Lucie bought socks for the Doctor while the Doctor intended to give Lucie socks as well as a TARDIS key with a musical ringtone.
The Doctor tells Susan, Lucie and Alex that Leonardo da Vinci begged him to take him to Bethlehem in order to witness the birth of Jesus Christ as he wanted his Adoration of the Magi to be as accurate as possible. The Doctor was able to work out the date by reference to the census records in Rome. The two of them checked all of the inns in Bethlehem and eventually found one with a stable attached. However, Leonardo refuses to look into the stable for fear of disappointment. When the Doctor mentioned his "mate Leonardo," Lucie erroneously believed that he was referring to the American film actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Doctor alters the TARDIS' internal dimensions to recreate Susan's old room, which had been held in storage in the TARDIS holding ring. The Doctor determines that his downloading of the room resurrected the air fish, which travels back in time to ensure that it was released from Susan's room. The Doctor is electrocuted by the energy discharge produced by the collision of the two versions of the fish. He had hoped that the present and future versions of the fish would cancel each other out due to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect.
Alex was previously unaware that Time Lords have two hearts. Susan does not answer when he asks if she also has two hearts.
The air fish is known as a Blitzen fish or Resurrection fish as it is able to survive long periods of hibernation. It is used for hunting in the fourth universe. The longest known specimen is 14.7 metres. They are native to the Aurora Gloriousia in the fourth universe.
The TARDIS holding ring contains the stored rooms of all of the Doctor's previous companions, including Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki Pallister, Steven Taylor, Dodo Chaplet, Polly Wright, Ben Jackson, Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield and Tamsin Drew. He has also created one for Alex. However, he eventually decides to delete all but one of these.
Susan builds a snowman version of the First Doctor with a carrot for a nose and two brussels sprouts for his eyes.
The Doctor wants to watch Queen Elizabeth II's Christmas Speech from 25 December 1953 using the Time-Space Visualiser.
The Doctor intends to give the TARDIS to Alex at some point, though only after he has travelled with him. However, Alex decides to go on a grand tour of Europe with Lucie instead.

Notes

In the final scene, the Doctor says, "Happy Christmas, Doctor. And happy Christmas to everyone else too. If anyone's listening." This is a reference to the First Doctor breaking the fourth wall in the final scene of "The Feast of Steven", Episode Seven of TV: The Daleks' Master Plan which was first broadcast on 25 December 1965, by turning to face the camera and saying, "Incidentally, a happy Christmas to all of you at home!"
This is the second 'Christmas Special' in The New Eighth Doctor Adventures. AUDIO: Death in Blackpool was the first the previous December, continuing the tradition from the new series.
The story was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 15 January 2013.

Continuity

Lucie mentions the death of her aunt Patricia Ryder on 25 December 2009. (AUDIO: Death in Blackpool)
The Doctor refers to "windswept monasteries." (AUDIO: The Book of Kells)
Alex recalls meeting his great-grandfather, the Doctor, for the first time six months earlier. (AUDIO: An Earthly Child)
Susan and Alex have not had a proper family Christmas since the death of her husband David Campbell. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)
Susan mentions that the Doctor has not regenerated since they last met, which he describes as "a bit of a novelty" for her. (TV: The Five Doctors, AUDIO: An Earthly Child)
Susan remembers being abandoned on Earth by the Doctor following the end of the Dalek occupation. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
Susan tells her grandfather that the Iborians were sincere in their desire to render assistance in rebuilding Earth and that they have already accomplished much in the previous six months. (AUDIO: An Earthly Child)
Susan refers to the Doctor's recklessness in lying to herself and their former travelling companions Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright about the fluid link being broken so to provide an excuse to explore in the Dalek city on Skaro. (TV: The Daleks)
As a Christmas present, the Doctor gives Susan the Aztec bracelet which Cameca had previously given to him as an engagement present in Mexico in the 15th century. (TV: The Aztecs) It had seemingly re-entered his possession as the First Doctor had previously used it to buy suits and top hats for himself and Steven Taylor in London in 1912. (AUDIO: The Suffering) The Seventh Doctor previously wore it on the lapel of his cream linen suit. (PROSE: White Darkness)
Susan tells Alex that the Doctor bought her a dried air fish from a market in Bridgetown on Quinnis in the fourth universe many years earlier. (AUDIO: Quinnis) However, she left it behind along with the rest of her possessions when the Doctor locked her out of the TARDIS. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
The Blitzen fish ruins the Thal cloak which Alydon had given Susan on Skaro. (TV: The Daleks)
The Fledershrews had resided in the TARDIS since at least the Doctor's previous incarnation. (AUDIO: Black and White)

External links

Official Relative Dimensions page at bigfinish.com
Relative Dimensions at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
DisContinuity for Relative Dimensions at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide

Tardis

Relative Dimensions (audio story)

Contents