Tardis

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Tardis
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The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel was the forty-third Bernice Summerfield audio story released by Big Finish Productions. It was the third story of the ninth season and featured Straxus, a Time Lord who appeared in several Doctor Who audio adventures. It was also notable for incorporating elements original to the Faction Paradox series, principally the Cwejen, introduced in The Book of the War.

Publisher's summary[]

Diverted to Victorian London by persons or powers unknown, twenty seventh century archaeologist, adventuress and inadvertent absent mother Bernice Summerfield finds herself beset with problems of a kind that those unused to time-travel could barely even imagine.

What are the plans of the mysterious Lord Straxus? Who is Ludvig Cooray and what has the number seven to do with all this? Can Bernice acquire the help of Mycroft Holmes, the cleverest man of the age, and more importantly how is she going to get home?

Plot[]

Travelling back to her spaceship using her Time Ring, Benny unexpectedly finds herself in Regent's Park Zoo in 1893 with her Time Ring no longer functioning and lies her way into the Diogenes Club to employ Mycroft Holmes's help, Sherlock supposedly having died at the Reichenbach Falls and Watson on holiday with his wife, Mary. He knows of her as he has read the unpublished copy of Watson's The All-Consuming Fire and deduces her identity based on her manner of speaking, her strange clothes, vocabulary and attitude and her mention of Menaxus, so he agrees to help her and lets her stay at his home.

Benny decides to attract the attention of those who monitor time by changing it and, in the meantime, accompanies Mycroft to the mortuary, learning that there has been a series of murders all involving the number 7 but otherwise apparently unconnected. Having previously thought that he might be inventing a pattern where there was not one, he has now received a visiting card containing only the word "seven" written in different languages and in both Arabic and Roman numerals. Benny recognises the corpse as that of the zookeeper at Regent's Park. Over the next few days, they solve cases together and are watched by Straxus and Septimus.

Mycroft explains to Benny that Straxus runs Straxus Imperial, which auctions off antiquities, and that he has been keeping an eye on him in Sherlock's absence given his possible criminal connections and likely involvement in the disappearance of a German aristocrat in Ceylon. Unbeknownst to the two of them, Straxus is an extraterrestrial with a malfunctioning Time Ring which has drawn Benny here, trapping her with a consular lock, so that he and Septimus might escape, having been stranded for some time. Septimus is able to use Straxus's ring to steal Benny's as she sleeps, but it does not work and Straxus takes it apart to find out what is wrong, coming to the conclusion that there might be a genetic lock. Benny soon becomes aware of the theft.

Septimus knocks out Benny, who mistakes him for Chris Cwej, and takes her to Straxus at the Langham Hotel. She realises that Straxus is a "lord of the temporal variety" and learns that Septimus is actually one of the Cwejen, being one of the seven clones of a seventh clone of Chris. Brother Seven, the only other surviving member of the seven clones, brings Mycroft in at gunpoint and the two Cwejen impale Straxus, revealing that they revere the Pale God Mr Seven, a figure from Chris's memories, and have been committing the recent murders to attract his attention. By making Mycroft process the matter whilst in contact with Benny, space and time have been subtly transformed by quantum mnemonics and they will soon destroy London with a bomb so that Mr Seven will come to rescue them.

Straxus replaces his body and deactivates the Cwejen with the code word "fidelio". Benny finds the bomb in a box with Mycroft's help and uses the now-charged Time Ring to throw it into the sea, after which she finds herself in a bubble in the Vortex with Straxus, who has his old face. He explains that he is from a point prior to his face changing, that he noticed the changes to time being made and that he saved her life by pulling her from her time stream before the bomb's explosion to avoid further changes. His next incarnation is locked up and the two Cwejen awaiting dissection to ensure no others go insane as they did. Straxus gives Benny a new Time Ring to keep and recommends that she makes a few "house calls" before she returns home, also assuring her that his people will do something about Braxiatel if necessary.

Benny returns to 1893 and, dressed in 19th century garb complete with a parasol, invites Mycroft to take her to dinner so that she can answer his many questions. He says that it would be a pleasure.

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