The Silver Turk is the first story in the 2011 Eighth Doctor audio trilogy. The story marks the first appearance of the Eighth Doctor in the Big Finish monthly range since AUDIO: The Company of Friends in 2009. However, an alternative version of the Eighth Doctor appeared in AUDIO: Klein's Story in the interim.
Publisher's summary
Roll up! Roll up! To the great Viennese Exposition, where showman Stahlbaum will show you his most wonderful creation, the Silver Turk — a mechanical marvel that will not only play for you the fortepiano, the spinet and the flute, it will play you at the gaming table too!
But when the Doctor brings his new travelling companion Mary Shelley to nineteenth-century Vienna, he soon identifies the incredible Turk as one of his deadliest enemies — a part-machine Cyberman.
And that’s not even the worst of the horrors at large in the city…
Plot
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Paul McGann
- Mary Shelley - Julie Cox
- Dr Johan Drossel - Gareth Armstrong
- Alfred Stahlbaum - Christian Brassington
- Ernst Bratfisch - David Schneider
- Count Rolf Wittenmeier - Gwilym Lee
- Countess Mitzi Wittenmeier - Claire Wyatt
- The Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs
References
The Doctor
- The Doctor tells Mary that her books "scared the pants off" him.
- Mary breaks the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. The Doctor is indifferent as the TARDIS has a room full of them.
History
- Both Bratfisch and Countess Wittenmeier mention the economic problems besetting Austria as a result of "the Crash." This refers to the Long Depression.
Individuals
- Once the fact that she is more than half a century in her personal future sinks in, Mary begins to consider how old she would be in September 1873 and the fates of her family and friends. She later notes that she would be seventy-six years old by this time.
- Mary's husband Percy Shelley invested in the Turk prior to 1816.
- The Doctor attempts to pick up Samson and Gemma Griffin in Vienna, having left them there in June 1816.
- The Doctor has met Ludwig van Beethoven, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary and his wife Empress Elisabeth of Bavaria, whom he refers to as "Cissy."
- Mary has hazel eyes, flecked with green.
- Mary carries a knife for sharpening her pencil and smelling salts.
- Stahblaum and Mitzi use the Doctor puppet for their shows. They call him "the Silver Doctor".
Literature
- Mary is unfamilar with the term "science fiction".
Species
- The Doctor refers to the Cyberman as "one of the Mondas originals."
Planets
- Mondas is located 200 light-years from Earth.
Notes
- The Turk existed in the real world. It was a man masquerading as a robot and also served as inspiration for the Clockwork Droids from TV: The Girl in the Fireplace.
- This is the first full length Eighth Doctor story to be released in the main range since AUDIO: The Girl Who Never Was in December 2007 and the first such story not to feature Charley Pollard.
- This is the first Cyberman story to be released by Big Finish in any range since AUDIO: Legend of the Cybermen in June 2010.
- Some elements of this story, especially the second part, have many similarities with the novel Frankenstein.
- This audio drama was recorded on 5 and 11 April 2011.
Continuity
- This story begins only an hour after the events of AUDIO: Mary's Story from the Doctor and Mary's perspective. The Doctor initially believes that they have not left June 1816.
- The Doctor tells Mary that he witnessed the creation of the Cybermen on Mondas. (AUDIO: Spare Parts)
- Mary is unfamiliar with the term "science fiction". The term was created by H. G. Wells, another 19th century author, who accompanied the Sixth Doctor on a trip from Scotland in 1885 to Karfel. (TV: Timelash)
- The Doctor refers to Draconian sazou. (AUDIO: Paper Cuts)
- The future Eighth Doctor previously told Mary that they had encountered the Cybermen during their travels together. (AUDIO: Mary's Story)
- Mary feels pity for the deteriorated condition of the Cybermen as she did for the Doctor in Mary's Story. This also resembles how Rose Tyler felt pity for the deteriorated Dalek in the Vault in 2012. (TV: Dalek)
External links
- Official The Silver Turk page at bigfinish.com
- The Silver Turk at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for The Silver Turk at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
