Zagreus was the fiftieth monthly Doctor Who audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. To celebrate this story being Big Finish's fiftieth release and the 40th anniversary, the cast includes every single performer of a Doctor Who companion and Doctor to have worked with Big Finish at the time of production. Most perform roles different from their usual ones. As a result, this was the first audio story where Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann all appear together. To date, the only other audio dramas in which all four actors have appeared are AUDIO: The Four Doctors, which was released in 2010, and The Light at the End, which was released in 2013. Tom Baker appeared with them in the latter story.
Publisher's summary
Illustrated preview from DWM 340 by Roger Langridge.
FOUR DOCTORS - ONE DESTINY
Zagreus sits inside your head.
Zagreus lives among the dead…
Zagreus sees you in your bed
And eats you when you're sleeping.
Plot
to be added
Cast
- Reverend Matthew Townsend – Peter Davison
- Lord Tepesh – Colin Baker
- Walton Winkle – Sylvester McCoy
- Zagreus - Paul McGann
- Charley Pollard - India Fisher
- Romana – Lalla Ward
- Leela – Louise Jameson
- Rassilon - Don Warrington
- The TARDIS/Brigadier Image - Nicholas Courtney
- The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
- Lady Louisa Pollard – Anneke Wills
- Receptionist – Stephen Perring
- Miss Lime - Elisabeth Sladen
- The Cat - Conrad Westmaas
- Captain McDonnell - Mark Strickson
- Miss Foster – Sarah Sutton
- Stone/Ouida – Nicola Bryant
- Mary Elson - Caroline Morris
- The Great Mother – Maggie Stables
- Cassandra/Goldilocks - Bonnie Langford
- The Recorder - Robert Jezek
- Corporal Heron – Stephen Fewell
- Captain Duck – Sophie Aldred
- Sergeant Gazelle – Lisa Bowerman
- Cardinal Braxiatel – Miles Richardson
- K9 – John Leeson
Cast notes
- The Big Finish website does not credit Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor.
References
Culture
- Charley encounters a Jabberwock, and quotes long passages of Jabberwocky.
- The background of Zagreus is explored.
Species
- The Divergence are a race that Rassilon locked away.
Individuals
Locations
- Romana and Leela journey to the Dark Tower in the Death Zone on Gallifrey.
TARDIS
- The TARDIS is jealous of the Doctor and Charley's friendship.
Timeline
- When the TARDIS "disappears," K9 scans for its presence in the Humanian Era, the Peon Era, the Morestran Era and the Sumaran Era.
Notes
- This is Doctor Who's 40th anniversary story and Big Finish's 50th regular release. To celebrate, the cast includes every single performer of a Doctor Who companion and Doctor to have worked with Big Finish at the time of production. Most perform roles different to their usual ones.
- Jon Pertwee's voice is taken from a fan production, Devious, which featured Pertwee in a regeneration sequence. A twelve-minute excerpt from the unfinished film was released on DVD by BBC Video in 2009 as a bonus feature with TV: The War Games.
- To date, this story marks the only full appearances of Leela, K9 and Irving Braxiatel in the main range of Doctor Who audio dramas, notwithstanding Braxiatel's brief "off-screen" cameo in AUDIO: The 100 Days of the Doctor. Furthermore, it marks the first appearances of both Leela and K9 in a Big Finish audio drama.
- Along with AUDIO: The Four Doctors and AUDIO: The Light at the End, this is one of only three Big Finish audio dramas in which Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann all appear. Davison, Baker and McCoy all previously appeared in AUDIO: The Sirens of Time. Baker and McCoy also appear in AUDIO: Project: Lazarus, AUDIO: The Wormery and AUDIO: Thicker than Water together. McCoy and McGann appear in AUDIO: Klein's Story.
- Peter Davison, Paul McGann, Nicholas Courtney and India Fisher are the only actors to appear in all three segments of the story (Wonderland, Heartland and Wasteland).
- This story marks the only appearance of Elisabeth Sladen in the main range prior to her death on 19 April 2011, and her only audio appearance with a Doctor for Big Finish; Sladen more prominently featured in the Sarah Jane Smith audio series.
- This audio drama was recorded on 15, 22, 26 and 28 August, and 2 and 5 September 2003 at The Moat Studios.
- One timeline the Doctor mentions is one where he plucked out one of his hearts, which is an inaccurate depiction of the events of PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, as it is Sabbath who plucks out one of the Doctor's hearts.
- The Sixth Doctor mentions that he never got to Blackpool. This is a reference to a planned but ultimately unmade televised story The Nightmare Fair. At the time, Big Finish Productions did not consider either that lost story or its novelisation to be canonical. However, they would eventually produce an audio adaption of that story in 2009.
- The Doctor mentions a timeline where Time Lords had tremendous mind powers, supposedly a reference to the webcast Death Comes to Time. However, according to site policy, this wiki sets Death Comes to Time outside our bounds as an in-universe source.
- A half hour making of documentary was released on Living Legend with DWM 337 the same month to promote the story.
- This is one of the few Big Finish releases to use digipak style packaging to accomodate for the third disk; this was also used for The Settling to accomodate for a bonus promotional disk.
Continuity
- Zagreus was first mentioned in AUDIO: Project: Twilight.
- Charley recognises Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart from their encounter in Malebolgia in 2003. (AUDIO: Minuet in Hell)
- Romana has met the Brigadier before. (PROSE: Heart of TARDIS)
- When he is trying to remember the name of the TARDIS, the Doctor calls it "Bessie". (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians, et. al)
- Ace read the copy of Through the Looking-Glass in the TARDIS. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)
- The simulation depicting the 1950s shows Project Dionysus, strongly implying it is a project of the Forge, since Professor Stone used the phrase, "For King and Country." (AUDIO: Project: Twilight, AUDIO: Project: Lazarus, AUDIO: Project: Destiny)
- The Brigadier mentions that "we're little more than a product of a lifetime's memories, Time Lords even more so." This is similar to Fifth Doctor's expression "A man is the sum of his memory you know, a Time Lord even more so." used on the Eye of Orion. (TV: The Five Doctors)
- When the Doctor is looking for Charley, he says "Yssgaroth curse you." (PROSE: The Pit)
- Charley mentions that the Doctor escaped from Colditz Castle in October 1944. (AUDIO: Colditz)
- In her personal timeline, Leela's next encounter with the Doctor would occur when she encountered an alternative version of the Sixth Doctor known as the Burner Doctor on the Gallifrey of an alternative timeline. (AUDIO: Disassembled)
- The Doctor mentions a timeline where he stood on the planet Oblivion. (COMIC: Oblivion)
- Reverend Townsend's successor as the Cardington airbase's chaplain was Simon Murchford, who decided to become an Anglican minister to assuage the survivor's guilt which he suffered after the crash of the British airship R101 on 5 October 1930. The R101 had been launched from Cardington. (AUDIO: Storm Warning, AUDIO: The Next Life)
- The Doctor mentions that he has met Grigori Rasputin. He encountered him for the first time in Zarechny, Siberia in 1903 during his first incarnation in the company of his granddaughter Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. (AUDIO: The Wanderer) Subsequently, during his third incarnation, he, Liz Shaw and Jo Grant became involved in the events surrounding Rasputin's murder at the hands of Prince Felix Yusupov and his co-conspirators Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Vladimir Purishkevich in the Moika Palacein St Petersburg in December 1916. (PROSE: The Wages of Sin)
- The Doctor claims that he was once accused of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963. During his ninth incarnation, he would witness the assassination in person. (TV: Rose)
- The Doctor recalls his encounter with Dr. John Polidori in the Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva in Switzerland in June 1816. On that occasion, he also met his future companion Mary Shelley for the first time. (AUDIO: Mary's Story)
- Leela and Charley previously met aboard the Fourth Doctor's TARDIS in an alternative timeline. However, they both lost all memory of this encounter when the proper timeline was restored. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
- The Fifth Doctor's comment; "I very much fear that the moment's not been prepared for." is a reference to the Fourth Doctor's last words. (TV: Logopolis)
- There is a reference to the Gallifreyan nursery rhyme about the entrance of the Tower of Rassilon - "above, between and bellow". (TV: The Five Doctors)
- Reverend Matthew Townsend says "There should have been another way" quoting the Fifth Doctor. (TV: Warriors of the Deep)
- He also says "Is this death?" twice througout the story, quoting the Fifth Doctor's last words. (TV: The Caves of Androzani)
- Walton Winkle says "If we fight like animals, we'll die like animals" quoting the Seventh Doctor. (TV: Survival)
External links
- Official Zagreus page at bigfinish.com; note that it is out of print and is available as download only.
- Zagreus at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for Zagreus at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
