Iris Wildthyme and the Panda Invasion (audio story)

Iris Wildthyme and the Panda Invasion was the sixth release in the Iris Wildthyme audio series. It was the fourth story in the second season. It was written by Mark Magrs.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

San Francisco, New Year's Eve, 1999

She's back, and it's about...gin!

When an unconscious Iris Wildthyme is rushed into a San Francisco hospital on New Year's Eve 1999, hunky doctor George Strangeways' life is turned upside down.

As the world prepares to party its way into the next millennium, a space time rift opens above the Golden Gate Bridge — where an old fashioned London bus has appeared... As the rift spills untold horrors from other dimensions into our world, Iris has just one question: where the 'eck is Panda?!

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Iris Wildthyme - Katy Manning
• Panda - David Benson
• Lionel Pandeau - Toby Longworth
• George Strangeways - Seán Carlsen

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

• By spilling gin into the bus's controls and out into the space time vortex, alternate realities are opened.
• Iris Wildthyme has two livers.
• Frustrated, Panda wishes that he asked for an iPod instead of a trip to San Francisco.
• Iris claimed that the last time that she was in San Francisco, she brought two humpback whales back to the future in order to save Earth.
• Iris once shared breakfast with Abraham Lincoln on the White House lawn in the 1860s after saving the United States from "Martian invaders" for the third time. She told George Strangeways that they had "such a laugh." She also met Napoléon Bonaparte on the Russian front in 1812 and claimed that, in spite of what the history books said, he was "anything but small."
• The bus ends up parked on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Iris claims that the last time that she was called "madam" was in 1872.
• Iris knows how to fly a helicopter.
• Lionel Pandeau is a wine critic.
• Steven is Iris' grandson.
• When Lionel Pandeau told Panda to think of the possibilities of a multiverse of Pandas, Panda sardonically replied that there could be a Traffic Cop Panda, Native American Panda, and a Construction Worker Panda. He finished by rhetorically asking if Pandeau was forming a disco troupe.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

• This story is a loving homage to the Doctor Who TV movie.
• Iris' claim to have travelled back in time with the intention of bringing humpback whales to the future in order to save the world is a reference to the plot of the Star Trek film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
• This audio drama was recorded on 25 May 2008.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

• On the same night, 31 December 1999, the Eighth Doctor, having recently regenerated, stopped the Master from stealing his body and destroying the Earth, with Grace's help, as depicted in TV: Doctor Who ^[+]Loading...["Doctor Who (TV story)"]. Several of the events in this story call back to those of the TV Movie:
  • The news broadcast heard immediately after Iris and Panda arrive in 1999 refers to the activation of the beryllium atomic clock at the Institute for Technological Advancement and Research which is to take place later that night. A later news broadcast reports that the police are investigating the disappearance of fancy dress costumes from a local hospital. These are both events that are shown in the TV Movie.
  • The doctors on staff are puzzled by the two livers that show up on Iris' X-rays, just as Dr Grace Holloway was perplexed by the Doctor's binary vascular system in the movie.

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Official The Panda Invasion page at bigfinish.com
• Panda Invasion at the Doctor Who Reference Guide