The Emperor of Eternity (audio story)

The Emperor of Eternity was the eighth story of the fourth series in The Companion Chronicles, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Nigel Robinson, narrated by Deborah Watling and featured the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield.

Although it was not the first time either actor had been employed by Big Finish, it was the first time that the two had appeared together as their original Doctor Who characters, Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield, in an original audio drama. It was also the first time that they had done so since Fury from the Deep in 1968.

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

After colliding with a meteor in space, the TARDIS is forced to make an emergency landing on Earth. The place is China around 200 BC, during the reign of the first emperor, Qin.

When the Doctor is taken away to the Imperial City, it's up to Victoria and Jamie to save him. Their friend is now a prisoner of Qin, who intends to extract the secret of eternal life, so that he may rule the world forever...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]

The TARDIS makes an emergency landing in China after being hit by a meteor and the Doctor leaves its instruments to recalibrate. He leads Jamie and Victoria through smoke in search of shelter find that they have arrived near Shangtou, the site of a massacre. Having descended from the sacred mountain, they have to assure Xiao Fen and Guan, who claim to be a seamstress and farmer from a nearby village, that they are not gods and learn from them that the people of Xiang To were killed to prevent word spreading of the fall of the meteor ten days ago, something which was seen as a sign of the gods' displeasure towards Emperor Qin. They accept an offer of shelter from the rain, although they notice that Fen's clothing looks too expensive for a seamstress and that she and Guan both have very fine horses.

Victoria stays the the night at Fen's hut whilst the Doctor and Jamie stay at Guan's. In the morning, Fu Su and the villagers accuse the three of them of being spies or assassins and do the same when Chon, a man claiming to be a travelling monk, arrives. Victoria manages to calm the crowd, but Chon disappears when it is reported that Li Si, the Emperor's chancellor, is on his way with a number of horsemen and Jamie takes this as proof that he is indeed an assassin. Li instead commands the Doctor to assist the Emperor in procuring the Elixir of Life, as Fu Su informed him that he had been to the top of the mountain, and threatens to burn the village down if he refuses to go. The Doctor departs and Li beheads Fu Su for betraying his friends.

Fen informs Jamie and Victoria that the Doctor will be taken to Xianyang and Chon heads off in that direction on a horse, seemingly confirming Jamie's belief that he intends to assassinate the Emperor and prompting Fen to suggest that they warn the Emperor in the hopes of securing the Doctor's release. Jamie, Victoria, Fen and Guan reach the palace, enter tunnels in which Victoria finds a box of costumes and reach an arena full of soldiers, apparently ready to strike them down.

Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]

The soldiers are actually clay soldiers built to protect the Emperor in the afterlife and Victoria spots Chon passing through them. The group cross a pool of mercury on stepping stones and Fen opens a secret door to a courtyard where Victoria hears the Doctor playing his recorder. She finds him relaxing and making rice pudding as he knows that the Emperor will soon be leaving and dying elsewhere of natural causes, but Victoria tells him about Chon and they go to warn the Emperor to prevent history from being changed. Meng, a servant of Li, allows the group into the throne room and Fen attempts to kill the Emperor with Jamie's confiscated knife as she blames him for the death of her husband, who died building the Emperor's tunnels.

Victoria struggles for the knife, but Fen pushes her away and stabs the Emperor. Li has Fen executed and reveals that the dead man was a slave acting as a decoy to draw out assassins. Guan, party to the attempted assassination, tells Li what he knows of the TARDIS and its whereabouts in an attempt to prolong his life, but Li kills him and then commands the Doctor to take him to the TARDIS. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria are imprisoned when he refuses and Meng later releases them and gives them horses to escape on. They first go to the village to warn them to expect Li's wrath and then climb the mountain to the TARDIS, but Li manages to take Victoria hostage and reveals that Meng was ordered to free them so that they could be followed.

Victoria tells the Doctor to leave her so that the Emperor could not spread terror using the TARDIS, a request that the Doctor ignores. As he prepares to surrender the TARDIS, Chon arrives and reveals himself to be the Emperor, having disguised himself to mingle amongst his people and learn what had been done in his name. He has been repulsed by Li's actions, but Victoria asks him to forgive Li just as she had forgiven the demons who had killed her father and he calls an end to his quest for immortality. Thanking Victoria for giving him hope of redemption, the Emperor allows her, the Doctor and Jamie to depart in the TARDIS.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Victoria Waterfield - Deborah Watling
• Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Second Doctor
• Jamie McCrimmon
• Victoria Waterfield
• Xiao Fen
• Guan
• Fu Su
• Li Si
• Wang Fu
• Qin Shi
• Meng

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Cover Art - Alex Mallinson
• Director - Lisa Bowerman
• Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
• Music and Sound Design - Howard Carter
• Producer - David Richardson
• Script Editor - Jacqueline Rayner
• Writer - Nigel Robinson

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Victoria mentions her old house and a cook.
• The village of Shangtou was massacred on the orders of Li Si, after a meteorite knocked off course by the TARDIS crashed there.
• "Chon", actually emperor Qin Shi in disguise, claims to be a monk on a pilgrimage to the Songshan mountains.
• Li Si is the Chancellor of the Emperor.
• Fu Su thinks "Chon" has the manner of a man from Xiao, a place known for their hatred of the emperor.
• The Doctor is taken to Xianyang, the Imperial City, by Li Si, taking him across the Huai River.
• The Doctor uses his recorder.
• The Emperor will die a few days later, from natural causes.
• The Emperor previous abolished the nobility.
• Xianyang is located on the Wei River.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

• The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrive in China shortly after a large meteor has fallen to Earth where they find that an entire village has been massacred at the order of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. This is based on a real event which occurred in 211 BC. A large meteor is said to have fallen in Dongjun in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. An unknown person inscribed the words, "The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided." When the Emperor heard of this, he sent an imperial secretary to investigate this prophecy. No one would confess to doing so and, as a consequence, all the people who lived nearby were put to death.
• This audio drama was recorded on 10 November 2009 at the Moat Studios.
• This story is set between The Web of Fear and Fury from the Deep.
• This story was told from Victoria's perspective, with contributions from Jamie.
• This story is a "pure historical" featuring no science fiction elements apart from the presence of the Doctor, Jamie, Victoria and the TARDIS.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Upon learning that the time travellers are near Tibet, Jamie wonders if they shall encounter more "great hairy beasties." (TV: The Abominable Snowman)
• The First Doctor previously encountered another Chinese Emperor, Kublai Khan, in 1289. (TV: Marco Polo) He also encountered the Mandragora Helix which believed itself to be Qin Shi Huang and was also dressed as a monk. (PROSE: The Eleventh Tiger)
• Victoria tells Jamie that she has forgiven the Daleks for killing her father Edward Waterfield on Skaro. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks) She previously resisted the Master's hypnotic temptation to bring about their extinction at an early stage of their history. (PROSE: The Dark Path)
• The Fifth Doctor would later tell his companion Erimem that he delivered the Terracotta Army to Emperor Qin Shi Huang during his third incarnation. Since Jamie and Victoria discover the Terracota Army on this occasion, the Doctor seemingly did so at an earlier point in the Emperor's personal timeline. (AUDIO: No Place Like Home)
• The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble would later encounter Qin Shi Huang. (COMIC: The Immortal Emperor)

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

• Official The Emperor of Eternity page at bigfinish.com
• The Emperor of Eternity at the Doctor Who Reference Guide