Casulties of Time

Casulties of Time

Tom Baker (The Doctor), Lalla Ward (Romana), John Leeson (K9/The Oortag), Jane Slavin (The Laan/Salonu), David Warner (Cuthbert), Toby Hadoke (Mr Dorrick), David Troughton (The Black Guardian/Edge), Jez Fielder (Drudger/Ecidien Cerebus Bird/The White Guardian/Salonu Prime)

The TARDIS crew have unknowingly become embroiled in a web of deceit. A trap has been laid across time and they have no possible means of escape. Destiny has ensnared them.

The Doctor is finally getting the chance to see the Conglomerate’s work at first hand. Romana is working to save the alien Laan once and for all. K9 is returning to Ancient Britain in search of an unusual power source.

The Doctor, Romana and K9.

Today one of them will die.

Note: This adventure continues from Doctor Who: The Pursuit of History

Written by: Nicholas Briggs
Directed by: Nicholas Briggs

• Casualties of Time was the eighth story in the fifth series of Fourth Doctor Adventures and the second part of the series finale.
  
• The Oceanic States and the Asiatic States are the two major power blocs on Earth. By AD 2071, their war is at a stalemate, and is on the front of the emerging united Earth government, which will have an Earth presidency.
  
• The new Conglom-AIs can process information a thousand times faster than the speed of thought, and are made from the super-conductive alloy tritonium, which came from the Salonu ship.
  
• The Oortag Leader explains that all Oortag are named “Oortag.”
  
• The Conglom-AI creates an avatar of Romana within the time engine to keep her safe while she’s in the Time Analysis Chamber, or T.A.C.
  
• The avatars created are of a being as it is now: if it copies the Laan in their weakened-state, the avatars will be weak as well.
  
• The Iron Age was characterised by the large adoption of iron and steel.
  
• Cuthbert uses a bazooka to fire at the Salonu ship.
  – He says that history always has it’s casualties.
  
• Nitrogen conversion sucks up all the nitrogen in the immediate area into a spaceship’s reactor, leaving the atmosphere oxygen-rich, making it highly flammable.
  
• K9 tries to explain to the Salonu that their conversion will damage the timelines.
  
• The Black Guardian is, as The Doctor puts it, well-informed but unwilling to act, and wants to unleash chaos in the timelines.
  
• Paradoxes can be caused by freak time eddies and meddling time travellers.
  
• The Black Guardian travelled back along The Doctor’s timeline to exact his revenge.
  
• Cuthbert is a construct inserted into spacetime and merely exists in a causal loop, creating his own history. As such, he has no childhood, and cannot remember his father, mother, or where he grew up. He is a paradox, with no beginning and no end.
  
• The Black Guardian designed him as a trap for The Doctor.
  
• Although Cuthbert is unable to bring the Salonu ship down, it loses power and crashes anyway, preserving history. The Doctor describes it as “Time itself” healing the wound, but later wonders if it wasn’t the The White Guardian doing his own interfering, as the ship crashing is an established part of history and forms the centre of a temporal anomaly.
  
• The avatar of the Fourth Doctor releases the Laan from the time engine, their own time energy restoring them.
  
• The Doctor is aware of the Ecidien Cerebus Bird, but his mind wants to forget it. The Bird keeps a back up of his mind.
  
• There are two major power blocs on Earth in the late 21st century. (Warriors of the Deep)
  
• Romana explains that because he’s been travelling in time longer than her, The Doctor’s artron energy would be much stronger. (The Deadly Assassin)
  
• The Black Guardian again shows carelessness for a few lives compared to the majority. (The Armageddon Factor)
  – He cannot be seen to act in person. (Mawdryn Undead)
  – He claims that the time travellers’ attempts to elude him had no effect, (The Auntie Matter, Wave of Destruction) and that he’s been watching them. (The Well-Mannered War)
  
• The Ecidien Cerebus Bird says “the time is approaching” and drags The Doctor into the TARDIS. (The Pursuit of History)
  
• The Doctor explains the Bird is connected to the telepathic circuits, (The Time Monster) and has access to his symbiotic nuclei. (The Two Doctors)