The Shadow of the Scourge

The Shadow of the Scourge

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Lisa Bowerman (Bernice), Michael Piccarilli (Michael Pembroke), Holly King (Annie Carpenter), Caroline Burns-Cook (Mary Hughes), Lennox Greaves (Brian Hughes), Nigel Fairs (Gary Williams), Peter Trapani (Scourge Leader)

The Pinehill Crest Hotel in Kent is host to three very different events: a cross-stitch convention, an experiment in time travel and the summoning of the scourge.

The Doctor, Bernice and Ace find themselves dealing with a dead body that’s come back to life, a mystical symbol that possesses its host, and a threat from another universe that’s ready for every trick The Doctor’s got up his sleeve.

This time, has The Doctor gone too far?

• The Shadow of the Scourge was the thirteenth monthly Doctor Who audio story produced by Big Finish Productions.
  
• The Scourge require surrender papers to invade Earth.
  
• The Scourge’s voices inspire religious awe in humans, allowing them to command whomever they wish.
  
• Benny mentions two turtles, Squidgy and Speckley, which she kept when she had run away from Spacefleet Academy.
  
• This story was featured in the preview section of Doctor Who Magazine issue 296 with art by Lee Sullivan.
  
• This is Big Finish’s first Side Step, into Virgin territory, with the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice Summerfield.
  
• It is also the first time Lisa Bowerman has acted in a Doctor Who audioas Bernice Summerfield). However she had previously acted alongside Sophie Aldred in Beyond the Sun.
  
• This story was also originally released on both CD and cassette.
  
• The Pinehill Crest Hotel suites are all named after people who have reputedly been the subjects or exponents of human sacrifice.
  
• This audio drama was recorded on 29 and 30 July 2000 at the Moat Studios.
  
• Alistair Lock’s soundtrack to the story was released on CD on Music from the New Audio Adventures Volume 2, alongside the scores for two other Seventh Doctor stories, Last of the Titans and The Fires of Vulcan.
  
• Ace is pictured wearing her Spacefleet combat outfit, placing this after Deceit.
  
• Bernice mentions that Ace has been within The Doctor’s mind. (Timewyrm: Revelation)
  
• Bernice meets The Doctor’s eighth incarnation in The Dying Days.
  

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