The Secret History
The Secret History
Peter Davison (The Doctor), Peter Purves (Steven), Maureen O Brien (Vicki), Lysette Anthony (Sophia), Sarah Woodward (Theodora), Tony Millan (Procopius, Yazid), Giles Watling (Belisarius), Tim Wallers (Justinian)
The TARDIS brings The Doctor, Steven and Vicki to the Italian city of Ravenna in the year 540 – besieged by the army of the celebrated Byzantine general Belisarius. Caught up in the fighting, Steven ends up on a boat bound for Constantinople, the heart of the Roman Empire.
Rescuing Steven, however, is the least of the Doctor’s problems – because he shouldn’t be mixed up in this particular adventure at all. Someone has sabotaged his own personal timeline, putting him in the place of his <<, a href=">First incarnation… but who, and why? The truth is about to be revealed – but at what cost to all of the Doctors, and to the whole future history of the planet Earth?
Written by: Eddie Robson
Directed by: Barnaby Edwards
coming soon
- The Secret History was the 200th Big Finish Release
- The Doctor refers to when he told Vicki to give Barbara Wright another chance after Barbara shot Sandy on Dido in 2493 (The Rescue) and their trip to Rome in July 64 and Ascaris’ attempt to assassinate them. (The Romans)
- The Doctor tells Vicki that he cannot change history, because if he did the Roman Empire may survive to her day. His fourth incarnation encountered an alternative Roman Empire in the 1970s. (The Iron Legion)
- The Doctor is surprised that he is the only one with a TARDIS key and says that Vicki and Steven should have keys of their own. In fact, Steven would soon be given his own key. (The Empire of Glass) This Doctor gave keys to at least three companions. (Hexagora, Fascination)
- At The Doctor’s suggestion, Procopius tells Vicki about the siege of Carthage. Later in her personal timeline, Vicki and her husband Troilus would settle in Carthage at some point prior to 1164 BC. (Frostfire)
- Steven does not recognise The Monk as he has regenerated since his previous encounter with him in Northumbria in 1066. (The Time Meddler)
- The Monk refers to the First Doctor stealing his TARDIS’ dimensional control (The Time Meddler) and stranding him on an ice planet. (The Daleks’ Master Plan)
- The Monk has decided to intervene in The Doctor’s past to remove him from existence, because through The Doctor, he lost someone very, very dear to him. The Monk expresses his anger towards The Doctor for what happened, furious The Doctor said it was his fault. The Doctor points out that this has not happened yet in his personal timeline. (To the Death)
- The Monk decided to intervene in certain points in The Doctor’s life in the process of returning to his first incarnation (The Defectors, Last of the Cybermen) and take control of his timestream, removing The Doctor from existence so then he could take The Doctor’s place in order to make the universe better. The Great Intelligence would later attempt a similar scheme. (The Name of the Doctor)
- The Monk believes the First Doctor would have done nothing to alter history. (The Aztecs)
- Steven would meet the Fifth Doctor again in an alternative Death Zone. (The Five Companions)
- The Fifth Doctor previously visited Ravenna in the year 493 with Tegan Jovanka. (Goths and Robbers)