Year of the Pig

Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Adjoa Andoh (Nurse Albertine), Paul Brooke (Toby the Sapient Pig), Michael Keating (Inspector Chardalot), Maureen O’Brien (Miss Alice Bultitude)

Ostend, 1913. War is coming. A war in which millions will die. And the guest in suite 139 of the Hotel Palace Thermae knows it. Which is odd, considering he has trotters, a snout and a lovely curly tail.

Toby the Sapient Pig is a swine on the run. Two peculiar strangers have been hunting him across Europe. The first, Miss Alice Bultitude, is an Englishwoman and collectorof obscure theatrical ephemera. The second, Inspector Alphonse Chardalot, is a celebrated member of the detective police – the man who brought the trunk murderess of St Germain to justice.

This was supposed to be a reading week for The Doctor and Peri. Now they must do battle with a villain who wants to wipe every last human from the face of the earth – once he’s had just another dish of truffles. And maybe a valedictory glass of fizzy lemonade.

coming soon

• Year of the Pig was the ninetieth monthly Doctor Who audio story produced by Big Finish Productions.
  
• The Doctor recalls Peri’s transformation into an avian lifeform on Varos in the late 23rd century. (Vengeance on Varos)
  
• The Doctor threatens to tell Peri the story about “The Giant Rat of the River Fleet.” (The Talons of Weng Chiang)
  
• The Doctor opines on the reading habits of some of his previous incarnations. He calls the First Doctor the “real Francophile” (The Reign of Terror) and a person who, like him, had a great appreciation for books – but not much time to do it, considering the mire beasts (The Chase) and Moroks (The Space Museum) that he had to face. the Third Doctor, he claims, was inclined to be “more interested in axle grease and looking in the mirror ” than in reading great literature. Of his immediate predecessor, he says that “he preferred cricket and fizzy lemonade to reading.” The Doctor then expresses relief that he has finally found a persona temperamentally suited to reading Proust.
  
• Peri says that she is going to shop for a postcard to send to H. G. Wells. (Timelash)
  
• The Doctor tells Peri that his fifth incarnation“was fond of a Boy’s Own adventure about an aristocrat who yomped through the Brazilian rainforests, depriving the natives of theirorchids.” (Black Orchid)
  
• The Doctor mentions that he has met the “odd anthropomorphic slug.” (The Twin Dilemma)