The Man From Gallifrey (audio story)

The Man From Gallifrey was the first story in the audio anthology Agents of the Vulpreen, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Andrew Smith and featured Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as Petronella Osgood, James Joyce as Josh Carter, Tracy Wiles as Jacqui McGee, Christopher Naylor as Harry Sullivan, Mark Bonnar as the Eleven and introduced Chris Lew Kum Hoi as Jimmy Tan.
== Publisher's summary ==
As Osgood works flat out to rescue a lost friend, Kate is at a demonstration of a new UK spaceship, the Starseeker. There she meets two people.
Lieutenant Jimmy Tan looks like potential UNIT material, and the stranger called Hasper knows a lot about UNIT and the Eleven. He should – he's the Celestial Intervention Agency operative who sent the Eleven through the Arch millions of years ago.
== Plot ==
On prehistoric Earth, the Eleven is caught by Hasper of the Celestial Intervention Agency in a gully filling with lava and given the choice of dying or passing through the Arch to be reunited with the Vulpreen. He chooses the latter and, after he disappears, the Arch is submerged in lava.
Three months after the Eleven's capture by UNIT, Harry performs his weekly medical examination and Kate asks him once again if he will help save Jacqui. He claims to have built the Arch and refuses to help repair it without being given his freedom, but Kate insists that she will make no deals with him and that he will soon be moved to Parkhurst. Assisted by Josh, Osgood analyses the Arch under an electron microscope.
Jacqui is visited by Inquisitor Orgus, who delivers Lord Varliss's apologies for how she has been treated since Valariss's death. She has been educated in the history of the Vulpreen and knows that they have been cut off from their homeworld, Vulpra, and seek a new planet. She agrees to help them achieve this. Orgus reports to Varliss that Jacqui has successfully been reeducated and has given them valuable information on Earth and UNIT.
Kate attends the United Kingdom Space Agency's conference where it is claimed that the Starseeker, due to be launched in a few months, will reach the edge of the solar system in less than a week. She meets Jimmy Tan, the Ministry of Defence's sceptical liaison officer, and the mysterious Hasper. Upon learning that the Starseeker is to be powered using sympathetic resonance, she calls Osgood, who tells her to stop the demonstration. The director says that it is too late and the engine goes critical, but Hasper saves himself, Kate and Jimmy with his utility gauntlet's energy field.
At UNIT HQ, Kate leaves Josh with Jimmy whilst she speaks with Hasper, who was sent by the High Council and warns her of the cruel and intelligent Vulpreen. He realigns the Arch's circuits using a temporal modulator but says that, to repair the Arch fully and rescue Jacqui, they will need the Eleven's help. Kate has Josh and Jimmy guard the Eleven whilst he works on it, but Hasper reveals that his plan was to get the Eleven and the Arch together so that he can teleport them both away to the Zero Room in his Battle TARDIS. He does so, accidentally taking Osgood and Jimmy with him as well.
Hasper turned off his TARDIS's power in order to allow the Arch to get on board safely. He now reactivates it, but it will take an hour or so for power to be fully restored, after which he will be able to seal the Eleven in a stasis field. He explains to Osgood and Jimmy that the Time Lords trapped the Vulpreen in the Void World, a Gallifreyan prison, and that his TARDIS is currently in a series of underground tunnels. Osgood drops and crushes a sample of the Arch in the tunnels, making a signal which Josh detects and informs Kate of.
The TARDIS is endangered after the Eleven operates the controls and causes a power surge in the Zero Room, powering up the Arch and allowing Jacqui and Orgus to pass through. They split up and Jacqui releases the Eleven from his stasis field before leaving the TARDIS with him. Kate, Josh and their team arrive and Jacqui pretends to be a hostage, returning to the TARDIS with the Eleven and knocking out Hasper when he tries to save her. The Eleven creates an artron feedback loop to destroy the ship and uses Hasper's gauntlet to teleport himself and the Arch away.
Kate shoots Orgus to save Osgood and Jimmy and is forced to leave with them, Josh and Jacqui before the ship is destroyed. Hasper, unable to get out of the Zero Room due to the artron energy, is killed. Jacqui is taken to Harry and Jimmy sworn to secrecy regarding his experiences. Kate offers Jimmy a temporary attachment at UNIT with the possibility of it becoming permanent after six months; he accepts.
== Cast ==
* Kate Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
* Osgood - Ingrid Oliver
* Captain Josh Carter - James Joyce
* Lt Jimmy Tan - Chris Lew Kum Hoi
* The Eleven - Mark Bonnar
* Jacqui McGee - Tracy Wiles
* Hasper - Glen McCready
* Orgus - David Holt
* Lt Harry Sullivan - Christopher Naylor
* Varliss - Alisdair Simpson
=== Uncredited ===
* Director - David Holt (BFX: The Man From Gallifrey)
== Worldbuilding ==
* Harper uses a staser. He gives one to Jimmy.
* Hasper uses a utility gauntlet. It can create a personal energy field.
* Kate recognises the Two and the Five.
* The Eleven is to be moved to Parkhurst.
* Josh fetches a laser scalpel.
* Osgood uses an electron microscope.
* The Vulpreen come from Vulpra.
* Hasper claims to have visited Buckingham Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and the National Gallery, including the Under Gallery.
* The Starseeker uses sympathetic resonance.
* Hasper mentions the Doctor.
* Josh gives Jimmy a mug of tea.
* Jimmy had distinguished service in the Parachute Regiment and Special Forces.
* Hasper says that he is a troubleshooter.
* The High Council of Time Lords detected the Arch being activated once again and sent Hasper to investigate.
* Hasper uses a temporal modulator.
* Jimmy's mother and father came to the United Kingdom from Hong Kong in the 1980s. His father set up a print shop where Jimmy worked for a few years after school before joining the British Army. His father was proud, but his mother took some time to come around to it.
* Every Zero Room has a power feed behind a roundel.
== Notes ==
* Jimmy Tan was originally intended to be a new recruit. The earliest scenes were originally of Kate showing him around UNIT HQ at the Tower of London, but John Dorney gave Andrew Smith a note to provide him with more backstory, resulting in him being changed to a regular soldier who joins later in the story. (BFX: The Man From Gallifrey)
== Continuity ==
* Osgood mentions the molecular scanner in Edinburgh. (AUDIO: The Enemy Beyond)
== External links ==
Category:Agents of the Vulpreen audio stories
Category:Time Lord audio stories
Category:Stories set in the distant past