An Alien Werewolf in London (audio story)

was the two hundred and fifty second story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Alan Barnes and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Jessica Martin as Mags, and Sophie Aldred as Ace.
== Publisher's summary ==
A space-time summons brings the TARDIS to the strangest place Mags has yet visited. A haven for the freakiest freaks and the weirdest weirdoes: Camden Lock, London, in the early 1990s.
But there's a reason why former TARDIS traveller Ace has brought the old gang back together. She's on a mission to rescue an alien being, held prisoner in a massive mansion...
A mission that can't possibly go wrong. Can it?
== Plot ==
=== Part 1 ===
The Doctor and Mags arrive in Camden market in the 1990s. There they meet Ace who tells them to come with her to a pub in order to meet and Australian named Rufus to discuss a recent alien citing she's been informed about by him. Rufus reveals that after a series of accidents, he ended up in an underground Mausoleum. He found and caught a glimpse an alien which he describes in detail as being anchored to the wall like a prisoner. The conversation he overheard was the alien expressing her shame at being ugly to Rohesia, who informs the alien that she will help her become beautiful but the alien laments that her beauty will fade while Rohesia will stay beautiful. Rohsia seems unconcerned and walks away. The alien meets Rufus and gives him instructions on how to contact a certain Time Lord. He subconsciously knew to follow Ace, the Doctor surmises because the alien allowed him to detect the Artron energy on her, and tell her everything that had happened which brings them to their present situation. Meanwhile Ace shows them that she has prepared a plan of attack to save the alien tonight, much to the Doctor's discretion and annoyance. They take off to carry out the plan after Rufus gets them another round of drinks.
Once they arrive, the Doctor changes Ace's plans, revealing he has done some research himself before they arrived and knows a fair but more about how to go about the operation than Ace does, explaining the many flaw's in Ace's painstakingly thought-out plan, much to her own frustration. She laments, and they follow the Doctor's orders, who tells them to stop a car carrying a comedian that is about to arrive.
Rohesia goes to pick up the evening guest as Raymond prepares to address the family dinner crowd on stage. He announces that the final act has not arrived and the crowd is upset. However, the Doctor presents himself to the stage, offering himself as an "alternative" comedian doing balloon animals and playing spoons. Meanwhile Ace and Mags prepare to sneak in but are caught by Rohesia who orders them to get inside. The two manage to give her the slip but Mags says that she gives her an uneasy feeling. They follow Rohesia.
Raymond orders the guards to take the Doctor away but he tells them he knows who they are, explaining the origin of their family name "Feratu" as it evolved into "Nosferatu", and the crowd's eyes begin to glow and they bare fangs at the Doctor. Ace tells Mags about the powerful Rohesia Ferat. Meanwhile everyone at the Ferat family gathering prepare to attack the suspicious Doctor while Rohesia pays a visit to the alien prisoner and prepares to do something to her. Rohesia next finds her car missing as Ace steals it and drives off to create a distraction while the Ferat family discover that the Doctor has vanished and Mags finds the alien prisoner and frees her, helping her to escape. Rohesia goes after Ace but realises that they are being distracted. Rohesia in a panic tells Raymond what has happened saying that the intruders have helped the Sin Eater (the alien prisoner) escape. Mags and the Sin Eater arrive at the gate but the alien warns Mags about the flood lights, which at that moment are turned on by Rohesia. Mags begins to lose control and transform into a werewolf, to the fright of the alien creature. Ace, still driving, realises no one is following her and turns around, suspecting something is wrong. Raymond, at the behest of Rohesia, shoots a Ace whom they think is a rogue waitress from the dinner party....
=== Part 2 ===
Vivid flashes of Mags transforming occur. The Doctor is cooking breakfast and Mags, awoken and startled, comes downstairs trying to understand what is going on. The Doctor explains what happened like how he escaped the vampiric clan of Feratu's through a secret passage in the dining hall which he had old the architect, Robert Smythson, to install years ago. Mags recount how she was with the alien, running from the guards and dogs and whistles and then the lights came on, she transformed and she ran to the TARDIS. The Doctor had found her in the TARDIS apparently and decided to abort the mission and brought her back to Smithwood Manor.
In the present, Mags suddenly wonders where Ace is but the Doctor assures her that Ace is fine. Ace wakes up to discover she's been captured by Rohesia and Raymond. Rufus arrives, claiming to have been given the address by Ace. The Doctor invites him into the living room to chat. Raymond and Rohesia interrogate Ace to no avail so they decide to feast on her blood instead. Mags interrupts the Doctor and Rufus' chat to tell him about a helicopter circling overhead. It is revealed Rufus is a traitor and is actually a Feratu, a race somewhere on the vampiric spectrum , but not a part of the Feratu family whom they saw last night. He also drugged their drinks in the bar with blood tackers which is how he found the Doctor's house and him. Mags is actually revealed to be the Sin Eater. The Sin Eater soaks up personalities like a sponge which is why the Feratu were holding it prisoner. The Doctor reveals that Robert Smythson made secret passages in his house which he uses to fool Rufus and he and the Sin Eater get to the TARDIS and make their escape. Rufus gets trapped in a passage, claiming he will pay the Doctor back for this.
Ace awakens in the presence of Rohesia and Raymond arrives. Ace has a sense of deja-vu and remembers that they are vampires. Realising their weakness, she pulls open a curtain to try and disintegrate them but ends up getting burned herself, having seemingly been transformed into a vampire. The Doctor decides they will go to 107 Baker Street to make a plan and says that he'll call the Sin Eater "Arthur" and decides that they need to get the edge on Rufus so they will visit some of the Doctor's friends lying in "low places" to get some information on Rufus. He surmises that they will have to wait out the tracker's influence in their blood and that Ace likely has it too, so he will attempt to figure out how to identify the tracer, that way they can find the real Mags, since the last time they saw her she was in her Vulpanan form and could be a danger to all those around. Rohesia and Raymond continue to interrogate Ace but warn her that letting the Sin Eater free was a mistake. They explain that the Sin Eater fed off their mutations which is why they always looked young and human and seemed to have such longevity as it stopped them from reverting back to their natural form, bearing fangs and having glowing eyes. They had done this to blend in to human society and over time managed to work and amass their large fortune. They swore never to hunt humans and changed their diet to acceptable animal substitutes. Ace reveals that they were misinformed by Rufus, a name which shocks Rohesia and Raymond. The two reveal that Rufus disagreed over the use of the Sin Eater believing that they should stay in their natural vampiric form. They banished him to Australia, a place constantly filled with sunlight, leaving him for 200 years hoping that he would learn from his mistake. Ace points out that if it were her, however, she'd instead be plotting revenge. Rufus explains to his henchman that he doesn't care for Ace but they'll go after and capture her to use as leverage against the Doctor and prepare to move out.
Mags awakens in St Gart's Hospital terrified and wants to find the Doctor. She asks, panic-stricken, about what happened and the doctor on duty, Dr. Vinewood, reveals she was found scratched up and covered in mud on the M25. Mags struggles to get free but is sedated and the doctor reveals that her blood is strange and may be contaminated but that he will "fix" her, laughing manically as Mags falls unconscious...
=== Part 3 ===
The Doctor and Eater Mags/Arthur watch an Australian-produced TV program "Verona Spring" on the TARDIS viewscreen where she explains that through her digging she learnt that Rufus seems to own the entire network TV station Gamma-two-five that airs it and that people watch it all the time. She explains the plot of the show to the Doctor, who is not the least bit interested. The Doctor notices that in order to receive the transmission one needs a special type of hexagonal receiver dish which he notes he has been seeing many of them installed around London lately. Rufus is informed about Mags' whereabouts at St Gart's, so he decides they'll go get her. Mags awakens screaming again from a bad dream and is greeted by Janet, an agency nurse. She can't remember who she is and appears to have amnesia. Janet tries to jog her memory to no avail. Mags stops Janet from getting the doctor and tells her about her strange dreams, which are the recent events that have just transpired. The Doctor uses Arthur/Eater Mags to try and track down the real Mags using the broadcasting dish in reverse. He reveals that they can't use the tracker in her blood given to them by Rufus as the signal given from Mags is gone (due to the hospital treatment).
Mags and Janet bond while watching the television program "Verona Springs" when suddenly the Doctor appears on the television screen but only Mags can see him. Janet thinks she's gone crazy and goes to fetch Dr. Vinewood. The Doctor uses Eater Mags/Arthur, who is connected to Mags through a psychic link, to contact her. He explains to an amnesic Mags that she isn't human, and Mags realises she's a werewolf. The psychic connection cuts before the Doctor has a chance, and wonders why the connection cut. Rufus, meanwhile, is informed about the interruption in broadcast and they find the disruption is caused by the Doctor, having captured a snippet of his broadcast to Mags. They manage to catch the first part of the address and manage to narrow it down to Baker Street. Meanwhile, Janet comes to check on Mags and finds Mags has set up the room so that she could sneak up and knock her out. She tells Mags off for this and explains that Dr. Vinewood is keeping her here to study her in pursuit of fame, thinking he's discovered a new disease which they'll name after him. She tells Mags she's going to help her escape and they hatch a plan. Rufus reveals to "head office" that they've narrowed down the location of the Doctor and head office claims it is of utmost importance they reclaim the Sin Eater. They are interrupted by one of Rufus' underlings, who explains the Doctor has been sited in a park and they immediately set out to capture and interrogate him.
Janet dresses Mags in a nurse's uniform, and plans to smuggle her out of the hospital. Janet will distract Dr. Vinewood and gives Mags her swipe-card. Mags wonders how Janet will get out without a swipe card, suspecting something else is going on. She manages to sneak out. Janet confronts Dr. Vinewood in a locked room about Mags but reveals she's actually a monster and murders him. Mags holds the lift door for Janet when she reappears and uses Dr. Vinewood's card. They are forced to go up to the roof despite Mags' warnings that she will transform at night and Janet makes a joke by referencing the song "No place to go but up", which she explains to Mags is a pop culture reference and this jogs Mags' memory of Ace. Then on the roof, Janet uses a sonic trigger to knock out the lift, and the words "anachronistic technology" float into Mags' memories, triggering more flashbacks. They then see a drone camera and Janet knocks it out, explaining to Mags her friends are on their way to pick them up. Just then the moon appears and Mags fears the worst, thinking she'll transform but nothing happens. Janet laughs and explains that when she transformed during the night they escaped (triggering another of Mags' memories), when Mags transformed she bit the Sin Eater who bit her back, absorbing her personality, transformation and taking her memories. Janet reveals, however, that she is working for Rufus and they've come to capture Mags. The helicopter arrives but it is Ace in heavy disguise to block any harmful light since she is now a vampire and she knocks Janet out using tranquillisers before she can transform back into an alien and reunites with Mags, whose memory is jogged again. Rufus hears of Janet's failure and decides to pursue another course of action. Ace explains what is going on and Rohesia and Raymond arrive, now sporting wings, having further reverted back to their original form. Mags reveals that the Doctor contacted her, despite Ace and the two thinking he disappeared with the Sin Eater. Just then the TARDIS materialises and the light burns Ace and the two while the Doctor tells Mags to get in quickly. Upon entering, she finds that the Doctor is accompanied by Rufus, and the two are now working together...
=== Part 4 ===
The Doctor explains that Rufus has him beat and so he must obey him. They dematerialise, leaving Ace behind. Just then, the Doctor appears in front of Ace and Rohesia and Raymond, surprising them. The Doctor explains that while contacting Mags they lost the connection and that their broadcast was hacked tracing it back to Rufus. The Doctor had Arthur/Sin Eater bite him to take on his appearance and memories so that they could fool Rufus while the Doctor standing before them locked himself in a cupboard in a secret floor of the hospital. He explains that because he can compartmentalise his thoughts, the Sin Eater can't take away many of his memories although he does lose quite a bit in the process and both aren't sure which is the real Doctor and which is the Sin Eater. Rufus fell for the bait and captured the other Doctor in the park yesterday. Mags asks the Doctor why he is working for Rufus and the Doctor explains that the tracker in his blood is a chemical that, on Rufus' command, could react and burn him from the inside. They meet Lex, Rufus' right hand, and manage to knock him out. They see Rufus on a studio television who is being interviewed about the grand wedding of the main characters Jimmy and Juliane occurring in the TV show Verona Springs tomorrow along with the Australian actors Jinty and Greg who play the lead characters Juliane and Jimmy, respectively, a highly anticipated event which many people will be tuning in to watch tomorrow. Mags realises that since this will be broadcast tomorrow, Rufus is telling them what is going to happen so they spy on them. Rufus reveals that Feratu have secretly been passing on genes into humans and they will use a special radiation, gamma-two-five radiation, not found on earth, to awaken the Feratu genes lying dormant in the humans, turning them into Feratu and then they will kill all the humans and take over the planet. The Doctor with Mags uses its psychic link to transfer the information they have just learnt to the Doctor with Ace, Rohesia and Raymond. He explains Rufus' plan to them.
Janet, having regained consciousness, contacts Rufus immediately and explains what the Doctor and the Sin Eater have done and informs him she's escaping, fearing she'll be staked by them. She takes off in the helicopter, leaving the Doctor and the three on the rooftop. The Doctor plans to hack the massive satellite since they're in the central control room but they are caught by Rufus. Rufus reveals he doesn't care about the Sin Eater and explains his origin about how Rohesia and Rufus bit him and made him the first Feratu. However, though they originally ruled the planet a thousand years ago, Rohesia and Raymond decided to blend in and not harm the humans while Rufus refused and so they exiled him to Australia, a place flooded with sunlight. He reveals that he can stand the sun because he conditioned his body over two hundred years to withstand sunlight, each day slowly exposing himself bit by bit until he was able to stand in it without protection, an excruciatingly painful process. The Doctor surmises that this "head office" he keeps referring to is really the virus in his head but Rufus is fed up with them and calls Lex to start triggering the gamma-two-five genetic markers. Mags says they need to do something but the Doctor claims it is too late. Janet warns Rufus of the incoming Rohesia, Raymond Ace and the Doctor, the former two flying them there. Rufus orders the guards to kill them, while the Doctor, Ace and the other two run to find the TARDIS before Rufus boils the Doctor's blood and Ace reveals the headset she snuck with her. The Doctor with Mags alerts them through their psychic link about the location of the TARDIS and reveals she has a plan, that they're going to fly the TARDIS to the satellite to destroy it, just like they did with the Vulpanan moon. The Doctor also tells the other Doctor that Rufus commanded Janet and the subordinates not to kill Rohesia and Raymond, which he reveals is exceedingly important. Suddenly Mags and the Doctor are found by the two actors who were with Rufus in the broadcast and who are also Feratu, chasing them while the Doctor, Ace, Rohesia and Raymond find the TARDIS and use the spare key in the cubbyhole above the "P" to let themselves in. Inside the TARDIS the light is dim, sparing the vampires and the Doctor with Mags contacts them and tells them that Mags wants them to leave without them and destroy the satellite since they won't make it. Rufus finds them and reveals he knows that the Doctor with Mags is the Sin Eater since he can tell by the markings on the wrist from when Mags attacked it and plans to boil the Doctor's blood before he can destroy the satellite.
Rufus prepares to kill the Sin Eater Doctor and reveals he doesn't care about the satellite as some humans have already started to transform and that a couple thousand Feratu is more than enough to accomplish his goal. Back in the TARDIS the Doctor collapses and they surmise that since they're psychically linked, something must've happened to the Sin Eater to effect the Doctor. Mags is horrified that the Sin Eater has been killed. Rohesia and Raymond tell Ace to let them out of the TARDIS and to hide herself as they begin to enact their plan, having agreed it is time and that they cannot go back to how things were.
Rohesia and Raymond sacrifice themselves and since they initiated the chain, those they bit revert to their natural human state. Rufus, having lived for a thousand years, shrivels up and dies while those bitten by him simply accelerate to the age they should look from between the time they were bitten until now. The Sin Eater, meanwhile, having absorbed the Doctor's characteristics, regenerates, back into her previous template, Mags.
The Doctor, the Sin Eater, Mags and Ace walk through Camden where it is revealed that the Sin Eater's bite has suppressed Mags' transformation for a year as she strangely doesn't feel in the mood for meat. The Sin Eater decides to stay on earth, finally being free, where Ace will help her adjust to ordinary life for the first few months. Mags and the Doctor prepare to take off. Mags expresses her jealousy that the Sin Eater can transform into whatever she/it needs while for Mags, the monster always lurks deep down. The Doctor, however, says that some shadows are deeper and darker than others and recommends they go back to the TARDIS.
In an after-scene credits, Jimmy and Juliane's long-awaited wedding in the soap-opera "Verona Springs" is called off in a "dramatic twist" due to them believing that seeing each other accidentally at the beach on a stag and hen night on the night before the wedding is bad luck and will curse their marriage and that this devious plot was set up by the bridesmaid and rival for Jimmy's affections.
== Cast ==
* The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
* Mags / Eater Mags - Jessica Martin
* Ace - Sophie Aldred
* Rufus / Head Office - Jacob Collins Levy
* Rohesia / Jinty aka Juliane - Lara Lemon
* Raymond / Greg aka Jimmy - Gideon Turner
* Janet / Sin Eater - Shiloh Coke
* Vinewood / Lex - Rex Duis
== Crew ==
* Cover Art - Tom Webster
* Director - Samuel Clemens
* Executive Producers - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
* Music and Sound Designer - Joe Meiners
* Producer - Emma Haigh
* Script Editor - Matt Fitton
* Writer - Alan Barnes
* Senior Producer - David Richardson
== Worldbuilding ==
* Ace is no longer travelling with the Doctor and hasn't been for some time.
* The Doctor knows a man who had a ferret in his trousers.
* Ace compares the secret tunnel in Rufus' story to the Batcave.
* Ace cheekily calls Rufus Mel Gibson while in the pub.
* The Doctor plays the spoons at the dinner reception and also does some balloon animals.
* Rufus manages to follow Ace because she has Artron energy emanating off of her due to having travelled in the TARDIS.
* Time Lords and Vampires are ancient enemies.
* Rohesia and Raymond mention being acquainted with actor Christopher Lee.
* The spare TARDIS key stored in the cubbyhole above the "P" on the "Police Public Call Box" sign is used.
=== Music ===
* Ace likens Mags' werewolf transformation to the one in the music video for the Michael Jackson song Thriller.
* Raymond and Ace comment that the waiting staff are dressed like women in a Robert Palmer music video.
* Janet mentions to Mags she heard the Australian hospital porter whistling the famous song with something about a Vegemite sandwich.
* When Janet and Mags, with no other way out of St Gart's use the elevator to escape, Janet references the 1980s song The Only Way is Up by George Jackson, Johnny Henderson and Otis Clay.
* When Mags and Janet first see the moon, Janet references the song Clouds Across the Moon by RAH Band.
* When Janet approaches Ace and the others with the stolen chopper, Ace jokingly says "Here comes a chopper to chop off your head."
=== Technology ===
* Drone cameras owned by the Feratu allow the cameras free movement, while most widely available security cameras are stationary.
* Janet uses a sonic trigger to destroy the elevator to stop her and Mags from being pursued.
* Rufus plans to use a satellite to expose the population to Gamma-two-five radiation to activate the dormant Feratu genes that have been spread to them.
=== Weapons ===
* Mags uses Ace's Nitro-10, which is said to be "one louder" but Mags doesn't understand the reference. This weapon is a variation of Nitro-9.
* Ace knocks Janet out with a tranquilliser dart containing chemical constituents such as S-allylcysteine and diallyl polysulfide which are components of garlic and harmful to Vampires.
=== Architecture ===
* The Doctor mentions that he had convinced his good friend Robert Smythson to install many of the secret passages used in the old buildings throughout the story. The Doctor hints that it was not without purpose.
=== Locations ===
* The Doctor and Mags arrive in Camden Market, London.
* The Doctor uses the the house on Allen Road and 107 Baker Street as a base of operations.
* Mags is found covered in mud after passing out from her transformation on the M25 motorway.
* Janet points out Canary Wharf as the current position of the moon to Mags while on the hospital rooftop.
=== Food and Drink ===
* The Doctor keeps some fresh oranges in his pockets, which he uses to make orange juice for him and Mags.
* Ace uses chemical compounds S-allylcysteine and diallyl polysulfide from garlic.
== Notes ==
* The title of this story is a play on An American Werewolf in London.
* References to popular culture play an important role in this story. Mags, who is unfamiliar with "references", becomes amnesic half-way through and it is thanks to people's continuous mentions of popular culture references that her memory is jogged and she recalls Ace, Rufus and the Doctor.
* When Janet comes in to see Mags after her shift in the hospital has ended, Mags has set up her room as a trap, stuffing pillows under the blankets of her hospital bed to make it look she is asleep so that when Janet enters the room she could knock her out with the IV stand, dress up in Janet's uniform and escape. Janet immediately realises this and stops Mags from enacting her plan, explaining that doing something like that is not nice at all. This is a common trope found in many television shows and movies. While it is initially avoided here, later on Mags protests about knocking out Lex but the Doctor reminds her that Lex isn't necessarily human and she obliges.
* The Doctor says he knows a man "who puts ferrets down his trousers". This may be a sly reference to the actor of the Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, who used to do that for a living before starting Doctor Who.
* This story was recorded on 27 & 28 November 2018 at the Moat Studios.
== Continuity ==
* Mags is taken to St Gart's Bankside Hospital. (AUDIO: The Harvest)
* The Doctor visits the house on Allen Road (COMIC: Fellow Travellers) and 107 Baker Street. (AUDIO: The Haunting of Thomas Brewster)
* The Doctor will encounter an alien werewolf again in his tenth incarnation. (TV: Tooth and Claw)
* The Doctor has encountered vampires and vampire-like aliens before. (TV: The Chase, Mawdryn Undead et al., AUDIO: Project Destiny et al., PROSE: Goth Opera , Blood Harvest, Vampire Science et al.) He would also encounter them later. (TV: The Vampires of Venice et al.)
* The Seventh Doctor reveals that the secret tunnels he used to escape the buildings were put in by Robert Smythson, whom he says is an old friend. He did this by going back in time and telling Robert Smythson before-hand to add the secret passageways. The Ninth Doctor uses a similar strategy but instead bribes the Tersuron architect to install secret tunnels and counter-traps in order to foil the Master's repeated attempts to destroy him. (TV: The Curse of Fatal Death)
* The Doctor gives the Sin Eater the name Arthur in the same way he gave Abby chose her first name Amy in his fifth incarnation. (AUDIO: The Judgement of Isskar)
== External links ==
Category:Seventh Doctor Main Range audio stories
Category:2019 Main Range audio stories
Category:Stories set in London
Category:Stories set in the 1990s
Category:Audio stories that use the Keff McCulloch theme