In the Garden of Death (audio story)

In the Garden of Death was the third story in the audio anthology The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Guy Adams and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, Rakhee Thakrar as Bliss, Nikki Amuka-Bird as Major Tamasan, Jacqueline Pearce as Cardinal Ollistra and Julia McKenzie as the Twelve.
== Publisher's summary ==
In a prison camp like no other, the Most Dangerous Man in the Universe is held in isolation. The rest of the inmates have no memory of who they were or what they might have done.
No memory even of their captors. Until the interrogations begin.
== Plot ==
Bliss (known as Kappa Zeta) makes her way through a jungle surrounded by an electric fence and takes food to the Doctor (known as Alpha) in his high-security cell. Neither know who they are nor know why the Doctor is in his own cell whilst Bliss and the others are in a nearby camp, although the Doctor believes that he must be the most evil man in the universe to warrant such treatment. He is transmatted away to the Daleks for interrogation before he can eat his food and, confronted with his enemies, he says that he can remember.
Bliss returns to the camp and the safe corridor through the jungle is re-electrified. She is greeted by Tau Delta and tells him that the Doctor now believes that they might deserve to be locked up, something which the Twelve (known as Pi Gamma) believes could be true. Tau Delta's mechanical implants begin to fail and the Twelve suggests that, if Bliss wants to keep him alive, she should beat on his chest to get his heart implant working again. If it were her, however, she would rather die. Bliss is successful and Tau Delta thanks her, not blaming the Twelve for her inactivity given her headaches and having recently seen her shouting at herself.
Restless and bored, the Twelve builds a fire and asks Bliss how the enemy could possibly know what she is doing given the limited technology on the planet. The Daleks are watching her using drones disguised as mosquitoes, one of which she destroys. The Twelve does not trust the Doctor as she has a feeling that she used to know him and that they did not get along; she wonders if he is behind their imprisonment and if he is pretending to be trapped with them, but Bliss finds the idea ludicrous.
The Doctor is tortured and refuses to answer the Daleks' questions.
Bliss and the Twelve discuss their interrogations, which they cannot remember. They both have the feeling, however, that they are able to recognise the enemy as soon as they see them. The Twelve starts her fire, but it is almost immediately transmatted away. Once Bliss has gone, the Twelve talks to her previous incarnations, whom she has been keeping subdued so that her fellow prisoners do not think that she is mad. When she sees another mosquito, she destroys it and says to herself that she should not be underestimated.
The prisoners are awoken in the morning by the usual alarm and Bliss takes breakfast to the Doctor. Bliss surmises that the Doctor is able to guess the kind of weapon he was tortured with due to him having been an interrogator or being used to interrogation. They believe from Bliss' tendencies that she could be some sort of engineer and that the Twelve is used to putting others in their place as a grandmother, teacher or soldier. In the middle of their conversation, Bliss is transmatted away for interrogation and immediately remembers the Daleks. She is soon returned with no memory of the interrogation and tells the Doctor of the Twelve's belief that he is a plant.
The Twelve goes for a walk with Tau Delta and borrows his robotic eye to look more closely at a camera drone, as well as a wire from his leg joint to examine it. She is hoping to be able to escape.
Bliss tells the Doctor about the Twelve's fire and how it being transmatted away seemed to excite her; the Doctor explains that the fire being removed so quickly means that there must be cameras and signal devices in the prison and could be used to try to escape. They are safe from being spied on at the Doctor's cell, however, due to the strength of the force field.
When a camera drone approaches, the Twelve starts talking to Tau Delta about how Lambda Epsilon has claimed to have found an escape route, tricking the Daleks into turning their attention to her. The Twelve's previous selves become active, throwing Tau Delta's eye away and laughing when he is electrocuted by the fence. This causes a temporary power failure, during which the Four suggests taking Tau Delta's body through to the other side of the fence, something that the Six does. They cannibalise him for parts and use one of his legs to beat an attacking mutant to death.
Bliss leaves the Doctor and hurries through the secure corridor just before it is re-electrified. She asks Lambda Epsilon about the whereabouts of the Twelve and Tau Delta, but she does not know. Later, the Twelve causes another power failure by throwing the dead mutant at the inner fence and joins Bliss in visiting the Doctor. Bliss believes that the Twelve is having a mental breakdown, but it seems familiar to the Doctor, who believes that she will soon be transmatted to the enemy. However, the Twelve has taken the transmat system off-line using a disruption signal she created with Tau Delta's body and the camera drones. She demands that the enemy release her within an hour, otherwise she will kill the Doctor.
The Daleks refuse to listen and decide to send a taskforce to the prison. Per the orders of the Time Strategist, however, they are not allowed to harm the Doctor.
The Twelve tells the Doctor and Bliss that she does not want to kill the Doctor, but that other voices are speaking through her and controlling her. The trio realise that the enemy do not want them to have their memories as, if they do, they will know how to defeat them. The Daleks land and begin their attack, advancing upon the Doctor's cell and finding it empty. The Doctor, Bliss and the Twelve are in the Daleks' monitoring station, having transmatted out as the Daleks transmatted in. The Twelve begins to regain control of her previous selves but allows the Six to kill some of the Daleks with their own weapons before doing it herself.
The Doctor transmats all Daleks from the base to the planet and all humanoids from the planet to the base, accidentally including a mutant which the Twelve kills. Bliss rounds up everybody as they have been dispersed around the base whilst the Twelve contacts Gallifrey for help before Dalek reinforcements arrive. The Twelve tells Major Tamasan that she has a secret which she kept from the Daleks and requests that her neural inhibitor is repaired.
Cardinal Ollistra asks Tamasan what she makes of the Twelve's message. Tamasan believes that the interrogation might have damaged a memory block on the Twelve and that she now has information which she either does not realise the worth of or is deliberately withholding from them. She has run a Matrix trace on the Twelve's previous selves' travels and found that they visited Uzmal and should be sent back under close supervision. The Doctor and Bliss will join her.
== Cast ==
* The Doctor - Paul McGann
* Bliss - Rakhee Thakrar
* The Twelve - Julia McKenzie
* Borton - Victor McGuire
* Lambda Epsilon - Rakie Ayola
* Ollistra - Jacqueline Pearce
* Major Tamasan - Nikki Amuka-Bird
* The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs
== Crew ==
* Cover Art - Alex Mallinson
* Directors - John Ainsworth and Helen Goldwyn
* Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
* Music - Jamie Robertson
* Producer - David Richardson
* Script Editor - Matt Fitton
* Sound Design - Benji Clifford
* Writer - Guy Adams
* Series Director - Ken Bentley
== Worldbuilding ==
* The prisoners are subject to personal memory dampers focused to their sense of self.
* The Twelve enjoys knitting.
* Lambda Epsilon calls to Iota Theta.
== Notes ==
* The Dalek interrogator was released as an action figure by Character Options, giving it a unique appearance and the designation of Dalek Interrogator Prime. The colour scheme matches the description of the five Daleks of the Eternity Circle as described in the novel Engines of War.
== Continuity ==
to be added
== External links ==
Category:The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Two audio stories