Chronomancer (audio story)

Chronomancer was the third and final story in the audio anthology Purity Undreamed, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Robert Valentine and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush, Ruth Madeley as Hebe Harrison, Cherylee Houston as Elise Kaplan, Toby Hadoke as Ron and Imogen Stubbs as Patricia McBride.
== Publisher's summary ==
The Doctor, Mel and Hebe take Patricia to see 26th century Sheffield, but their trip is cut unexpectedly short. Caught in the crossfire between time-criminal, Khavûl, and dashing 'chronomancer', Tannus Vallon, the TARDIS crash-lands back in the present.
With a dimensionally transcendental artefact lost somewhere in the city, the Doctor and his friends must find it before Khavûl can...but with resentments and prejudices finally unmasked, is an even bigger threat about to engulf the world?
== Plot ==
=== Part one ===
Khavûl, a traitor to the Chronomantic Order, escapes from Tannus Vallon by jumping in the Time Vortex. Vallon jumps in after him for truth, justice and freedom.
The Doctor takes his companions to Sheffield in 2569 to sate Patricia's anthropological interests, but she is overwhelmed and asks to be taken home, although Mel and Hebe do not understand why. In the Vortex, they see Vallon and Khavûl fighting and save the former, taking him with them to Earth and noticing that he is wearing a suit capable of time travel. Due to an artron overload, the TARDIS is out of action and they take Vallon to Elise and Ron's house.
The Doctor manages to restore Vallon's life signs thanks to him being symbiotically connected to his suit. Vallon confirms that he is Drornidian and explains that he is a chronomancer of the Chronomantic Order; his job is to protect the Vortex from the Gentry, a sect modelled on the Time Lords and led by Khavûl, who wants to steal an Oubliette. In the kitchen, the Doctor confronts Patricia about her reaction to the future, having realised that the diversity they had seen there was what she objected to and that she is prejudiced against the unalike. Patricia defends her beliefs and declares herself to be a tolerant person, but her actual view on the word means that homosexuals and those with disabilities are simply something to put up with because they cannot be changed. The Doctor is sickened and, noting that his friends have not yet picked up on Patricia's opinions, demands she leave before they notice, furiously ending their friendship there and then.
Hebe watches her leave and the Doctor insists that she not go after her; regardless, she follows her and hears for herself what Patricia really thinks about how she thought the people of the future would be "fixed" by then. Hebe is appalled by what she hears and forswears any further interaction with her, returning to Elise in floods of tears. Inside, the Doctor and Mel contemplate whether hatred is naturally born inside a person or if it grows over time, with the Doctor suspecting that matters are about to considerably worsen.
Sobbing herself, Patricia runs away across the campus, surrounded by ordinary people that disgust her everywhere she goes and cursing the Doctor for his attitude. She runs into Khavûl, whose suit detected the artron energy from her crossing the time stream, and claims that she does not know where Vallon is. She agrees to help him find the Oubliette, however, out of her fear of the Earth's future.
=== Part two ===
Vallon wants to go in search of Khavûl to prevent him from accidentally activating the Oubliette's failsafe and destroying the city. After Vallon describes it, Elise says that she believes it landed in the Botanical Gardens three months ago and is part of an exhibition that Ron is helping with. The Doctor, Mel, Hebe, Elise and Vallon head there and find that Khavûl, led there by Patricia, has already inadvertently activated the countdown.
The Doctor and Vallon confront Khavûl, who shoots and kills Vallon. Patricia refuses to hand the Oubliette over to Khavûl until he threatens to kill everybody, at which point she hands it over. The Doctor takes Vallon's vortex gun and goes after Khavûl, demanding that he takes the Oubliette away from Earth when Elise hits Khavûl with her car. The Doctor sets the Oubliette to be banished into itself and Khavûl leaps into it to join his people as it collapses before it destroys itself by recursive dimensional inversion. Hebe mourns Vallon and is disheartened at the thought of just leaving him but the Doctor promises that they've done what he'd have wanted and they scarper before the police arrive.
After disposing of Vallon's vortex gun and Elise dropping the trio off near the TARDIS, Hebe asks after Patricia and wonders if they should check on her but the Doctor considers her only chance to have been irrefutably wasted and refuses to have anything more to do with her. Unbeknownst to the others, Patricia puts on Vallon's time suit and provides her username as Purity before it starts merging with her.
Consequently, as the Doctor, Mel and Hebe head back to the TARDIS to have a film night by visiting various premiers, the Doctor feels a temporal judder and Hebe suddenly vanishes. Heading back inside the TARDIS, the Doctor tries to trace her with the console and discovers, to his shock, horror and disbelief, that Hebe Harrison no longer exists...
== Cast ==
* The Doctor - Colin Baker
* Mel Bush - Bonnie Langford
* Hebe Harrison - Ruth Madeley
* Patricia McBride / Time Suit - Imogen Stubbs
* Elise - Cherylee Houston
* Tannus Vallon / Vallon's Suit - Joseph Kloska
* Khavûl / Khavûl's Suit - Matthew Brenher
* Ron / Stanley - Toby Hadoke
== Worldbuilding ==
* The 26th century has hovercars, hoverchairs and hover pizza cutters.
* Khavûl destroys a green police box.
* Ron helps with an exhibition at the Botanical Gardens.
* Vallon and Khavûl are Drornidians.
* Ron gets a curry.
* Ron goes to stay around Bernard's.
* Hebe mentions the film Labyrinth.
* Patricia says that she is "tolerant" of disability, homosexuality and neurodivergence because they cannot be changed.
* Khavûl is Duke of Drornid, Paradox Mage and highest of the Gentry.
* Hebe states a willingness to give Vallon CPR.
* Hebe moved into a flat three months ago. It is not very big.
* Stanley is a police officer whom Elise knows.
* The Doctor mentions Pease Pottage.
== Notes ==
* Chronomancer was recorded at the Soundhouse in November 2021.
== Continuity ==
* The Doctor mentions how he took Hebe to various water worlds. (AUDIO: The Tides of the Moon, Maelstrom)
* Khavûl and Vallon hail from Drornid, an offshoot of Time Lord society that developed independently from Gallifrey due to ideological differences. As a planet, Drornid would later play a critical role in the War in Heaven. (TV: Shada, PROSE: The Book of the War)
* Ron mentions the debacle with the Mindless Facility. (AUDIO: The Mindless Ones)
== External links ==
Category:Stories set in Sheffield
Category:Stories set in the 26th century
Category:Purity Undreamed audio stories