Lungborrow

Lungborrow was the fifth story of Season 30. It was written by Marc Platt, directed by Chris Clough, featured Richard Griffiths as the Doctor, Julia Ormond as Bernice Summerfield, John Leeson as K9 and John Banks as James Black.

## Lungborrow

### Director

Chris Clough

Synopsis

All is not well on Gallifrey. James is having someone else's nightmares. Bernice is talking to herself. So is K9. Leela has stumbled on a murderous family conspiracy. And the beleaguered Lady President, Romanadvoratrelundar, foresees one of the most tumultuous events in her planet's history.

At the root of all is an ancient and terrible place, the House of Lungbarrow in the southern mountains of Gallifrey. Something momentous is happening there. But the House has inexplicably gone missing.

673 years ago the Doctor left his family in that forgotten House. Abandoned, disgraced and resentful, they have waited. And now he's home at last.

Soon, the Doctor faces a threat that could uncover the greatest secret of them all.

Plot

Part One

To be added

Part Two

To be added

Part Three

To be added

Part Four

To be added

Cast

The Doctor - Richard Griffiths

Bernice Summerfield - Julia Ormond

James Black - John Banks

Romana - Lalla Ward

Leela - Louise Jameson

K9 - John Leeson

Rodan - Nigel Fairs

Lord Ferain - Simon Holmes

Badger - Terrence Edmond

Susan - Carole Ann Ford (Footage from An Unearthly Child - The Dalek Invasion Of Earth)

The Other - Mark Gatiss

References

Books

Lord Ferain kept a book called An Alternative History of Skaro: The Daleks without Davros.

The books The Triumphs of Rassilon, The Book of Rassilon and The Record of Rassilon are books that contain interpretations of Rassilon, Omega and the Other.

The Doctor

Before leaving Gallifrey the Doctor worked in the Bureau of Possible Events as a Scrutationary Archivist.

He left his post in the Prydonian Chapterhouse's Bureau of Possibility "after disagreements about his overzealous political involvements".

The Doctor departs Gallifrey on a final mission to Skaro, as requested by Romana II.

When he was leaving Gallifrey, the Doctor nearly stole a Type 53, but dismissed this TARDIS as "new fangled" and went with his Type 40.

Gallifreyan culture

Sepulchasm is a Time Lord game, and quite possibly a profanity.

The play Mystery of the New Time is usually conducted during Otherstide.

Gallifreyan lifeforms

Gallifreyan forests have striped pig-bears in them.

Gallifreyan locations

The Doctor returns to his house, the House of Lungbarrow.

Gallifreyan technology

Looms create new Gallifreyans.

The Hand of Omega befriended the Doctor because it sensed the Other's essence in him.

The Time Vortex is red when travelling forward in time and blue when travelling backwards.

Gallifreyan organisations

The CIA kill Ace for twenty minutes and upload her memories to the Matrix.

An organisation called Space-Time Accessions Bureau exists.

The Ordinal-General does not allow members of the House of Redlooms into the Bureau of Temporal Anomalies.

Individual Gallifreyans

Andred belongs to the House of Redlooms.

Susan's mother died as Pythia cursed Gallifrey.

Susan's nanny was called Mamlaurea.

Pythia threw herself into the Crevice of Memories That Will Be.

Omega was lost in the constellation of Ao.

Plants

Leela still carried janis thorns.

Planets

Karn is in conjunction with Polarfrey.

Species

President Romana is successfully negotiating with the Tharils.

Romana did not attend the reception for the Chelonian envoy.

Fledershrews are present in the House of Lungbarrow.

Relatives of the Doctor

Innocet has telekinesis and telepathy.

Notes

Along the way to this resolution, Lungbarrow ultimately reveals much new information about the Doctor's home world and race.

The claim that Time Lords are born fully mature, never having a physical childhood, has been contradicted by several pieces of media.

In the television story The Time Monster, the Third Doctor tells Jo Grant a story regarding when he was a "little boy".

In all versions and adaptations of Shada, Romana II recalls having owned a Gallifreyan nursery book when she was "a time tot".

The Houses of Gallifrey are similar to the household featured in Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. Badger, a character who makes his first appearance in Lungbarrow, has much in common with a character in Peake's Gormenghast novella, Boy in Darkness, which originally appeared in the collected work Sometime, Never by Golding, Wyndham and Peake.

The numbering of this book as 60 of 61 refers to the publisher's intended order, which ultimately was not the actual order of publication. Because of chronic delays troubling Ben Aaronovitch's So Vile a Sin, eventually finished by Kate Orman, it was actually the 59th New Adventure published.

Marc Platt has stated that had he worked on the book today he would have done a number of things differently that it would have resulted in a drastically different novel. He had attempted to regain the rights to the novel so that Big Finish could adapt it but owed a massive sum of money in back taxes that it became impossible stating "I should have kept an original copy around since it would have more than likely have paid for the rights single-handedly."[source needed]

Continuity

The Hermit who lived on the mountain near the Doctor's home was first mentioned in TV: The Time Monster and later featured in TV: Planet of the Spiders.

The Sisterhood of Karn first appeared in TV: The Brain of Morbius.

Leela met Andred in TV: The Invasion of Time.

Romana returned from E-Space, and became president.

Ace is a fan of The Stone Roses.

A lot of Gallifreyan history was revisited.

Romana gives the Doctor her sonic screwdriver. (TV: The Horns of Nimon)

The Doctor used the Hand of Omega in TV: Remembrance of the Daleks.

Romana started negotiations with the Daleks, giving the Master to them under the Act of Master Restitution.

Gallifrey's renewed ties with the Sisterhood of Karn abolishes Pythia's curse of sterility upon the population.

Innocet tells Bernice that the Houses are the oldest living things on Gallifrey, the first ones having been grown during the Intuitive Revelation.