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Broken Hearts (audio story)

Broken Hearts was the special fourth story in the audio anthology All of Time and Space detailing the aftermath of the previous audio story Curiosity Shop. It was written by Lisa McMullin and featured Jacob Dudman as the Eleventh Doctor, his final appearance in the role to date, and Safiyya Ingar as Valarie Lockwood.

Publisher's summary

He took her apart, and she told him she was fine. She lied.

He saved their world, and told them they'd be safe. He was wrong.

Plot

Valarie is angry with the Doctor after he, as Mr Foreman, took her apart and used her augmentations to make a weapon to save a planet and asks to be taken far away, needing time to recover from the experience. The TARDIS materialises in a ruined city instead of Medrüth, where the Doctor hoped to leave Valarie with Roanna, and they find a control room which is receiving a distress call. The Doctor detects the life signs of a single survivor of the war that decimated the planet and gets Valarie to pair her implants with the rescue coordination mainframe, after which they receive a message saying that the Doctor and his companion will come to the rescue.

Tracing the message, the two travellers come across a statue erected in honour of the Eighth Doctor and his companion for saving Iptheus and Valarie comes to believe that she does not know the Doctor at all. He explains regeneration to her and realises that the planet's weather is empathetic and was installed by the Time Lords as a weapon against the Daleks. Followed by people made of raindrops, the Doctor and Valarie find a burnt-out Rescuebot with another message saying that the Doctor and his companion will be coming to help and notice that the raindrop people are in the form of the Doctor's previous selves.

The weather rages because of Valarie's fear of the Doctor, whom she learns has killed billions of people in and outside of the Time War, and they become separated. The Doctor is recovered from beneath some rubble by a Rescuebot which has named itself Lionel and which explains that it is the last since Augustus was buried in an underground tunnel during their centuries' long search for survivors. Lionel joins him in going after Valarie and the sole survivor of the war, who seems to be inside a tornado created from their own fear. When he does, he stops Valarie from entering the tornado and does it himself.

Inside the tornado, the Doctor finds Augustus and comforts it, calming the winds down and allowing him to reunite it with Lionel. Augustus malfunctions because of its corroded systems, but Valarie manages to repair it and she and the Doctor realise that, aside from the Rescuebots, there were only ever the two of them on Iptheus; the computer registered three because of the Doctor's two hearts. The Doctor decides to take the Rescuebots to Andraxia and offers to take Valarie to Roanna, but she wants to keep helping him save worlds and he promises to never hurt her again. He hands her a key to the TARDIS, but its doors open when she snaps her fingers.

Cast

Worldbuilding

  • Tiny, wheeled, and cheerful, depending on their simulated personality, Rescuebots, as their name implies, rescue and reassure survivors of disasters. They can gain sentience over time; Lionel and Augustus gave themselves names, chose not to shut down, as is protocol when no survivors are found, because they were unwilling to stop existing, and developed an affectionate relationship, and they feel emotions such as grief and fear. Rescuebots find survivors by scanning for bio-organical life patterns like heartbeats, treating an organism's hearts as individual life forms. This design flaw fools the Doctor and Valarie into thinking there is someone else on Iptheus.
  • Valarie leaves messages for her mother, Patricia Lockwood.
  • Out of appreciation for the Eighth Doctor and Bliss, the people of Iptheus built a statue of the Eighth Doctor. Valarie remarks on its shoddy craftmanship, and the Doctor initially fears it is a Weeping Angel.
  • Valarie pretended to find a joke the Doctor made about the Mechnonoids funny.
  • The Doctor explains regeneration to Valarie.
  • The Time War came to Iptheus three times.
  • The Time Lords created empathetic weather during the Time War, using it to turn the Daleks’ rage against them. It disintegrates without an emotional connection to sustain it, which happens on Iptheus once the Doctor, Valarie, and the Rescuebots all leave.
  • The Doctor references the film The Incredible Mr. Limpet, specifically the eponymous protagonist's ability to turn into a fish.
  • The Doctor proposes that the Rescuebots retire to a "robot retirement complex" on Kazakar 7 which has golf as one of its amenities. When they refuse, citing their desire to keep searching for people, he decides to take them to a zero-velocity ski resort on Andraxia which is always in need of search and rescue personnel.

Notes

  • This story was recorded on 10 August 2023 at the Soundhouse.
  • This story was not part of the planned four-box set arc. When Safiyya Ingar, recording Spirit of the Season, asked how much time had passed between it and Curiosity Shop, Alfie Shaw realized there was a crucial period which needed to be explored. Broken Hearts was the end result of much discussion amongst him, Jacob Dudman, John Ainsworth (to have an extra story commissioned), and Lisa McMullin. (BFX: Broken Hearts)
  • At least in the Eleventh Doctor Chronicles range, the Doctor stops calling the TARDIS "Sexy" from here on. This decision was made based on criticism from listeners. (BFX: Broken Hearts)
  • By virtue of its being recorded after Victory of the Doctor, this is Jacob Dudman's last story as the Eleventh Doctor. (BFX: Broken Hearts)
  • Rather than being released as part of a boxset, this story was released separately from the other Eleventh Doctor Chronicles, and it is only available as a download.

Continuity

External links

v • e
The Doctor Chronicles
The Ninth Doctor
Chronicles
The Tenth Doctor
Chronicles
Volume One
Defender of the Earth
The Eleventh Doctor
Chronicles
Volume One
Volume Two
Geronimo!
All of Time
and Space

All of Time and Space • The Yearn • Curiosity Shop

Bonus
Broken Hearts
Everywhere and Anywhere
Victory of the Doctor
The Twelfth Doctor
Chronicles
Volume One
Timejacked!
You Only Die Twice