Nightshade was the ninth story in Big Finish Productions' Novel Adaptations range. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Kyle C. Szikora and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Sophie Aldred as Ace.
Publisher's summary
Professor Nightshade - tea time terror for all the family, and the most loved show in Britain. But Professor Nightshade's days are long over, and Edmund Trevithick is now just an unemployed actor in a retirement home, fondly remembering his past.
It's the same through the entire village of Crook Marsham - people are falling prey to their memories. At first harmlessly, and then, the bodies begin to turn up.
The Doctor and Ace arrive on the scene - but, with the Doctor planning his retirement, it may be time for Professor Nightshade to solve one last case.
Plot
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
- Ace - Sophie Aldred
- Edmund Trevithick - John Castle
- Robin - Samuel Barnett
- Jill - Katherine Jakeways
- Dr Hawthorne - Edward Harrison
- Lawrence - Jonny Magnanti
- Sgt Barclay - Tom Price
- Mrs Hollins - Louise Jameson
- The Sentience/Susan - Carole Ann Ford
Uncredited
- Insectoids - Samuel Barnett (BFX: Nightshade)
Crew
- Cover Art - Lee Binding
- Director - Scott Handcock
- Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
- Music - Blair Mowat
- Producer - James Goss
- Script Editor - John Dorney
- Sound Design - Iain Meadows
- Writer - Mark Gatiss, adapted by Kyle C Szikora
Worldbuilding
- The science fiction series Nightshade was broadcast by the BBC. Episodes of the series included In the Mouth of Darkness, The Horror from the Blizzard, Nightshade and the Imps and Cavern of the Kronos. It is being repeated in December 1968.
- Crook Marsham's church was built in the 8th century with Norman and Victorian additions.
- The Doctor has never previously told Ace about his granddaughter Susan Foreman, whom he thinks about everyday.
- Ace believes that Gallifrey is "a dreary hole" from the Doctor's descriptions of it.
- The radio telescope was built five or six years earlier on the former site of Marsham Castle, which was destroyed in 1644.
- Lawrence's brother Alf was killed in the Pacific Ocean during World War II.
- Hawthorne describes Robin as a "spotty youth".
- Ace and Robin watch the Rolling Stones perform on Top of the Pops. Ace notes that she does not get much of a chance to watch television.
- Robin visited London for the first time in 1967.
- Ace describes the Doctor as her guru.
- Wilfred Hollins was killed in World War I in 1915.
- In 1919, there was an archaeological expedition to Crook Marsham to dig up the ancient quarry but it was abandoned after several prominent members disappeared.
- Jill and Bob Mason were married on 1 January 1966. Bob died of a brain aneurysm only four months later.
- Trevithick starred in several Hammer films in the 1950s.
- Hawthorne compares Ace and Robin to Pinky and Perky.
- As he was gay, Trevithick's Nightshade co-star Jimmy Reynolds was given the nickname "Debbie Reynolds".
Notes
- The original novel's author Mark Gatiss has stated that the fictional series Nightshade was designed as a tribute to Quatermass, a BBC science fiction series of the 1950s which had a great influence on Doctor Who, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s. Given the implication in both the television story Remembrance of the Daleks and the novel The Dying Days that the eponymous Bernard Quatermass is a real person in the Doctor Who universe, it is possible that Nightshade would in effect serve to replace Quatermass. If that were the case, it is similar to the relationship between Doctor Who and Professor X. Furthermore, Trevithick mentions that he starred in several Hammer horror films in the 1950s. Hammer produced film adaptations of the first three Quatermass serials between 1955 and 1967.
- This story was recorded on 13 April and 16-17 October 2015 at the Moat Studios.
Continuity
- The Doctor refers to enrolling Susan in Coal Hill School in 1963 (TV: An Unearthly Child) whilst he was still in possession of the Hand of Omega. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
- The Doctor mentions the TARDIS' food machine. (TV: The Daleks, The Edge of Destruction)
- The Doctor refers to Susan's departure from the TARDIS. He later recalls saying, "One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan. Goodbye, my dear." (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
- Trevithick says to the Doctor, "When I tell you to run, run." (TV: The Power of the Daleks, et al.)
- Ace refers to Gabriel Chase. (TV: Ghost Light)
- Robin later began a relationship with Ace's mother Audrey Dudman. They attended the wedding of Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane in Cheldon Bonniface on 24 April 2010, as did Ace. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
- The Eighth Doctor was a fan of Nightshade, judging by the fact that he once told Dave Young that he had "never really rated TV science fiction since they got rid of Nightshade." (PROSE: Escape Velocity)
Deviations from the original novel
- The prologue and the epilogue are not included.
- Vijay Degun, a major supporting character in the novel, is omitted from the audio adaptation. Holly Kidd, Constable George Lowcock, Jack Prudhoe and Tim Medway are mentioned but do not appear.
- In the audio adapation, the Doctor confirms that Susan is his granddaughter. In the novel, he remains silent when Ace asks who Susan is to him.
- The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver in the audio adaptation but he does not have one in the novel.
- In the novel, Robin's stepmother, Betty Yeadon, is killed by the Sentience. In the audio adaptation, Betty is Robin's mother while Lawrence is his stepfather and she is implied to have been dead for many years.
- In the novel, the Sentience manifested in the form of Alfred Beadle when it appears to his sister Betty Yeadon. In the audio adaptation, Alf is Lawrence Yeadon's brother.
- Hawthorne is 55 years old in the novel. He is much younger in the audio adaptation as he was a schoolboy when Nightshade was first broadcast in the 1950s.
- In the audio adaptation, Hawthorne is given a more sympathetic treatment than in the novel, in large part because the racist dimension of the character has been removed.
- No details of Trevithick's family are revealed.
- Hawthorne is killed by the Sentience in the novel but survives in the audio adaptation.
- In the novel, the Doctor refuses to allow Ace to leave and materialises the TARDIS on an alien planet instead of returning her to Crook Marsham in 1968. In the audio adaptation, the Doctor does return Ace to Crook Marsham, but she begins to have second thoughts about leaving the TARDIS. The Doctor tells her that she is faced with a difficult decision, and the audio ends ambiguously with the Doctor going into the TARDIS and leaving Ace outside to decide if she will go with him or stay with Robin.
External links
- Official Nightshade page at bigfinish.com
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