Doctor Who - Audio Details

Tracking a nexus point in time, the Doctor meets Dr Evelyn Smythe, a history lecturer whose own history seems to be rapidly vanishing.

The Doctor must travel back to Tudor times to stabilise the nexus and save Evelyn's life. But there he meets the Queen of England and must use all his skills of diplomacy to avoid ending up on the headman's block . . .

The brief for the story that eventually became The Marian Conspiracy was to do a 'Hartnell historical' for the Sixth Doctor - the Big Finish version of The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, if you like; a political thriller featuring real figures from history, and I was happy to oblige.  Some years ago, after reading the novelisation of The Reign of Terror, I went out a got a huge text book from the library on the French Revolution, to find out more.  My second-year school project on the Aztecs was one of the most informed in the class.  That's one of the greatest things about Doctor Who, the way it can inspire a thirst for knowledge, and the historical stories will always have a special place in my heart.

And with a new direction for the hideously under-appreciated Sixth Doctor, a fab new companion to introduce, and plots and intrigues and hideous executions to play with - well, what more could a girl want?

Vive le Docteur!

Jacqueline Rayner, January 2000