The Great Space Elevator

Somewhere in Earth's future, a giant space elevator rises above the jungles of Sumatra to reach a platform in high orbit over the planet. Victoria remembers how when she, the Doctor and Jamie arrived they found communication with the platform cutting in and out; there was something wrong up there and the Doctor was determined to find out what and help if he could. Up the vast stretch of cable they rode in the elevator to confront a massing evil presence with plans for Earth and all its people... plans that would see the end of life on Earth if not stopped.

This one is told from a long time after Victoria's departure from the TARDIS; she's now been married and is a grandmother but has never spoken of her adventures to any of her family lest they think she is mad. As far as story placement, though, this would have happened shortly after leaving Telos at the end of Tomb of the Cybermen, before the continual terror of monster after monster would wear her down and make her eventually leave the TARDIS behind. This Victoria is still wide eyed with wonder and eager to see the universe, but her bravery is still shaky when things start to get tense. This is not the first time I have been grateful that Big Finish scripts do not call for a lot of screaming from the companions.

Production values wise this was the first time Deborah Watling returned to the role on audio so it was her and one other actor handling the lines; there was no real attempt to imitate the voices of the other characters at the time. The effect is
still good, though; simple and kinda bare bones storytelling but effective to have it all told from Victoria's perspective over a gulf of many years. The science of the space elevator itself is interesting; it's been a science fiction device for a long time to have a space station tethered to Earth, but in the last few years it's gotten a lot of press with theoretical models coming out of some respected science journals. The exact physics of it is something I can't entirely grasp, and as I hate flying I can only imagine how dizzying it would be... being a Toronto native I imagine it would be like the CN Tower just taller. Much, much taller.

The Great Space Elevator marks the start of three stories with Victoria speaking of her past but she is going to turn out to have one of the most interesting post-TARDIS lives ever, although it will be years before more of her life on Earth is revealed. For now though, there are some more flashbacks for her to experience before getting into her future...

NEXT EPISODE: THE EMPEROR OF ETERNITY