Sympathy for the Devil (Doctor Who audio)

Bigfinishbox
title=Sympathy for the Devil
series="Doctor Who Unbound"
number=2
featuring=David Warner as the Doctor
Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier


writer=Jonathan Clements
director=Gary Russell
producer=Jason Haigh-Ellery
John Ainsworth
executive_producer=Jacqueline Rayner
production_code=DWUN2
set_between="The War Games" and "Masters of War"
length=1 hr 14 mins
date=June 2003|

"Sympathy for the Devil" is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series "Doctor Who". The "Doctor Who Unbound" dramas pose a series of "What if...?" questions.

Plot

What if... the Doctor had not been UNIT's scientific advisor?

The Doctor arrives on Earth for his exile, not in the 1970s but in 1997, on the eve of Hong Kong's handover back to the Chinese government. He finds a world that has faced some three decades of alien invasions and other incidents without him to help, and old friends and enemies bitterly transformed.

It is revealed that under the alias Ke Le, The Master defected to China and used a machine based around alien parasites (as in "The Mind of Evil") to brainwash political prisoners into the zombie-like Ke Le Division soldiers.

Cast

*The Doctor — David Warner
*The Brigadier — Nicholas Courtney
*Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood — David Tennant
*Ke Le — Sam Kisgart (an anagram of "Mark Gatiss", designed to conceal that actor's presence in the story before its release)
*Ling — Liz Sutherland
*The Abbot — Trevor Littledale
*Marcus — Mark Wright
*Captain Zerdin — Peter Griffiths
*Adam — Stuart Piper"Other parts played by members of the cast."

Notes

*Tennant's character Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood reappears in "".
*Without the Doctor being UNIT's scientific advisor, several stories in this alternative universe had different outcomes, mentioned in passing in dialogue. The Auton invasions of "Spearhead from Space" and "Terror of the Autons" were dealt with by the "plastic purges", which caused a shortage; Captain Mike Yates took a UNIT team back into the past with several nuclear warheads to prevent the Silurians from awakening, and half of present-day London suddenly became a crater; the "Probe 7 fiasco" lead to a line of radioactive craters across America; lives were lost whenever UNIT provided security at a peace conference ("Day of the Daleks", "The Mind of Evil"); and Stahlman's Gas is considered a hot investment tip.
*A sequel to this audio, named "Masters of War" is to be released in December 2008. It will feature David Warner's Doctor, the Brigadier, Davros and the Daleks.
*In 2005, David Tennant became the tenth actor to play the Doctor on television.
*In this audio drama, David Warner plays an alternative Third Doctor. He previously appeared with his "predecessor" Patrick Troughton in "The Omen".
*This audio's dialogue contains a number of quoted references to "Sympathy for the Devil", a well-known song by the Rolling Stones.
*This is the first audio drama to feature a Time Lord regenerating.

External links

* [http://www.bigfinish.com/2-Doctor-Who-Unbound-Sympathy-for-the-Devil Big Finish Productions - "Sympathy for the Devil"]
*Doctor Who RG | id=unbound02 | title=Sympathy for the Devil

Reviews

*OG review | id=bf-un2 | title=Sympathy for the Devil
*DWRG | id=sympathy | title=Sympathy for the Devil