Hornets' Nest
BBC Audio
5 Zips in 1 RAR
320K
Hornets' Nest is the umbrella title of a five-story audio drama arc released in the closing months of 2009 in CD and digital download formats by BBC Audio.
The arc marks the return of Tom Baker to the role of the Fourth Doctor for the first time since Destiny of the Doctors in 1997. Baker was the only surviving classic series Doctor actor who had not previously participated in reprising the character for BBC Audio or Big Finish Productions. This also marks Baker's first performance in an original audio drama as the Doctor since Doctor Who and the Pescatons (on LP) and Exploration Earth (on radio), both in 1976.
Richard Franklin also appears, reprising the role of Mike Yates, which he played during the Third Doctor era. This was his first opportunity to play opposite the Fourth Doctor.
The series was collected into a five-disc box set, released 9 February 2010. Overall sales of the series were high enough that AudioGo has continued with similar five-episode series in subsequent years. (Demon Quest, Serpent Crest)
Description Edit
Mike Yates is called to Nest Cottage in Sussex, where he finds the Fourth Doctor holding vigil in a house infested with Hornets. With the help of Mike (and the Doctor's irascible housekeeper Mrs. Wibbsey), the Doctor goes in search of the Hornets' origins.
*******************************************************************************
1. Tom Baker - Hornet's Nest - The Stuff of Nightmares
*******************************************************************************
Wanted: retired army Captain for light household duties and fireside
companionship. Must tolerate mild eccentricity and strong scientific advice.
Knowledge of Giant Maggots, Super Intelligent Spiders and Prehistoric Monsters
a positive boon.
Responding to an advert apparently worded for him alone, Captain Mike Yates
(retired) is reunited with a ghost from the past. But why has the Doctor, that
mysterious traveller in Time and Space, sent for his former UNIT acquaintance?
Trapped by a horde of vicious creatures in an apparently innocuous English
country cottage, the two old friends are on the brink of an enormous adventure.
As the Doctor relates his recent escapades, it becomes clear to Mike that they
and the Earth at large are facing an enemy of unimaginable power and
horrific intent.
*******************************************************************************
2. Tom Baker - Hornet's Nest - The Dead Shoes
*******************************************************************************
Visiting the English seaside town of Cromer in the summer of 1932, the Doctor
happens upon the strange world of the Cromer Palace of Curios. The young
Ernestina Scott is unusually beguiled by one of the museum's exhibits, and when
the Doctor befriends her, they unwittingly embark upon a terrifying escapade.
Chased by animated dolls through a nightmarish model house, the Doctor realises
he is being hunted by a familiar enemy. The unmistakable sound of hornets is in
the air, and they are keen to speak to him. Overseeing this game of cat and
mouse is the Palace of Curios' curator - a certain Mrs Wibbsey...
*******************************************************************************
3. Tom Baker - Hornet's Nest - The Circus of Doom
*******************************************************************************
The circus has come to town - and so has the Doctor! Watching the parade pass
by in 1832, he finds the people of Blandford strangely drawn towards the garish
big top, and knows that something is terribly wrong. The only thing to do is
pay a visit. Meanwhile Adam Farrow finds his sister caught up with the circus
and its sinister ringmaster. What is behind Antonio's almost hypnotic power,
and how is it connected with an event in the Doctor's future? Seized by clowns
and forced into the centre of the ring, the Doctor encounters the fiercest of
all circus acts. Yet something much more terrifying lurks in the wings - and
the sound it makes is horribly familiar...
*******************************************************************************
4. Tom Baker - Hornet's Nest - A Sting in the Tale
*******************************************************************************
The Doctor arrives in a bleak English midwinter of long ago. Plunging into the
snowy landscape of the Dark Ages, he learns that wild dogs besiege the local
Tilling Abbey every night. When he is given shelter by the sisters of the abbey,
the Doctor begs an audience with the Mother Superior they fiercely protect.
Something unearthly has already happened here - and if the Doctor is right,
it's connected to his recent encounters with an ancient enemy. As night falls
again, the dogs can be held off no longer - and the sisters' secret is about to
be revealed. Forced to draw his enemy off into the depths of the TARDIS, the
Doctor finds himself in a nightmarish chase through his own ship - but is he
the pursuer, or the pursued? As they fight him on his own ground, the hornets
are determined to possess his mind...
*******************************************************************************
5. Tom Baker - Hornet's Nest - Hive of Horror (Audiobook)
*******************************************************************************
As a new day breaks over Nest Cottage, the Doctor and Mike know they have to
face their enemy for a final confrontation. Reduced to miniature size, and with
Mrs Wibbsey along as an unwilling adventurer, they venture inside the hornets'
nest itself. The Queen lies in wait for the enemy which she and her brood have
faced so many times over the millennia. If she is to guarantee the survival of
her alien hornet race for another thousand years, this is a battle she must
win! The loyalty of the Doctor's friends will be tested to the limit. And
perhaps, at last, they will all understand why Mike Yates is so important...
Replies
Thank you Rick. Happy Thanksgiving! (if you are celebrating)
Yes Codepop, I'm U.S. by birth and Southern by the Grace of God. -------------------- R
Cheers, mad stuff & the ideas come straight from the mind of Tom!