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Hornets' Nest (audio drama)

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Hornets' Nest
Doctor Who audio play
Cover of the box set release
Cast
Production
Written byPaul Magrs
Produced byKate Thomas
Series1
Running time5 episodes
70 minutes each
First broadcast3 September –
3 December 2009
(CD release)
Chronology
← Preceded by
The Invasion of Time
Followed by →
Demon Quest

Hornets' Nest is an audio play in five episodes based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is written by Paul Magrs, and stars Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Richard Franklin as Captain Mike Yates. It was released on five CDs by BBC Audiobooks between September and December 2009, as well as on a special, individually signed, 10 black and yellow (5 black, 5 yellow) coloured LP box set edition in May 2022.[1] They feature multiple actors, but all five episodes contain some degree of narration by different characters.

Hornets' Nest

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The Stuff of Nightmares

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The Stuff of Nightmares cover

(released 3 September 2009)

  • Captain Mike Yates (retired) responds to an advert in a paper that seems to be specifically directed at him. This leads him to a small cottage in Sussex and a meeting with his old UNIT colleague, the Doctor, who looks exactly as he did over three decades ago. Once there, the Doctor tells Yates about his recent fight against a swarm of psychic alien Hornets. His first encounter with them involved their possession of an army of taxidermy animals.

Cast

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The Dead Shoes

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The Dead Shoes cover

(released 8 October 2009)

  • The Doctor explains that he tracked the Hornets back to 1932, to a pair of ballet slippers in a shop called Cromer's Palace of Curios. The owner, Mrs Wibbsey, shrinks the Doctor and traps him inside a possessed dollhouse.

Cast

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  • The Doctor – Tom Baker
  • Captain Mike Yates – Richard Franklin
  • Mrs Wibbsey – Susan Jameson
  • Ernestina Stott – Clare Corbett
  • The Reverend Small – Christian Rodska

The Circus of Doom

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(released 5 November 2009)

  • The Doctor traces the Hornets further back in time. In 1832, a decadent circus run by a bitter dwarf entrances the simple citizens of Blandford.

Cast

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A Sting in the Tale

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(released 3 December 2009)

  • The Doctor finally finds the earliest infestation of the Hornets in the year 1039. A nunnery in Northumbria is besieged by wild dogs. The Hornets, new to Earth, encounter the Doctor for the first time (from their perspective) and fight to find their lost queen. This leads to a chase through the corridors and strange forgotten rooms of the TARDIS.

Cast

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  • The Doctor – Tom Baker
  • Captain Mike Yates – Richard Franklin
  • Nun – Clare Corbett
  • Sister – Susie Riddell
  • The Swarm – Rula Lenska
  • Mrs Wibbsey – Susan Jameson

Hive of Horror

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(released 3 December 2009)

  • Yates and the Doctor make their final confrontation with the queen of the hive, inside the paper skull of a stuffed zebra.

Cast

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  • The Doctor – Tom Baker
  • Captain Mike Yates – Richard Franklin
  • Mrs Wibbsey – Susan Jameson
  • The Queen – Rula Lenska

Crew

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Continuity

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Cast notes

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Broadcast

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In December 2011, these audio plays were broadcast on the digital radio station BBC Radio 4 Extra.[2]

References

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  1. ^ "Doctor Who / Hornets' Nest – 10LP coloured vinyl box set – SuperDeluxeEdition". Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  2. ^ "BBC Radio 4 Extra - Doctor Who, Hornets' Nest".
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