PSAudios 3.2. Blood Money

The Doctor lands the TARDIS on Earth, hoping to show Nick and Rob the glorious future of humanity. But when they step out into a battlefield, it becomes clear that something has gone terribly wrong with the destiny of the Doctors' favourite planet...

The travellers soon find themselves caught in the crossfire of the long and bloody war between the Boralans, led by the bold Baron of Boralis, and their mortal enemies the Skraith. Tor Garane is on Earth too, as usual out to profit from the conflict as best he can. But what has brought the ages old war to Earth, a planet with nothing whatsoever to do with it?

With Rob taken prisoner by Emperor Narl of the Skraith, and the Doctor and Nick entrusted with an undercover mission to win the war for the Boralans, it remains to be seen if the travellers can escape an increasingly likely fate as casualties of war..

After completing his first story, “The Paradise Machine”, Martin Penny immediately began planning a sequel. The sequel would use the characters of Tor Garane and The Baron of Boralis, who had only appeared in minor roles in his previous story.

Penny initially planned a story called “The Man Who Sold The World”, which would have seen Rob being tricked into selling the planet Earth to Tor Garane, who planned on auctioning it off to various marauding aliens. Though this story was dropped, he kept the ‘selling the world’ idea.

The new story, “Blood Money”, opened with the world already having been sold, and the Boralan and Skraith forces occupying the planet. The original version of the story was quite different and portrayed Emperor Narl as a man tired of the endless war with the Boralans, while Tor Garane conspired with his General to prolong the war for his own gain. The Doctor would ultimately have convinced The Baron of Boralis and Emperor Narl to put aside their differences and end the war. At this point in development, the Skraith were referred to as the ‘Crassians’.

This idea was dropped, and instead, Penny decided that the war would end with a heroic sacrifice from the Baron of Boralis. He also decided upon the idea of an alliance between The Doctor and Tor Garane. Tor Garane’s back-story would be hinted at during his conversations with both The Doctor and Emperor Narl, the leader of his own people; the Skraith.

The idea of the Skraith caste system, which involved reptilian, Insectoid and evolved Skraith was thought up by the writer as a way of avoiding having the whole caste do impersonations of Tor Garane. The Insectoids are not seen during the story, but Martin Penny thought of the character ‘Fnub’ from ‘Eye of the Daleks’ as being a member of the Insectoid caste.

The story also introduces the character of Nathaniel Westbridge, a thespian actor who provides the voices of all the computers in the future. He is played by Si Hart, a reference to the fact that Si Hart had always provided the ‘Computer Voice’ in the PS Audio’s. Nathaniel’s role in the story, telling Rob what has happened on Earth, was originally to have been filled by Mills, who had last appeared in ‘The Paradise Machine’. This idea was dropped because Martin Penny felt it was one piece of continuity too many.

Early in 2009, a new recording session was planned for April, when it was scheduled to tape "Blood Money" and "The Hand Of Peace" (the other two stories having been completed and held back during 2008). Shortly before the recording session, a new microphone was purchased which would increase the quality of recordings. The team recorded the four new episodes in Sawbridgeworth during April.

Post-production on the "Blood Money" recordings went very smoothly. Si Hunt wanted to create a 'war torn' atmosphere for the play, as he put it "all barbed wire and bunkers". The work was completed almost simultaneously with work on "The Hand Of Peace", with the stories being completed one after the other.

Pip Madeley produced a predominantly red cover for the story, featuring the Doctor, Rob and Nick peering over a tangle of barbed wire.

"I am not happy, I've got to wait for episode 2 of this fantastic story. So far it is one of the best I have listened to." Cyber Chris

"A really polished production, from the general 'cleanness' of the sound, to the details that really make it work - things like the Baron being heard in the background as the Doctor & Nick talk, or the sounds of distant gunfire when we're in the Skraith enclosure. And that attention to detail extends to the performances too - the way the Doctor says, "Morality" and such things as the Baron always saying the word Skraith like it's a swear word, even when it's in the middle of a sentence.

The script is really good too - the jovial banter of the opening TARDIS scene is neatly done so that the reality outside the doors is a real shock to the system (plus I love Nick's comment about Rob being "all about the continuity"). Even without having listened to "A Baron For All Seasons" the plot is clearly explained - not in a laboured, infodump sort of way, but dramatically and effectively. The Baron clarifying the set up when talking to the Doctor reminded me a little of the similarly effective scene in part 2 of DioE, where Craddock tells the Doctor & Ian about the Daleks. There were also some really good lines, my favourite probably being Nick's "Or can I call you Barry?"" Andrew Curnow

"Excellent stuff once again guys, I really enjoyed that, and has been mentioned, once again the production is superb. And a special mention has to go to Jonno too, as I didn't recognise his voice at all and had to go and look on the website to see who it was." Alex

"Laugh out loud moment:

"Don't you know who I am ?"
"Aren't you that crap actor who does all the computer voices ?"
Jon Masters