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The Companion Chronicles #3.8
Doctor Who: The Prisoner's Dilemma
Two prisoners meet in a prison cell. Zara is searching for the segments of the Key to Time; she was only born yesterday but already she’s killed hundreds of people. Ace is more ambitious: she was going to kill everyone on the planet.
What have they got against the people of Erratoon? They go peaceably about their simple assignments, beneath their artificial sky. They share their meals and leisure time and they never ask questions. Are they even real?
Ace and Zara will only survive if they can trust each other. Or perhaps if they sell each other out... If not their awful punishment is to become just like everyone else.
What have they got against the people of Erratoon? They go peaceably about their simple assignments, beneath their artificial sky. They share their meals and leisure time and they never ask questions. Are they even real?
Ace and Zara will only survive if they can trust each other. Or perhaps if they sell each other out... If not their awful punishment is to become just like everyone else.
Audio CD
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Simon Guerrier
169 books61 followersSimon Guerrier is a British science fiction author and dramatist, closely associated with the fictional universe of Doctor Who and its spinoffs. Although he has written three Doctor Who novels, for the BBC Books range, his work has mostly been for Big Finish Productions' audio drama and book ranges.
Guerrier's earliest published fiction appeared in Zodiac, the first of Big Finish's Short Trips range of Doctor Who short story anthologies. To date, his work has appeared in the majority of the Short Trips collections. He has also edited three volumes in the series, The History of Christmas, Time Signature and How The Doctor Changed My Life. The second of these takes as its starting-point Guerrier's short story An Overture Too Early in The Muses. The third anthology featured stories entirely by previously unpublished writers.
After contributing two stories to the anthology Life During Wartime in Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield range of books and audio dramas, Guerrier was invited to edit the subsequent year's short story collection, A Life Worth Living, and the novella collection Parallel Lives. After contributing two audio dramas to the series, Guerrier became the producer of the Bernice Summerfield range of plays and books, a post he held between January 2006 and June 2007.
His other Doctor Who work includes the audio dramas, The Settling and The Judgement of Isskar, in Big Finish's Doctor Who audio range, three Companion Chronicles and a contribution to the UNIT spinoff series. He has also written a play in Big Finish's Sapphire and Steel range.
Guerrier's work is characterised by character-driven humour and by an interest in unifying the continuity of the various Big Finish ranges through multiple references and reappearances of characters. As editor he has been a strong promoter of the work of various script writers from the Seventh Doctor era of the Doctor Who television series
Guerrier's earliest published fiction appeared in Zodiac, the first of Big Finish's Short Trips range of Doctor Who short story anthologies. To date, his work has appeared in the majority of the Short Trips collections. He has also edited three volumes in the series, The History of Christmas, Time Signature and How The Doctor Changed My Life. The second of these takes as its starting-point Guerrier's short story An Overture Too Early in The Muses. The third anthology featured stories entirely by previously unpublished writers.
After contributing two stories to the anthology Life During Wartime in Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield range of books and audio dramas, Guerrier was invited to edit the subsequent year's short story collection, A Life Worth Living, and the novella collection Parallel Lives. After contributing two audio dramas to the series, Guerrier became the producer of the Bernice Summerfield range of plays and books, a post he held between January 2006 and June 2007.
His other Doctor Who work includes the audio dramas, The Settling and The Judgement of Isskar, in Big Finish's Doctor Who audio range, three Companion Chronicles and a contribution to the UNIT spinoff series. He has also written a play in Big Finish's Sapphire and Steel range.
Guerrier's work is characterised by character-driven humour and by an interest in unifying the continuity of the various Big Finish ranges through multiple references and reappearances of characters. As editor he has been a strong promoter of the work of various script writers from the Seventh Doctor era of the Doctor Who television series
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 2, 2023
This one really drove home the reasons that I prefer the full-cast audio-dramas as opposed to these (what I call) audio-hybrids. These aren’t audiobooks, as they have multiple actors playing different parts. But neither are they the typical audio-drama, as they have narrators reading descriptive text. This can work, but for me, at least usually, it ends up pulling me out of the story. Since I just listened tro Doctor Who: The Judgement of Isskar yesterday and then Doctor Who: The Destroyer of Delights this morning, I can clearly see the ways that this audio-hybrid style doesn’t work as well for. Otherwise it’s still an interesting way of giving some background for characters that weren’t as fully developed in the earlier audio-dramas.
August 6, 2022
Sophie Aldred was amazing as always. It was nice to get an introduction to Zara as well.
January 27, 2026
The Prisoner's Dilemma is a nice little character moment for Ace - and set in an intriguing part of her timeline - but it doesn't really do much for the other character.
October 21, 2017
The Prisoner's Dilemma is a Big Finish audio play in the Doctor Who Companion Chronicles series. It's also a companion piece to the Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor) Key2Time mini-series of three audio plays. I haven't listened to the other volumes of the Key2Time series, though I'm now thinking that I should order them. But anyway, this is meant to be a stand alone story, and I found that it did work that way. If anything it seemed to me to be a sequel to the Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor) Key to Time season.
This story is a bit confusing, and I did have to listen to it in my car twice, but at the same time I found it to be a good story, if a bit unusual. The story has two episodes, and the first episode is told by Zara and in her point of view. The second episode is told by Ace and is in her point of view, though most of it takes place earlier than Zara's section (the two sections overlap). Zara is from outside of time, a place she refers to as "The Grace" and she is an Elemental. The Grace also has two Guardians, equal and opposite. These Guardians will be familiar to Doctor Who television audiences, with both of them turning up in the Key to Time season with the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana I (Mary Tamm). The Black Guardian was also a major player during Peter Davison's tenure as the Doctor. So, Zara's introduction makes perfect sense, she is working for the Guardians - along with her sister. Both are brand-new to our universe. Both have an assignment - to each find three segments to the Key to Time to bring back to the Guardians so the Key can be assembled and the off-kilter balance of the universe be put right.
The story starts with Zara and Ace each stuck in a jail cell someplace. Will they trust each other? Or, will they betray each other? Zara fills us in on her story - after literally appearing from nothing, she takes her first breath of air on a planet. And she's immediately kidnapped by Zinc, who, along with his wife Magda, is investigating a strange new cult that's taking over the galaxy. But that is a detail we learn later. All we know now is what Zara knows, she's picked up from this rainy planet, and she's suddenly somewhere else with Zinc.
Zara, not knowing any better, tells Zinc everything: about the key to time, the Guardians, her job, etc. Zinc probably doesn't believe her and tries to figure out where his teleport bracelet has brought him, because he is way off course. They go to the telescope room at the local museum. And Zinc abandons Zara. Zara, though miffed, thinks she's learned a lesson about not trusting anyone. And she realizes the strange tickling in her nose is actually how she perceives being near a segment of the Key to Time. She follows the sensation to a huge lake on the surface of the planet Erratoon, which is a former prison planet and covered with a Geodestic Dome. She talks someone into taking her out on the lake in a boat, touches the surface of the water - and the entire lake disappears as it takes the form of a segment of the Key, which Zara puts in her satchel. Unfortunately, when the lake suddenly disappears, everyone on the lake dies. Anyone in a boat suddenly crashes down to the rock-hard surface of the lake bed, and dies from the impact. Zara is arrested for "stealing" the lake.
Ace, meanwhile finds herself in a jail cell with Zara. Zara doesn't even tell her, her name. Ace, being Ace, decides immediately to escape. Zara warns her it's not a good idea because if you try to escape you forfit your right to a trial and your memories are stolen. Ace gets them out of the cell anyway, and they are both captured and mind-wiped.
Ace awakes, her memories scrambled, but tells us what she remembers. She'd been with the Doctor, whom she now barely remembers, looking into a "Bonnie and Clyde" couple, Zinc and Magda, who had stolen a time ring and were now running all over space and time - pulling heists, setting up "nest eggs", but also, at times, helping people and being heroes. She and the Doctor are investigating Zinc and Magda to see if they need to be stopped (their current investigation into the cult is trouble, a mystery that isn't meant to be solved yet). But when Zinc goes off to grab an cultist to interview he simply disappears with no word. We, the audience, know he grabbed Zara and disappeared to Erratoon rather than back to his camp with Magda. Ace takes care of Magda, finding a shelter, making a fire, even preparing food from their supplies. Zinc returns and tells Magda that his trip wasn't in vain - the planet he accidentally traveled to is rich in an ore needed for intergalactic travel than makes hyperspace much safer. The three end up on Erratoon and Ace is meant to fire a rocket at the geodestic dome, killing everyone on the planet and leaving it free for mining. Ace tries to find her way out of this, even telling a robot constable what will happen. But the robots only prosecute actual crimes. They don't do any crime prevention. The rocket is set off, and the dome destroyed, but Ace finds herself in a hospital, under the care of The Doctor, but still with a rocky memory. It turns out that all the buildings on the planet were actually ships. When the dome breaks and everyone is expelled into space, they are scooped up by the buildings which are now spaceships. No one died. And now that the secret is out (all the meaningless tasks given to the prisoners weren't so meaningless) a space dock will be built, people can come and go as they please, once the ore is found, everyone on the planet will be rich, and a new colony built. The Doctor even promises he has something called "a TARDIS" which can restore her memories.
This was an excellent story, well told and performed. I liked it, even though at times it was hard to tell what was going on because of the non-chronological nature of the telling of the story.
Recommended.
This story is a bit confusing, and I did have to listen to it in my car twice, but at the same time I found it to be a good story, if a bit unusual. The story has two episodes, and the first episode is told by Zara and in her point of view. The second episode is told by Ace and is in her point of view, though most of it takes place earlier than Zara's section (the two sections overlap). Zara is from outside of time, a place she refers to as "The Grace" and she is an Elemental. The Grace also has two Guardians, equal and opposite. These Guardians will be familiar to Doctor Who television audiences, with both of them turning up in the Key to Time season with the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana I (Mary Tamm). The Black Guardian was also a major player during Peter Davison's tenure as the Doctor. So, Zara's introduction makes perfect sense, she is working for the Guardians - along with her sister. Both are brand-new to our universe. Both have an assignment - to each find three segments to the Key to Time to bring back to the Guardians so the Key can be assembled and the off-kilter balance of the universe be put right.
The story starts with Zara and Ace each stuck in a jail cell someplace. Will they trust each other? Or, will they betray each other? Zara fills us in on her story - after literally appearing from nothing, she takes her first breath of air on a planet. And she's immediately kidnapped by Zinc, who, along with his wife Magda, is investigating a strange new cult that's taking over the galaxy. But that is a detail we learn later. All we know now is what Zara knows, she's picked up from this rainy planet, and she's suddenly somewhere else with Zinc.
Zara, not knowing any better, tells Zinc everything: about the key to time, the Guardians, her job, etc. Zinc probably doesn't believe her and tries to figure out where his teleport bracelet has brought him, because he is way off course. They go to the telescope room at the local museum. And Zinc abandons Zara. Zara, though miffed, thinks she's learned a lesson about not trusting anyone. And she realizes the strange tickling in her nose is actually how she perceives being near a segment of the Key to Time. She follows the sensation to a huge lake on the surface of the planet Erratoon, which is a former prison planet and covered with a Geodestic Dome. She talks someone into taking her out on the lake in a boat, touches the surface of the water - and the entire lake disappears as it takes the form of a segment of the Key, which Zara puts in her satchel. Unfortunately, when the lake suddenly disappears, everyone on the lake dies. Anyone in a boat suddenly crashes down to the rock-hard surface of the lake bed, and dies from the impact. Zara is arrested for "stealing" the lake.
Ace, meanwhile finds herself in a jail cell with Zara. Zara doesn't even tell her, her name. Ace, being Ace, decides immediately to escape. Zara warns her it's not a good idea because if you try to escape you forfit your right to a trial and your memories are stolen. Ace gets them out of the cell anyway, and they are both captured and mind-wiped.
Ace awakes, her memories scrambled, but tells us what she remembers. She'd been with the Doctor, whom she now barely remembers, looking into a "Bonnie and Clyde" couple, Zinc and Magda, who had stolen a time ring and were now running all over space and time - pulling heists, setting up "nest eggs", but also, at times, helping people and being heroes. She and the Doctor are investigating Zinc and Magda to see if they need to be stopped (their current investigation into the cult is trouble, a mystery that isn't meant to be solved yet). But when Zinc goes off to grab an cultist to interview he simply disappears with no word. We, the audience, know he grabbed Zara and disappeared to Erratoon rather than back to his camp with Magda. Ace takes care of Magda, finding a shelter, making a fire, even preparing food from their supplies. Zinc returns and tells Magda that his trip wasn't in vain - the planet he accidentally traveled to is rich in an ore needed for intergalactic travel than makes hyperspace much safer. The three end up on Erratoon and Ace is meant to fire a rocket at the geodestic dome, killing everyone on the planet and leaving it free for mining. Ace tries to find her way out of this, even telling a robot constable what will happen. But the robots only prosecute actual crimes. They don't do any crime prevention. The rocket is set off, and the dome destroyed, but Ace finds herself in a hospital, under the care of The Doctor, but still with a rocky memory. It turns out that all the buildings on the planet were actually ships. When the dome breaks and everyone is expelled into space, they are scooped up by the buildings which are now spaceships. No one died. And now that the secret is out (all the meaningless tasks given to the prisoners weren't so meaningless) a space dock will be built, people can come and go as they please, once the ore is found, everyone on the planet will be rich, and a new colony built. The Doctor even promises he has something called "a TARDIS" which can restore her memories.
This was an excellent story, well told and performed. I liked it, even though at times it was hard to tell what was going on because of the non-chronological nature of the telling of the story.
Recommended.
Read
April 8, 2009The Prisoner's Dilemma has Ace, the Seventh Doctor's companion, sharing a prison cell with the mysterious Zara, who is on a quest. I was not impressed, for much the same reasons as Rob Buckley. The plot resolution didn't make a lot of sense to me (apparently an irreversible brain wipe is not irreversible after all), and Sophie Aldred's weaknesses as a performer seemed to me cruelly exposed - Laura Doddington as Zara is better, but unfortunately this is not saying much. Can safely be skipped if you want to enjoy the other Key 2 Time stories.
April 4, 2020
This was an interesting story. Ace wakes up in a prison with Zera who was looking for the keys 2 Time with his sister and the Doctor. Does she have a link to the next key.
December 15, 2025
There is a lot to like about The Prisoner’s Dilemma, which at its core has a nice symmetry in Zara wondering whether to trust Zinc and the mind-wiped Ace going to trust the man who turns out to be the Doctor. As a Companion Chronicle, we have far more of an opportunity to understand Zara’s first moments as she learns to feel for the first time. The vocal performance is layered, both sympathetic and, eventually, colder and more duplicitous. It won’t set the word alight, but this is an interesting story for what it is, told through flashbacks and altering perspectives.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 4, 2021
Complex storytelling based on the concepts of memory and identity. Ace is on her own and doesn't remember why she's on her own. She catches sight of a strange man in a straw hat and a narrative unfolds as Ace begins to remember what's happening and the danger that is about to unfold.
It's an interesting way to do a Doctor Who story as the tale unfolds in flashbacks and from the perspectives of both Ace and Zara. It's not necessarily well executed, but still an entertaining experience.
It's an interesting way to do a Doctor Who story as the tale unfolds in flashbacks and from the perspectives of both Ace and Zara. It's not necessarily well executed, but still an entertaining experience.
November 20, 2020
It's interesting to see things from Zara's point of view early on, and there's a similar sense of wonder and exploration that we saw from Amy's perspective; more of an insight into Zinc as well, a fascinating character. Plot was a bit meh, not really sure that measured up but I enjoyed the narrative. Probably best enjoyed with the other Key2Time audios.
April 30, 2020
In hindsight, maybe I should've listened to this before the Key 2 Time trilogy, since these are events that happen to Zara prior to that trilogy. I liked her discussion with Ace at the beginning and how it laid things out. The ending feels a bit open-ended, as if there's a gap to fill.
April 8, 2024
Ace is one of my favorite companions, but this story relied too much of knowing or remembering details from the television show. It also had a vague ending. Well performed but not the best script.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews