The Darkened Earth was the seventh story of the eighth season of Big Finish Productions' Short Trips series.

Publisher's summary[]

Mrs Constance Clarke has faced perils on many planets, but now she finds herself in the most dangerous place on Earth. A place like home, yet terrifyingly different, where ordinary decent folk might hand her over to a dreadful fate. And as night falls, she and the Doctor realise that something is on the prowl outside, a creature darker than the dark. And hungry...

Plot[]

The Doctor takes Constance to Earth in her future and they head to a nearby village to find out exactly where and when they are, the Doctor believing that they have landed in England. Constance helps a scared boy, Peter, walk past a poster depicting a skeleton on an aircraft with words which the translation circuit has translated from German. She and the Doctor realise that they are in World War II Germany and take Peter the rest of the way home, where they are invited inside.

Peter's parents, Johanna and Ulrich explain that Peter believes that a skeleton walks on the rooftops at night and that three men have had their eyes shrivelled up, with only one of them surviving. His sister, Sophie, sees a tall, shrouded creature in the garden whilst looking for her cat and the Doctor notices that the light seems to be being drawn out of the room. The creature breaks into the house through Sophie's window and chases Constance and Peter and the Doctor switches off all of the lights, realising that it is drawn to light.

Everyone leaves the house, but Sophie goes back to find her cat and is grabbed by the creature. The Doctor tells Sophie to close her eyes and Constance uses her torch to distract it before Ulrich throws a lantern at the shed. The creature drops Sophie to suck the energy out of the fire and escapes when policemen alerted to the fire shoot at it. Constance and the Doctor head back to the TARDIS where the Doctor charges up her torch, which she uses to feed the creature a huge amount of energy. It disappears in a burst of light, but the Doctor does not know if it is dead or has managed to leave Earth.

Characters[]

• Sixth Doctor
• Constance Clarke
• Peter
• Johanna
• Ulrich
• Sophie
• Creature

Crew[]

• Narrator - Miranda Raison
• Cover Art - Anthony Lamb
• Director - Lisa Bowerman
• Executive Producer - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
• Music and Sound Design - David Roocroft
• Producer & Script Editor - Ian Atkins
• Writer - John Pritchard

Worldbuilding[]

• Constance remembers a speech by Winston Churchill from 1940.
• Constance mentions having married Henry Clarke and believing that it would be forever.
• Constance has a service-issue pair of sunglasses which resemble goggles.
• Constance has a brass torch which Henry gave her.

Notes[]

• This story was recorded on 27 March 2017 at the Soundhouse Studios.
• In the style of The Companion Chronicles, this story is told from Constance's perspective.
• This story is available as a digital download only.

Continuity[]

to be added

External links[]

• Official The Darkened Earth page at bigfinish.com