The Yes Men was the first story of the second series of The Early Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Simon Guerrier, narrated by Anneke Wills and Frazer Hines and featured the Second Doctor, Ben Jackson, Polly Wright and Jamie McCrimmon.

It was notable for being the first full cast audio story to feature Ben Jackson being portrayed by Elliot Chapman, taking on the role from Michael Craze, who had died in 1998.

Publisher's summary[]

The Doctor, Jamie, Polly and Ben arrive on New Houston, an Earth colony in the Fourth Sector, which the Doctor previously saved from an alien invasion. He wishes to pay his respects to his late friend Meg Carvossa, but something is not quite right with New Houston's subservient robots...

Plot[]

Part one[]

The Doctor tries to teach Polly, Ben and Jamie how to fly the TARDIS. After being mocked by the others for not having control of the TARDIS, he tries to show off and ends up landing them in New Houston. The Doctor believes they have been here before the others don't recognise it. They follow the Doctor through the futuristic city, who says they are going to see some old friends of his. They arrive at the Central Information Bank (CIB) tower, trying to find someone but to no avail. The Doctor explains they may celebrating after he, on a different occasion, had helped them stop the Mim invasion. They see on a large screen outside the CIB a gathering and see a poster of Meg Carvossa, the Doctor's old friend, but it does not look like a celebration. They realise it is her funeral and try to go visit her grave afterwards and are greeted by a robot servant who denies them entry and gives confusing, contradictory answers as to the cause of Meg's death. The Doctor decides they are to investigate.

They break into Meg Carvossa's residence and learn from the robot there that they need to go check a few different places and so they split up, Polly with the Doctor and Jamie with Ben. Polly and the Doctor go to the CIB and convince Nesca Bangate to help them. Meanwhile Ben and Jamie, taking advantage of the robot's services, are found by Harriet Quilp, prime designate, who has come to claim and redistribute Meg's possessions. They tell her they are relatives and she permits them to take some small sentimental items. Over the course of the conversation, she reveals her opinions of the robot servants, explaining they're junk and leaves. Jamie apologizes to them for their actions and conversing with the robot discover it is going to escape before being scrapped and says the two are going to die. Polly and the Doctor investigate the death records and discover that Meg Carvossa was murdered...

Part two[]

Nesca Bangate is shocked at this revelation and even moreso that he was apparently the one who entered the data despite having no recollection of it. The Doctor goads him into joining them so as to avoid trouble from higher-up security since he has no alibi either and they take a flying car to get away. They arrive back at the residence to find Ben and Jamie have disappeared. The robots force Jamie and Ben to travel through a tunnel. The Doctor, Polly and Nesca go to Harriet Quilp's office to turn themselves in as part of the Doctor's plan. They converse and discover that acting Prime Designate Quilp is already aware of the murder and having it thoroughly investigated. She suspects they suspect she was the perpetrator but she tells them she has an alibi and recounts the many spats she and Meg Carvossa had, but none would ever have been serious enough to justify murder.

Jamie and Ben are brought to an underground city populated by the robots and marvel and speculate about it. The Doctor. Polly and Nesca investigate the archived data records and discover that the population of New Houston is not as big as Nesca claims it is based on the data. Inside the robot city, Jamie and Ben are given a tour and then forbidden to leave. The Doctor and Polly try to access further information but Nesca Bangate, on orders from acting Prime Designate Quilp, holds them up at gun-point saying that their names aren't found in any of the records. A struggle ensues for the weapon but suddenly Nesca is shot and killed by someone else, the mysterious person is revealed to be Meg Carvossa...

Part three[]

Despite the touching reunion between the Doctor and Meg, he is still upset about her using violence but she retorts that she's not the little girl he once knew anymore. Meg explains to a disbelieving Doctor and Polly that Bangate tried to kill her which is why she shot him, convinced he would've followed through. Before they can escape, they are caught by Quilp.

Jamie and Ben are separated and Jamie is forced to partake in chores for the robots. After an altercation, the robots ask Jamie to teach them his ways. The Doctor attempts to broker peace between Quilp and Carvossa but Carvossa, as Prime Designate, orders the robots to capture and imprison Quilp, and the Doctor is dismayed at her stark change in personality from the little girl he once knew and met before with his companion Dodo when he had helped New Houston against the Mim invasion. Jamie is placed in a machine that makes him relive his memories of the Battle of Culloden. The Doctor is worried by Quilp's treatment, believing that she may be innocent as something isn't adding up. They go to the correction facility where she was taken and talk with her but she is forced into a machine before all their questions can be answered. Jamie continues to witness himself participate in the battle. He is reawakened by the robots who say that they have learned how to enact their plan and begin. Meg Carvossa arrives and asks the Doctor if Quilp confessed, however, the Doctor says he thinks he's worked it out and thanks to Polly they've figured out another clue, the population of New Huston is claimed to be twenty-two million while above ground they've barely seen anyone. He realises that by doing this they can claim larger resources be sent to them from the Earth government. What started out as an initial tiny lie to help the starving colony after the war with the Mim slowly turned into Meg helping herself to more and more resources, taking larger and larger cuts and requesting larger resource assistance to maintain the regular colony supply in order to not arouse suspicion. Meg Carvossa tries to justify her actions but the Doctor says that while she helped herself just a little bit initially, she faked more and more data. When she confesses, the Doctor reveals he had Harriet Quilp hiding away to get the confession and Harriet reveals herself as well. As they walk, the Doctor points out that even with Meg arrested, the robot's behaviour doesn't make sense as when they broke into Meg's residence earlier, initially, the robots didn't question them or check their credentials. Suddenly the robots holding Meg stop and she escapes while they begin marching towards them, with robots appearing from every corner of the city, forming a marching queue and begin to cry "Creag an tuire!", preparing to attack...

Part four[]

The robots approach them but they are saved by Meg Carvossa in a hovercar who first blackmails Quilp into pardoning her and making a record that the senate fully backs her on her decisions. They go to the CIB, the most secure place in the city, and find many of the citizens cowering in the library, but they regain composure at the site of Meg Carvossa. They hatch a plan to have the citizens use the data terminals so they can gather data on the robots to find a way to stop them. Suddenly they realise that the robots are behaving peculiarly and put two-and-two together, and that Jamie is somehow linked with the robots. They attempt to find out how. The Doctor comes out of the CIB and greets the robots, who stop and gather to talk to him. He asks after Jamie and Ben and the robots reveal that they are well and they will bring them to him as they have only come to negotiate their rights with the citizens of New Houston, as they want to be freed from servitude and treated equally as citizens too.

Polly, Carvossa and Quilp discuss a plan of action and that they may potentially need to deactivate the robots to ensure no one gets hurt. Ben and Jamie reunite with the Doctor and they explain what the robots did to them, and how they are helping the robots revolt for being treated so horribly. They ask if the Doctor will join them, but he is distressed and tries to decline, prompting Jamie to say that if he's not with them, he's against them. Meanwhile Polly, Carvossa and Quilp try to access the central control to re-condition the robots. Just then the Doctor arrives and says he is acting as a messenger for the robots, saying that they have a few requests that they hope the citizens and Prime Designate will agree to. Just then the robots enter and under threat, Carvossa turns her gun from the robots to the Doctor. Ben and Jamie try to get through the ranks of the robots and get inside to see the Doctor. However, the robots stop them from getting through and suddenly Carvossa and Quilp emerge, holding the Doctor and Polly hostage and the robot explains to them that based on the data taken from them, they must not harm the Doctor or Polly, and the Prime Designate has ordered them to back down of else the two will be killed. The two finally approach Carvossa and Quilp and they demand that Ben and Jamie order the robots shut down, but they do not obey. One of the robots who aided in the arrest of Meg Carvossa then transmits and plays on the big screen of the CIB the recording from earlier of Meg Carvossa acknowledging her crimes and her greediness by submitting falsified data to get more resources for herself and her citizens. The citizens are disgusted by this and demand Meg be sacked while the robots reveal they simply want to be treated as equal citizens. An snap election is called and the robots and citizens are to vote for a new Prime Designate and the robots are to be made citizens and given the same rights and privileges as the human citizens. While the voting takes place, the Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie slip away.

Later on after the election, Polly plays football with some of the children, robots and humans alike in the park while an impressed and slightly love-struck Ben watches her admiringly. They finish up and head back to the TARDIS arm-in-arm, followed by Jamie and then the Doctor. He notices Meg Carvossa standing outside it and tells the others to go inside while he faces her. The two have an upsetting goodbye as she has become too different a person for the Doctor to consent to let her travel with him as he had once offered before, a long, long time ago, despite her asking. The TARDIS dematerialises and Meg walks back into the city to face the ruin that will be the rest of her life.

Cast[]

• Polly Wright/Narrator - Anneke Wills
• Jamie McCrimmon/The Doctor - Frazer Hines
• Ben Jackson - Elliot Chapman
• Harriet Quilp - Lizzie McInnerny
• The Yes Men - Stephen Critchlow
• Nesca Bangate - Timothy Speyer
• The President - Jane Slavin

Crew[]

• Cover Art - Tom Webster
• Director - Lisa Bowerman
• Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
• Music and Sound Design - Toby Hrycek-Robinson
• Producer - David Richardson
• Script Editor - John Dorney
• Writer - Simon Guerrier

Worldbuilding[]

• The Doctor recalls visiting New Houston in his first incarnation, with his companion Dodo, during which they averted a Mim invasion and befriended Meg Carvossa.
• New Houston is an Earth colony in the Fourth Sector.
• A major building in the colony is the Central Information Bank or CIB.
• Jamie mistakes a Yes Man for a Cyberman.
• Ben says that his father died of a heart attack.
• Jamie and Polly compare the Yes Men to the Daleks and Cybermen.
• Jamie, Ben and Polly play a game of football.
• Jamie teaches the Yes Men his battle cry "Creag an tuire".
• Meg's house contains 30th century furniture.
• Polly reminds the Doctor that he doesn't have control of the TARDIS, otherwise he would return her and Ben to their own time in 1966
• A statue of the last Guardian of the Solar System is seen in Meg's residence. This is potentially Mavic Chen, although no details of the statue's image are given.
• Polly, the Doctor and Nesca Bangate escape in a hovercar.
• QWERTY has become so standard that letters are not even printed on keys anymore and all citizens are taught to know how to type using the standard.

Notes[]

• Ben doesn't appear in episode 3.
• This story was recorded on 23 and 24 July 2014 at the Moat Studios.
• Speaking in the extras, writer Simon Guerrier cites influences from the film The Third Man and The War Machines.
• While breaking into Meg's residence, Ben dubs the robot servants "The Yes Men" after a robot continually replies "yes" or agrees to all of their inquiries. This is the title of the story.
• Simon Guerrier wrote the story on the belief that Frazer Hines was going to voice Ben Jackson as well as the Second Doctor and Jamie, unaware that Elliot Chapman was to be cast. (BFX: The Outliers)

Continuity[]

• The Mim once attempted to invade New Houston. (AUDIO: The Tub Full of Cats et al.)
• New Houston is in the Fourth Sector. (TV: The Space Pirates)
• Jamie has a vision of participating in the Battle of Culloden in 1745. (TV: The Highlanders)
• Ben is forced to relive his experience against the Daleks on Vulcan. (TV: The Power of the Daleks)
• The TARDIS has a fast return switch. (TV: The Edge of Destruction)
• The Doctor is trying to return Polly and Ben to 1966. (TV: The Faceless Ones)
• The Doctor says that Dodo left him because she had enough of travelling. (TV: The War Machines)
• Polly reminds the Doctor he doesn't have control of the TARDIS. Vicki also explains this to Steven (TV: The Time Meddler) and Jamie mentions it to Victoria when she joins them. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)
• When the Doctor says he's been here before but Polly exclaims they haven't, he says "it must've been when I was someone else". (TV: An Unearthly Child, et al. )
• Polly, the Doctor and Nesca Bangate escape in a hovercar. The Fourth Doctor and Romana used a similar vehicle, an air car, to get to the the Captain's mountain base, the Bridge, on Zanak. (TV: The Pirate Planet)
• Jamie mentions his Laird. (TV: The Highlanders)

External links[]

• Official The Yes Men page at bigfinish.com