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Final Frame
Written by Lawrence Ahlemeyer

Download Part 1 - 6.5mb, MP3 Download Part 2 - 6.3mb, MP3 "Production Notes" Unlike the other notes, I'm writing this one straight after completing it, so maybe time will alter my perceptions. It's odd, it feels like an ending and yet I know I have several more scripts I want to do and one nearly completed story sitting on my hard drive. Yet this story is the end of one chapter I suppose. We are all different kinds of people now than we were when we started back in 1991. I've sadly lost touch with some folk, whilst others have become even closer friends. I've no idea how many people have heard these stories but I'm occasionally pleasantly surprised when I hear them mentioned in far flung places on the Internet, or an unexpected email arrives with a comment, good or bad, usually good. Mind you, people who hate them are less likely to expend the energy writing to criticise are they? Whilst waiting for the script to be finished, I had recorded Madhouse for the second season and produced the first Agents of Psyence story called Truth and Bone. Lawrence meanwhile had started a new job and moved house, which consumed a lot of his time. Eventually, Lawrence came up to my house and we wrote most of the second episode in a day. Lawrence returned to my house later to sit in on some of the mixing, which was very helpful and something I'll try and repeat with future stories and writers. When the background sound is especially busy, that's probably as much thanks to Lawrence's pushing me. Lately I've also added a new amplifier to my PC set-up, which has helped make production easier. For the sound effects, they are mostly off the shelf but often tweaked by altering the pitch and adding flange to make them suitable. Chatri is a friend of my Agents of Psyence co-producer Rik Hoskin and was already an experienced composer and musician. He very kindly supplied an album's worth of new material for Final Frame and what you hear in the story is only about a third of it! I'm pretty happy with this story. Although there have been several 'reset button' stories appearing in Doctor Who fiction lately, this one still manages to be different and it wraps up the season completely, leaving the landscape clear for a lighter season two. Whenever that is! "Writers Notes" It wasn't supposed to take this long... Back when I wrote Present Infinite in the early 1990s (where did that decade go?), I always had it in mind to write the final story featuring Raman, in which his origins and motives would be revealed. I had a reasonably clear idea from the start who Raman was, and what he was up to, but over the years I completely went off my idea. Originally, the story was going to be a Time Lord epic. But then I realised I needed to jump off that particular bandwagon, as the subject had been done to death. So, by the time Gareth came to actually ask for a script, I needed to work out from scratch (1) who Raman really was, (2) why he was doing what he was doing, and (3) how to resolve the whole story arc, with the Doctor winning the day as usual. For a time it looked like this might be the last ever Who story from Fine Line, so at first I offered Gareth the option of a more downbeat ending. But Gareth was clear he wanted a happy resolution anyway. I also had to make sure that my new explanation didn't contradict anything in the stories featuring Raman – so I felt like I'd painted myself into a pretty tight corner, and for ages I was really stuck for ideas. Whereas Present Infinite had played safe by closely emulating what had gone before in audio Who, this time I wanted to write something that didn't feel like it had already been done. I was angling for the audience to have an instant 'what a great idea why hasn't anyone thought of that before?' reaction, as I had had with stories like the Lawrence Miles novel Alien Bodies and Big Finish's The One Doctor. I don't think I quite achieved that in the finished script, though. Eventually I ended up asking for help from the other Fine Line contributors. Several of us were in Bolton for a weekend, and this led to us having a slightly alcohol-fuelled plot brainstorming session at Gareth's local. It helped that by now Adrian Hudson had written Second Chance, and Adrian suggested we should subvert the audience's expectation: instead of continuing where Second Chance left off, what if we portray the aftermath instead? This was the key idea that revived my interest. I was also, though, certain that the story did still need to provide a grand finale. After more thinking, I realised I could have it both ways, and this suggested the overall structure of Final Frame. I actually came up with the identity and motivation of Raman after I'd outlined the story structure. As the device Adrian used of having the Doctor 'talking to himself' was very effective, I thought it could work well in my story – and also provide a kind of thematic bridge to tell regular listeners that, despite initial impressions, this is the next story in the sequence. I was keen to make use of flashbacks, since I thought this would help break up a narrative that had to include a lot of very talky explanation. I'd also been influenced by a number of films and TV productions that relied on flashbacks or unusual chronological techniques, or the conceit of having the protagonist talk with characters who are actually dead (in my case the Doctor's past selves). I'm thinking of things like Edge of Darkness, the BBC adaptation of Iain Banks' The Crow Road and the recent film Memento. With the structure in place, the actual hammering out of the full script didn't take very long. In fact, most of part two was written in the space of a weekend. Incidentally, it took me ages to think of the title, but once I'd hit on Final Frame it stuck immediately. I like the way the word 'frame' can be taken to have a number of different meanings. Originally it had been planned that I would direct, but in the end I was only able to make the second of the two main recording sessions. So although I could still act in one of the guest roles, the directorial chores fell once more to Gareth. I was really pleased that he managed to get some great actors for the crucial characters in part one, especially Trina McGreggor, Rupert Booth and the legendary Nigel Peever. Once recording was complete, I also gave Gareth a bit of help with post production, selecting sound effects and suggesting a few minor edits. Now that all post production is done on computer it's far easier to weigh up alternatives and to correct errors. In the old analogue tape days I would have been more reluctant to point out mistakes in the final edit! I don't think I'll be writing any more Who stories for Fine Line, as Gareth has filled all the slots for 'season two'. But I am still helping out with script editing here and there, and maybe someday I might contribute a 'proper' non-Who script. Lawrence Ahlemeyer June 2003 To order Final Frame on high quality CD, please click here. Contact Us Latest News Links Film Reviews Site Credits Profiles Green Room