History Recap / BigFinishDoctorWho030SeasonsOfFear

* TalkingToHimself: Gralae and Grayle.

* ILoveNuclearPower:: Grayle tries to kill off Queen Edith and King Edward with Plutonium necklaces, as well as a larger part of soldiers with false equipment.

* NiceHat: The Doctor wears one when leaving the TARDIS.

* NotSoDifferent: An heroic inversion. The Doctor tries at one point to convince Grayle to give up his plot by pointing out how alike him and the younger Grayle was and they could have been friends under other circumstances.

* GoLookAtTheDistraction

* IAintGotTimeToBleed

* AltumVidetur: Peppered in the speech of the people in the Roman era.

* StableTimeLoop: ''Somewhat''. The Doctor only went back in time to stop Grayle because Grayle prompted him in an artificial alternate timeline in which the Doctor hadn't even met him yet. Grayle then develops a hatred for him eventually leading to him creating an artificial alternate timeline and [[AustinPowers oh dear I've gone crosseyed]].

Their third stop is with a conman in RegencyEngland, posing as Richard Martin, and his supposed daughter Lucy. Their con mark Grayle -- Lucy's fiancee -- is now several times older than the Doctor. When confronted, Grayle kills "Richard" and tries to sacrifice Lucy to his masters, and opens up a time portal which spits out a giant metallic egg. The Doctor finally puts all the pieces together. Bulls, horned artifacts, one loyal follower, human sacrifice... it's [[spoiler: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E5TheHornsOfNimon the Nimons]]]]!

Retreating into the TARDIS, the Doctor makes a fake HeroicSacrifice and lets himself and the aliens get sucked into the time vortex without protection. He's able to steer them to Roman Britain, where he falls out of the sky in front of his friend Lucillius... about an hour before he'll have met Lucillius the first time around. The Doctor pretends to be a messenger of Mithras, and Lucillius mobilises an army to kill all the aliens using the iron temple sword. The Doctor, meanwhile, hastily visits Grayle, moments before Grayle pledges his life to his masters, and convinces him (with the help of some of future Grayle's gold) to lead a virtuous life instead. When future Grayle barges in on them (thanks to the TARDIS' fast return switch), original Grayle is horrified to see what he'll become, and murders his future self.

The timeline restores itself as best as it can, Lucy is taken home, "Richard" is alive again, and all's well that ends well, except [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho033Neverland a being with Charley's appearance shows up and eats Lucy and "Richard"]].

* AlternateTimeline: Edith Swan-Neck was the consort of Harold Godwinesson, not Edward the Confessor. It was a different Edith, Edith of Wessex, that was Edward's wife. Benjamin Franklin is mentioned as an American President when he never was. This actually becomes relevant as [[spoiler:it is a sign of the damage the Anti-Time has done to the Web of Time, and [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowes]] the Anti-Time Crisis]].
* AltumVidetur: Peppered in the speech of the people in the Roman era.

* CallBack: To [[MemeticMutation the most famous line]] from the [[spoiler: Nimons']] first appearance: [[spoiler: "WEAKLING SCUM!"]]

** In fact a lot of the story seeps in this. [[spoiler: The Nimon being vanquished by Plutonium based weaponry created some Greek Myths.]]
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: ''Doctor''.

* [[spoiler: ConMan]]: The Doctor's not Charley's papa [[spoiler: And neither is Martin Lucy's]].

* DealWithTheDevil: Grayle with the [[spoiler:Nimon]], who are even called demons. The way he is siding with the supposed enemies of his God further emphasises this.

* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: Edith]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The first part of the adventure mentions the [[spoiler: Minotaur]] and [[spoiler: Demon Bulls]] quite a bit.

* FutureMeScaresMe: [[spoiler:To the point where Grayle decides to kill his future self.]]
-->'''Past-Grayle:''' [[spoiler:He was... e-evil. The worst kind of man. I couldn't let him kill you. How I could turn into that-- that ''thing''? No honour, no love, no humanity...]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The Plutonium [[spoiler: kill the Nimon]].
* [[spoiler: HordeOfAlienLocusts]]: The Masters.

* IAmAHumanitarian: [[spoiler: The Nimon]]
** [[spoiler: And what the hell ate Lucy and Martin at the end]]

* ILoveNuclearPower:: [[spoiler: Grayle tries to kill off Queen Edith and King Edward with Plutonium necklaces, as well as a larger part of soldiers with false equipment]].

* LetsMockTheMonsters: The Doctor mocks [[spoiler: the Nimon]] quite extensively when they first show up, mainly because they're nearly powerless and need equipment [[spoiler: that Martin had stolen]].

** Gralae is initially unsure of himself, acting on the orders of the first higher power that actually reaches out to contact him towards the end of [[spoiler:becoming someone respectable enough to marry the woman he loves.]]
** The second (chronological) Grayle is a KnightTemplar who perceives his benefactors as angels, while his drastically extended life has [[WeAreAsMayflies skewed his view on the human race.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Gralae sees Grayle and can't understand drove him to this.]]
* {{Narrator}}: The Doctor narrates a large part of the story. [[spoiler: ''To'' someone else than the audience.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: See SequelHook]]

* NoImmortalInertia: [[spoiler: The Doctor has a blade which saps Grayle's immortality, and he says the years would "act their vengeance".]]
* NotSoDifferent: An heroic inversion. The Doctor tries at one point to convince Grayle to give up his plot by pointing out how alike him and the younger Grayle was and they could have been friends under other circumstances.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Discussed. Charley asks the Doctor if he's going to use his usual tactic of acting like an idiot until people talk. He claims he has no idea what she's talking about.
* OutlawCouple: [[spoiler: Lucy and Martin]].
* OutrunTheFireball: Leads to the first cliffhanger.
* PaintingTheMedium: When [[spoiler: the Nimons]] ''finally'' appear in the third act, the Doctor asks them if they'd like to introduce themselves or if he should do the honours. It stretches the anticipation just a little further, leading to a ''magnificent'' reveal.

* SequelHook: [[spoiler: Who is the Doctor narrating to? How did the Doctor create the TemporalParadox? And what ate Lucy and Richard?]]
* TheSlowPath: Grayle is forced to take it after making a pact with his masters, leaving him several ''times'' older than the Doctor.

* [[spoiler: TamperingWithFoodAndDrink]]

** What makes this more weird is that it's not clear where the Grayle the Doctor first met came from, [[spoiler: since the evil Grayle from 1806 was killed by his past self and never lived in a timeline where the Nimons conquered Earth.]]

* WouldHitAGirl: Or rather the future Grayle would kill women. This is used to show how he has changed over the years, [[spoiler:which his past self picks up on to realise he has become evil.]]

* {{Pun}}
--->'''Charley:''' "I don't know what's a Cretan Urn."
--->'''Doctor:''' "Less than a Grecian."

* TheRomanEmpire: Roman Britain is the first stop for the Doctor and Charley while tracking down Grayle.

* FutureMeScaresMe: [[spoiler:To the point where Grayle kills his future self.]]
-->'''Past-Grayle:''' [[spoiler:He was... e-evil. The worst kind of man. I couldn't let him kill you. How I could turn into that- that ''thing''? No honour, no love, no humanity...]]

* SelfDepraction: When commenting on noticing signs on Grayle's ageing, the Doctor claims "You learn to see such things when you're used to the bitchiness of Time Lords."

[[caption-width-right:350:It's a great chase through time to thwart more dreams of conquest.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:It's a great chase through time to thwart some dreams of conquest.]]