The Eternity Club was an exclusive club for noted explorers located on a private asteroid.
Geography[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Eternity Club was located on a private asteroid circling the edge of the universe. It had a common room, a dining room, (AUDIO: The Armageddon Chair [+]Loading...["The Armageddon Chair (audio story)"]) a billiards room, a walled garden, (AUDIO: Rhubarb [+]Loading...["Rhubarb (audio story)"]) a hangar-sized cloakroom in one of the asteroid's hollows, (AUDIO: Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom [+]Loading...["Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom (audio story)"]) a docking bay, (AUDIO: The Terrible Shame of a Tree [+]Loading...["The Terrible Shame of a Tree (audio story)"]) an observatory, (AUDIO: Mr Pym Has an Adventure [+]Loading...["Mr Pym Has an Adventure (audio story)"]) several larders, (AUDIO: Sanctuary [+]Loading...["Sanctuary (audio story)"]) a server farm, a portrait gallery and an exhibition hall.
The day/night cycle was 16 standard hours. (AUDIO: Satrap [+]Loading...["Satrap (audio story)"])
Personnel[[edit] | [edit source]]
Members[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Oldest was a member of the Eternity Club for at least two thousand years and was so named due to her being its oldest member. (AUDIO: Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom [+]Loading...["Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom (audio story)"]) 312 joined the club by invitation following the Fall of Kreldor (AUDIO: The Armageddon Chair [+]Loading...["The Armageddon Chair (audio story)"]) and later learnt that the Oldest was responsible for his membership. (AUDIO: Sanctuary [+]Loading...["Sanctuary (audio story)"])
Professor Altazar was a Draconian historian (AUDIO: The Armageddon Chair [+]Loading...["The Armageddon Chair (audio story)"]) who had a rivalry with fellow member Starll, (AUDIO: Rhubarb [+]Loading...["Rhubarb (audio story)"]) a Sontaran with an interest in military history. (AUDIO: The Armageddon Chair [+]Loading...["The Armageddon Chair (audio story)"]) Starll had romantic feelings towards Queen Grizella, (AUDIO: Sanctuary [+]Loading...["Sanctuary (audio story)"]) a Drahvin exiled from Drahva after the fall of the Empress. (AUDIO: The Armageddon Chair [+]Loading...["The Armageddon Chair (audio story)"])
Derek the Tree joined the club at some point after fleeing Lucrece, having been unwilling to give up his body in the construction of the Endless Arboretum. (AUDIO: The Terrible Shame of a Tree [+]Loading...["The Terrible Shame of a Tree (audio story)"]) The Suspension of Geren also came to join the club and was prone to gossiping about her fellow members. (AUDIO: The Armageddon Chair [+]Loading...["The Armageddon Chair (audio story)"])
Mx Plubost was the most private member of the club and was assisted by Pym in his isolation on the asteroid for seven years. He was killed by the Dalek Delegate alongside three fellow members: a beatnik collector, the Dean of Manussan Literature and the Visiting Lecturer on Block Transfer Computation. (AUDIO: Satrap [+]Loading...["Satrap (audio story)"])
Bernice Summerfield was brought to the club by the Oldest, (AUDIO: Sanctuary [+]Loading...["Sanctuary (audio story)"]) but her fees were not paid despite her standing order and she had to undertake menial work at the club to pay. (AUDIO: The Armageddon Chair [+]Loading...["The Armageddon Chair (audio story)"])
Other members included Demington Smoot, (AUDIO: Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom [+]Loading...["Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom (audio story)"]) Madam McNeil (AUDIO: Satrap [+]Loading...["Satrap (audio story)"]) and her family, (AUDIO: Liturgy of Death [+]Loading...["Liturgy of Death (audio story)"]) Don Erasmus, (AUDIO: Triumph of the Drahvin [+]Loading...["Triumph of the Drahvin (audio story)"]) the Contessa, (AUDIO: Rhubarb [+]Loading...["Rhubarb (audio story)"]) the Sisterhood of Grel, (AUDIO: The Lonely Bomb [+]Loading...["The Lonely Bomb (audio story)"]) Herstus the Elder and Curate Avionne. (AUDIO: Satrap [+]Loading...["Satrap (audio story)"])
Support staff[[edit] | [edit source]]
A Sentinel who became the Nurse (AUDIO: Sanctuary [+]Loading...["Sanctuary (audio story)"]) cared for the Oldest.
The Eternity Club was managed and maintained by Secretary Pym, (AUDIO: The Armageddon Chair [+]Loading...["The Armageddon Chair (audio story)"]) who ensured that its location remained secret. (AUDIO: Rhubarb [+]Loading...["Rhubarb (audio story)"]) He was assisted in his duties by clockwork butlers.
Bernice Summerfield undertook menial work at the club to earn money after she failed to pay her membership fees. (AUDIO: The Armageddon Chair [+]Loading...["The Armageddon Chair (audio story)"])
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Early history[[edit] | [edit source]]
The asteroid had no indigenous life. (AUDIO: Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom [+]Loading...["Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom (audio story)"]) The Oldest was kept there by a Sentinel, which took on the identity of the Nurse, and became the first member of the Eternity Club. Having reprogrammed 312 to do whatever he could to save her should she be threatened, the Oldest sponsored 312 to join the club (AUDIO: Sanctuary [+]Loading...["Sanctuary (audio story)"]) following the Fall of Kreldor. 312 took the Ascension Pennant with him to the club but forgot its significance and it ended up being used as a tablecloth in the dining room after he absent-mindedly put it in the wash. (AUDIO: The Armageddon Chair [+]Loading...["The Armageddon Chair (audio story)"])
Demington Smoot joined the Eternity Club and brought with him a terraforming globe which was stored incorrectly in the cloakroom. The globe caused part of the floor to collapse and resulted in a number of the club's oldest antiques falling into the caverns below in addition to giving life to a number of coats which came to form a religion. Clockwork butlers were sent into the caverns to salvage what they could, but they failed to return.
At least two thousand years after the Oldest's arrival at the club, Secretary Pym came to be in charge of managing and maintaining the club and was aware of how long the Oldest had been there. (AUDIO: Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom [+]Loading...["Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom (audio story)"]) She had by this time forgotten who she really was and that she had sponsored 312. (AUDIO: Sanctuary [+]Loading...["Sanctuary (audio story)"]) Pym did not leave the asteroid for several decades after coming to work at the club. (AUDIO: Mr Pym Has an Adventure [+]Loading...["Mr Pym Has an Adventure (audio story)"])
Mx Plubost, the last survivor of his species following a Dalek attack on their planet, was a member of the club and was assisted by Pym in their isolation for seven years. (AUDIO: Satrap [+]Loading...["Satrap (audio story)"])
Benny's service[[edit] | [edit source]]
Bernice Summerfield was invited to join the Eternity Club by the Oldest, but the Nurse used hypnosis to make Benny forget this. (AUDIO: Sanctuary [+]Loading...["Sanctuary (audio story)"]) As a result, Benny could not recall how she arrived there. She failed to pay her fees, however, and Secretary Pym had her undertake menial work at the club until payment was made, refusing to allow her to leave any sooner. Upon offending several members of the club, Benny followed the Suspension of Geren's suggestion that she find the Ascension Pennant for 312 to earn his favour, which was successful until 312 forgot about her kind deed due to his amnesia. (AUDIO: The Armageddon Chair [+]Loading...["The Armageddon Chair (audio story)"])
A number of members of the Eternity Club went on an expedition led by Queen Grizella to the City of Parroon. Professor Altazar, 312 and Starll were attacked there by Sister Lost, who also killed Don Erasmus. (AUDIO: Triumph of the Drahvin [+]Loading...["Triumph of the Drahvin (audio story)"])
The Oldest infected Derek the Tree with dark rhubarb (AUDIO: Sanctuary [+]Loading...["Sanctuary (audio story)"]) which he unwittingly transmitted across the club with his telepathic network, replacing people's words with "rhubarb". Misunderstandings due to this led to Starll and Altazar convincing the Sontarans and Draconians to go to war for their respective honour, but Benny and the clockwork butlers used a solution to cure everybody of the dark rhubarb's effects. Altazar remained affected until Benny was able to shock him out of it by breaking one of his miniatures, however, after which he stood the Draconians down. (AUDIO: Rhubarb [+]Loading...["Rhubarb (audio story)"])
Given a piece of psychic paper by the Oldest which appeared to be a ticket for the cloakroom, Benny visited with Pym and discovered the primitive civilisation of the coats in the caverns below. Benny torched the hostile coats before feeling guilty and instead using the club's psychic dampener to sedate them whilst she and Pym escaped from them. (AUDIO: Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom [+]Loading...["Please Retain Your Ticket for the Cloakroom (audio story)"])
Benny had the club celebrate the Suspension of Geren's birthday with birthday cakes and other human traditions with which they were unfamiliar. During the celebrations, Benny took Derek to the Endless Arboretum where he chose to remain. (AUDIO: The Terrible Shame of a Tree [+]Loading...["The Terrible Shame of a Tree (audio story)"])
The Liturgy's attack[[edit] | [edit source]]
Upon learning that Secretary Pym had never left the asteroid, Altazar, Grizella and the Suspension of Geren decided that he should not be giving orders to explorers and Benny had the clockwork butlers kidnap him so that he might have an adventure. On the planet nearest to the Eternity Club, Pym had the butlers rebuild the Great Gate of Light (AUDIO: Mr Pym Has an Adventure [+]Loading...["Mr Pym Has an Adventure (audio story)"]) and unwittingly brought back the Liturgy of Death. (AUDIO: Liturgy of Death [+]Loading...["Liturgy of Death (audio story)"])
The Liturgy travelled to the Eternity Club and demanded that the Death, an alternative version of the Master, was handed over to them. Overhearing that Benny believed that this was the Oldest, the club hid the Oldest to keep her safe and Altazar and Starll refused the Liturgy when their advance shuttle docked, prompting the Liturgy to attack and fight against the clockwork butlers. The butlers were unable to hold them back, however, (AUDIO: Sanctuary [+]Loading...["Sanctuary (audio story)"]) and so Pym claimed to be the Master so that the fighting might end. Whilst Pym was taken away by the Liturgy, the rest of the club were kept under guard.
After Starll defeated the guard, 312 interfaced with the old construction hub to use the drillheads as missiles, Grizella and Altazar assembled explosives and Starll turned the telescope into a weapon. The Liturgy began a bombardment after learning that Pym had deceived them, but the Endless Arboretum came to the club's defence and the Oldest claimed that she was indeed the Master and frightened the Liturgy into retreating. (AUDIO: Liturgy of Death [+]Loading...["Liturgy of Death (audio story)"])
Dalek occupation[[edit] | [edit source]]
Further info from We Don't Talk About Mavic Chen [+]Loading...["We Don't Talk About Mavic Chen (audio story)"], Vizier [+]Loading...["Vizier (audio story)"] and Emperor [+]Loading...["Emperor (audio story)"] needs to be added
The Dalek Delegate arrived at the Eternity Club to attend the Conference of War, but arrived before the conference had so much as been arranged. It fought the clockwork butlers, killed the Sisterhood of Grel and ordered Secretary Pym to arrange the conference, supplying him with a list which Benny stole. She and 312 escaped the club inside the Nurse and worked to change the future by stopping those on the list from entering into an alliance with the Daleks. (AUDIO: The Lonely Bomb [+]Loading...["The Lonely Bomb (audio story)"])
The Dalek Delegate put the club to work preparing for the conference and forced Secretary Pym to serve him by threatening his life as well as those of the members. Whilst Altazar and Starll fled the club in a stolen shuttle, the Suspension of Geren embarked on several acts of minor sabotage and Pym was tasked with identifying the culprit as well as providing a complete list of the members, resulting in him exposing Mx Plubost. Following Geren's exposure, the Dalek Delegate exterminated Mx Plubost as well as a beatnik collector, the Dean of Manussan Literature and the Visiting Lecturer on Block Transfer Computation, whom it had taken hostage, and forced Geren to become a Dalek agent. (AUDIO: Satrap [+]Loading...["Satrap (audio story)"])
Having seen that Halk was on the list that Benny had and knowing that Orlantha was buried there, (AUDIO: Quisling [+]Loading...["Quisling (audio story)"]) Grizella left the club in a shuttle using a stolen winding key. (AUDIO: Satrap [+]Loading...["Satrap (audio story)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
James Goss and Tim Foley created the Eternity Club as they "thought it would be lovely to give Benny a bit of recognition".[1]