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During their travels, the Doctor and his companions have found
themselves at various points in Earth's past: from Shakespearean
London to an Ashes cricket match; from the plains of Africa
to Sherwood Forest; and from the time of King Alfred to the
turn of the Millennium...
Doctor Who has a rich history of telling stories concerning,
um, history. Seems like a good theme for an anthology book,
then.
And
yet several of the tales in this collection appear to have
wandered in from elsewhere. I don't know about you, but to
me a Fifth Doctor tale set in 1984 doesn't really feel like
a story that deals with Earth's past, any more than a Sixth
Doctor adventure set during 1985 does, since those years were
the present day for the Doctors concerned. Yet that's precisely
what Eric Saward and Samantha Baker give us in their respective
contributions, CHAOS and Fixing a Hole. At least
Fixing a Hole is an enjoyable story (more on that later),
whereas CHAOS is not - some nonsense about hallucinations
echoing the events of Resurrection of the Daleks.
I'm not saying that all the stories need to be set hundreds
or thousands or years in the past in order to justify their
inclusion. Some of the most enjoyable entries are quiet little
tales set just a few decades ago. Both Far From Home,
by Alison Lawson, and Bide-a-Wee, by Anthony Keetch,
show how subtly yet undeniably different the world was back
in 1928 and 1933 respectively. Far From Home, an Eighth
Doctor adventure, harks back to an innocent time when children
could walk themselves to school without fearing for their
safety. Bide-a-Wee, featuring the First Doctor, reminds
us that the "good old days" had their own disadvantages, such
as widespread racism.
Naturally,
no collection of historical tales would be complete without
some famous names from Earth's past. Accordingly, the Fourth
Doctor and Sarah meet Kit Marlowe in Christopher Bav's All
Done With Mirrors, which deals with events that were once
considered for inclusion in an unmade Doctor Who motion
picture. The Fifth Doctor and Turlough bump into H Rider Haggard
during White Man's Burden by John Binns, while Jonathan
Morris's The Thief of Sherwood features (no prizes
for guessing) Robin Hood.
Most of the stories while away the time very nicely, but The
Thief of Sherwood is my personal favourite. This highly
original piece of work is structured as if to comprise various
written accounts of an imaginary William Hartnell serial,
and includes a Radio Times synopsis, various reports
from Doctor Who Weekly and Monthly (complete
with hilariously authentic inaccuracies!), and a Target novelisation.
The background to this fiction is largely based on real stories:
the reported recovery of all but two of the serial's missing
episodes is reminiscent of the archive status of The Reign
of Terror, while the novelisation is redolent of Donald
Cotton's works. Though the setting of this imaginary serial
is historical in itself, its very structure also concerns
the nature and impact of reported history: how our attitudes
are shaped by second-hand accounts.
The runner-up is That Time I Nearly Destroyed the World
Whilst Looking For a Dress by Joseph Lidster. This amusing
tale sees a 1990s Polly Wright being thrown back in time to
various points in history, revisiting - and in the process
wrecking - much of the Doctor's work during other stories
in this anthology! The time-bending chaos comes to a head
on New Year's Eve, 1999, when a connection with events in
the Paul McGann TV movie is implied. This is possibly a sly
reference to the fact that most of the various alternative
Doctor Who chronologies (novels, audio dramas, comic
strips, etc) have steered a course around this fixed point
in the series' continuity.
Another
amusing piece is Nev Fountain's The Man Who Wouldn't Give
Up. Though he makes some very unkind comments about the
physical characteristics of Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford,
the writer is very astute in the manner in which he spoofs
the television show's various attempts at authentic-sounding
historical dialogue. What will the TARDIS's translation
systems come up with this time? wonders the Doctor. Cod
Shakespeare? BBC Play for Today?
Graham
Dilley Saves the World, written by Iain McLaughlin and
Claire Bartlett, also raises a smile, by playing on the Fifth
Doctor's love of cricket. (And the good news for Peter Davison
fans is that no fewer than four stories in this collection
feature his incarnation in a prominent role.) In a Back
to the Future-style attempt to avoid a nasty temporal
paradox, the Doctor has to dispatch Peri and Erimem to prevent
Tegan from distracting the cricketer Graham Dilley... with
hilarious results!
The
story has a poignant aspect as well, as it addresses the Doctor's
regrets regarding Tegan's hasty departure from his life. This
is followed up in Samantha Baker's Fixing a Hole, a
side step that is actually a partial sequel to the Jim'll
Fix It skit A Fix With Sontarans (in which the
Sixth Doctor and Tegan met). Baker does a good job of wringing
some serious character issues out of the situation, though
I think she is mistaken to suggest that less than a year could
have passed for the Doctor since the events of Resurrection
of the Daleks - what about all those Peri and Erimem adventures
that took place in between? Perhaps the Doctor tells Tegan
a little white lie to spare her feelings.
Other
stories with a "point to make" include Stephen Hatcher's pre-World
War I Ante Bellum, which demonstrates that the Germans
weren't always the bad guys, and Dave Owen's Come Friendly
Bombs..., which takes Jo Grant to a CND march in 1960,
where she realises that not all oppressed masses and crusading
rebels are located on alien planets.
With
narratives ranging in tone from serious to frivolous, there's
something for pretty much every fan here. If you haven't yet
picked this book up, then you've got a whole lot of looking
back to look forward to.
Richard
McGinlay
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