Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow - Marc Platt [1]
Lung Light
Only at the end of 1987, when I first met Andrew Cartmel and Ben at the production office, did I tell anyone about the story. Andrew and Ben had their own plans to darken the Doctor’s character. They already had the Time Lords’
founding triumvirate in place: Rassilon, Omega and the other one that history never remembers the name of. But they were unsure how all this linked up so many aeons later with the Doctor. Lungbarrow offered a solution.
I worked on the story with Andrew for about nine months, until JN-T decided that maybe this was a bit too radical too soon. In answer, Andrew produced Plan B: we relocated some of the elements to 19th century Perivale, changed the emphasis of the story from the Doctor to Ace, and called the new story Ghost Light. And apart from a tiny reference to the family in Ghost Light, a line which Sylvester changed in rehearsal, Lungbarrow went on the back burner.
The Shopping List
Of course when you got commissioned for a New Adventure, you not only got several lunches in the Virgin staff canteen (it knocked the socks off the BBC one), but you also got Rebecca’s shopping list of Things That Need Including.
In the case of Lungbarrow this meant:
1) Tie up the threads set up in the New Adventures.
2) Lead into the TV Movie.
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Everyone else got to choose which bits of continuity to play with. I had to deal with the whole lot. And I also had a few strands of unfinished business lurking from the TV series that needed completing too. A load of sarsaparilla-drinking sessions in Andrew’s office had gone into them. There are hints of them scattered all through the New Adventures, but with the advent of Mr McGann, this would be their last chance for an airing before Who took off to Heaven knows where.
Here we are again
When BBCi suggested serialising Lungbarrow on the Doctor Who webpages, I jumped at the chance to take another look, which I hadn’t done for years. Some bits surprised me, some of those bits I liked enormously and a few bits made me absolutely cringe.
So I’ve taken the liberty of tinkering a bit, changing a few things around - things that seemed like a good idea at the time, but definitely don’t now. I’ve surgically removed one section early on, swapped over a couple of chapters and added an extra sequence at the start of the final chapter. The actual story hasn’t changed at all. It’s modified and augmented, not regenerated. But maybe it flows a little better.
Whether this reappearance means that the crazy price of the original book on Ebay will come down, I cannot say.
On publication in 1997, the book was a slow starter and never had time to pick up sales before it was taken off the shelves again. I regularly get royalty statements from Virgin to say that out of my advance, I technically still owe them £126.41. I wish I had a stash of copies under the bed.
Previously on the New Adventures
MESSENGER: Rassilon, the dying Pythia cursed Gallifrey. There will be no more children. The world is barren and doomed!
RASSILON: D’oh!
SHADOWY MAN: Told you so. Now about the shortage of housing...
CHRIS: Sorry, Roz. We shouldn’t have done that. But I love you.
ROZ: Tough! I’m leading an attack on that GTO station on top of that hill. (RUNS OFF
WAVING GUN)
THE DOCTOR: Chris, it’s Roz.
CHRIS: Is she...?
THE DOCTOR: She went up the hill into history.
CHRIS: (BITES HIS KNUCKLES) I’m trying to cope.
DOROTHEE (née ACE): These days I live in 19th century Paris. But I’ve got this time-travelling motor bike, so I do all my shopping at Marks and Spencers.
GOLD USHER: Do you swear by the Rod of Rassilon to uphold the holy office of President of the High Council of Gallifrey?
ROMANA: Hang on. (ADJUSTS MATRIX AT JAUNTY ANGLE) I swear.
(TIME LORDS LOOK SUITABLY UNCOMFORTABLE.)
THE DOCTOR: Chris, I have a presentiment of doom. I can’t see beyond my seventh self.
Eighth Man Bound.
CHRIS: I’m still trying to cope.
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"How far, Doctor? How long have you lived? Your puny mind is powerless against the strength of Morbius. Back, back