Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow - Marc Platt [136]
One by one they moved away.
'Will he come back?' said Leela.
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'Dorothee!' The Doctor's head re-emerged from the door. 'I just remembered. I haven't been Merlin yet!'
He vanished and the door closed.
'What?' chorused the others, as Dorothée began to laugh.
The light on the TARDIS flashed like a bright idea.
A flock of startled birds rose from the trees as the TARDIS grated out of existence.
Then they were alone on the sunny mountainside.
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AUTHOR’S NOTES
Prologue
You can find a quote in Shakespeare to fit most things, but the 'abysm of time' line from The Tempest seemed absolutely right here. The Tempest is also Shakespeare's last play and Prospero is another magical figure and arch-manipulator, not unlike the Doctor. Maybe he is a Doctor, 12th or 13th generation. Now there's a thought.
They do say that if Shakespeare was alive today, he'd be writing for television...
The Other's garden is reminiscent of the rose garden in which we see the First Doctor, Hartnel in Three Doctors and Hurndall in Five Doctors. It also reappears as the Doctor's imaginary garden in Auld Mortality.
According to Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible, the Gallifreyans of the Old Time were all linked by telepathy. There was a continuous commentary in their heads reflecting the communal mood and public opinion. A bit like a telepathic chatroom. By the Doctor's time, that ability has declined to a mere remnant of its past, but it still exists within families. The Doctor and Susan were supposed to have a degree of telepathic empathy. The Doctor's Cousin Innocet has strongly developed powers. And the living House is in telepathic sympathy with its Housekeeper. And, of course, the TARDIS has telepathic circuits.
Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel were especially proud of the Hand of Omega, because it was old, battered and believable. Not the star spangled stuff of most tv science fiction.
"Eighth Man Bound" first appeared in Lawrence Miles's Christmas on a Rational Planet. It's a game played by students on Gallifrey, in which they foresee their possible future lives. The rhyme in Chris's head seems to list the Doctor's lives so far. The Doctor couldn't see beyond his seventh generation, and it worries him...
The scene with Badger is a bit of an info-dump to set up the location and family. But it also harks back to those magical childhoods in classic children's books. The start of a Big Adventure. It's very C.S. Lewis and Arthur Ransome. Al old houses and schoolrooms and sunlight. I thought it was the sort of childhood that the Doctor should have had. Even if he does look about twenty.
Badger is essential y the Doctor's first companion. When we needed a visual reference for the original book cover, I asked Mike Tucker to come up with a design. Mike, bless him, turned up on my doorstep with a complete plasticine maquette, rams horns, dangling eye and al . The Virgin cover design was a bit slimline compared to the original, but Daryl Joyce has gone back to the original for his wonderful illustrations here. Badger's zigzag fur comes from one of the skins worn by an Outler in The Invasion of Time.
Chapter 1
The Paris branch of Marks & Spencers closed early in 2001, so I just got away with that one! WARNING!
FASCINATING FACT ALERT: But if you go to Woolworths in South Africa, you'l notice that it's a bit more up-market than Woolworths in Britain. The product range is all M&S. Strange but incontrovertible truth that alternative universes do exist... sort of.
If Dorothée was partying at the Cafe Momus on Christmas Eve in 19th century Paris, she might well find that the rowdy people at the next table who keep singing loudly are Mimi, Rudolfo and friends, the protagonists of La Boheme in Act 2 of Puccini's opera.
George Seurat, whom Dorothée, true to NA form, is planning a fling with, is the French pointilliste painter (1859-1891.) His paintings are made up of thousands of points of colour. In Stephen Sondheim's musical Sunday in the Park with George, which I love, Seurat's mistress is called Dot. Sorry,