Doctor Who_ The Dying Days - Lance Parkin [145]
I realised afterwards that this is exactly what happens in the last episode of Star Cops, where Nathan dies. The title of that episode? Little Green Men – there’s this discovery on Mars, you see, and it’s uncovered this conspiracy to keep the existence of Martians secret...
Chapter 12
The No Doctors
Seven up
...and it was all a horrible dream, and the Doctor was alive after all. The seventh Doctor had dominated the New Adventures, and it would have been odd for him not to show up in the last book.
Dear diary
The narrative switches so that Benny is the main character, and we switch to diary entries – technically, extracts from her memoirs. We knew Benny was going to survive this book, because Virgin had announced she was spinning off. Her memoirs are, it seems, written when she’s an old woman. Phyl ida Law, perhaps, instead of Emma Thompson.
Half-human shield
One theory I’ve always had, one you see in al my Who books, is that the Doctor emits a sort of shield that protects his companions when he’s around. Not a real shield, but the narrative rules twist around him to his advantage. In Just War, for example, when a squad of Nazis fire machine guns at him and Chris, they all miss.
But Benny, separated from the Doctor, is easily captured and tortured. The Doctor can just get away with things that ordinary people can’t. But with the Doctor dead, we’re back in the realm of ordinary things – people have to eat and wash. They need to look out for themselves.
Staines
Staines is a loyal servant of the crown, even if a Martian is wearing it.
Benny's lecture
Bernice’s lecture refers to what we know about the Martians from the books and TV episodes featuring the Ice Warriors. By the time of Transit, the human race is as technical y advanced as the Martians, and wins a ruthless, genocidal war against them on Mars.
In a change to our scheduled programme...
The BBC often cancel programmes that have a vague passing resemblance to contemporary tragic news stories.
The Fugitive, for example, always gets postponed when there’s a train crash, because there’s a train crash in it.
So they’ve cancelled the X Files the week of the Martian invasion.
Lex
Lex resurfaces after vanishing from UNIT HQ shortly after the Martian invasion. See? I hadn’t forgotten him.
Chapter 13
Earth Attacks!
Going for a Burton
The chapter title, obviously, is a reference to Mars Attacks!
Tape
The fact the tape is NTSC is a clue to its origin.
Uruk
‘From the streets of ancient Uruk to the common room of a twenty-sixth century university’ is another meta reference – the very first New Adventure, Timewyrm:Genesys was set in ancient Uruk, the last one ends... well, we’re not there yet, so I’d better not say.
130
A ripe old age
The history book with the scary eye is, of course, A History of the Universe, another one of my books, which was written before The Dying Days, so doesn’t refer to it. I seem to set the date of my death here – but we don’t know what year Benny is writing from. As the current Big Finish audios are set in 2601, and Benny’s not written her memoirs yet, it looks like I’m going to make it to at least ninety-nine years old.
Secret silos
I quite like the idea that the book starts with humans talking about terraforming Mars, and ends with the Martians attempting to Aresform (A NASA term referring to the god Ares) Earth. This section, in retrospect, draws from Quatermass II, with its secret silos full of alien nasty stuff.
Retroactive continuity
The ‘perhaps I’ll just be retconned’ line proved to be a firm favourite in internet discussion of the book. It’s another meta reference – ‘retconning’ is short for ‘retroactive continuity’, briefly ‘going back and changing things so they all fit together better or make more sense’. It’s a term originally used in comics fandom, and Doctor