Doctor Who_ The Dying Days - Lance Parkin [148]
Pastiche
The first section of the book is meant to be a pastiche of Paul Cornell’s writing style, as a lead in to the next New Adventure, written by him, Oh No It Isn’t. It’s meant to quickly sketch in the set up of the Benny books for people, so, hopeful y, they’d buy next month’s book, not just leave with the Doctor. In the end, though, if I could write like Paul Cornel , I’d write like Paul Cornell, and saying ‘wonderful’ a lot isn’t the same thing.
Robarman
I’d first used the ‘robarman’ joke in Cold Fusion.
Bicyles
Benny’s bicycle was, at one point, meant to be something she used in al her books – possibly a nod to Emma Thompson’s character in the Arnie film Junior, a professor who got around campus on a bike. In the event, I think it was only mentioned in Oh No It Isn’t.
Swearing
‘She used the F-word because she could’. The BBC wouldn’t let the New Adventures use swear words, as there had been complaints after a few early books had done so (most memorably Iceberg, which began with the memorable phrase ‘ "F-you, mate! Just f-you you f-ing w-ker". There was no doubting the strength of feeling in the biker. He was angry.’, the sheer gratuitous nature and psychological insight of which caused much merriment among the NA writers). I had, of course, wanted Benny to use the F-word, not merely al ude to it, but even three pages from the end, no swearing was allowed.
No hanky panky in the TARDIS
In the TV Movie, the Doctor had kissed Grace, and some of the fanboys weren’t happy about that at all. The Doctor doesn’t kiss girls. Note that he doesn’t in this scene, either. Exactly what Benny and the Doctor do or don’t get up to must remain a mystery (and BBCi have decided against letting Allan Bednar draw a picture of it!).
Alternative endings
There was original y a middle section to this chapter, that went through four versions, three of which are available elsewhere online, if you look hard enough, the fourth of which was so awful I deleted it, and I don’t have a copy of.
The basic plot was ‘the last Dalek story’ – a future Doctor giving a eulogy for the Daleks, who he’d just utterly defeated. The idea was to produce a real capstone for the Doctor Who legend – once the Daleks were beaten, the Doctor announced his retirement.
Two versions had a Doctor played by Ian Richardson, a third had an ancient, wizened Paul McGann, the fourth had Chris Cwej doing the honours. Rebecca Levene didn’t like any of the versions, and insisted the scene got cut, leading to the only real argument we ever had in the five books and two years on Emmerdale we’ve worked together. Five years on, the most annoying thing is admitting that Bex was right.
General comments
And so it ends... ful y aware that people would be flicking to the end to see if the Doctor was alive, the last section is a memorial service in Westminster Abbey with no Doctor to be seen. Lethbridge-Stewart’s musings on his career are the last meta reference of the book, representing the thoughts of the people at Virgin. The last line’s nicely understated, I think – you have to re-read it before you spot that a piece of the Doctor Who universe has changed.
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Table of Contents
Introduction - Preface by Lance Parkin
Chapter Four
Chapter Six
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15