This book was originally going to be called 'Anarchy in the UK' too.
Isn't 1976 the beginning of the Tom Baker years? The Brigadier wasn't very old in those stories, yet they kept talking about him like he already over the hill.
And I thought Ace's behavior was very suspect in this one. How could they go back together like nothing happened? Her "it was all an act" explanation just didn't work for me.
Well, it WAS just an act. She didn't stab him with a REAL knife or anything...
Admittedly, were I the Doctor, I'd be inclined to 'accidentally' leave Ace behind on the nearest (more-or-less) habitable planet, a la Tegan in Timeflight.
She helped the Monk leave him in an isolation capsule on another planet! She certainly couldn't have flown a TARDIS back to rescue him and she wasn't to know he had a bit of Monk TARDIS in his pocket. (Am I the only one who found that a tad too convenient, not to mention unbelievable? I mean, really, that piece of paper just happens to be a door? I don't known about you, but I sure couldn't squeeze through a paper-sized opening.)
She helped the Monk leave him in an isolation capsule on another planet!
Ah. My memory of No Future is a leetle vague. Probably something to do with the fact I couldn't be bothered to read it properly in the first place.
(Am I the only one who found that a tad too convenient, not to mention unbelievable? I mean, really, that piece of paper just happens to be a door? I don't known about you, but I sure couldn't squeeze through a paper-sized opening.)
Oh, you're not the only one. Bloody stupid idea, which has been repeated in History 101 (with a book) and Scream of the Shalka (with a mobile phone). If any old thing originally part of a TARDIS can be used for space-time travel, why weren't Companions constantly escaping from cells by stripping off their clothing (to the great joy of fanboys everywhere)?
Unless it was Adric.
'I could really have self-destructed after No Future, which is such an awful book. It's pompous, it struts about, it thinks it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. And it's ••••...The description...is particularly dire...And I also think the ending was up the walll. And it's so macho! For part of a series that's so much about pacifism, it believes so much in guns.' - Paul Cornell in DWM. *Hastily moves No Future futher down reread list*
The events of this novel partially contradict those of the TV story, "Mawdryn Undead."
I don't see how - the Doctor wiped the Brig's mind of all No Future's events, which apparently made it more likely that, shortly afterwards, 'The Brigadier would retire before his time, take up a teaching post without ever really knowing why'. (And presumably none of the UNIT people the Brig's just been through this invasion-of-Earth-defeating adventure with ever mention it in his presence ever again?)
The Meddling Monk AND a Chronovore AND UNIT AND the Vardans? Not to mention finishing off the Monk-meddling-alt-uni-Land-of-Fiction-Ace-hates-you arc and a ton of fanwanky references to everything from Eternals to Jan to Guardians to Jan to Hamlet Macbeth to Jan to the Gods of Ragnarok to...have I mentioned it's a teeny bit Jan-obsessed (rather oddly given that other NAs have made it plain that Ace is totally over the grubby-fingernailed loser). And ALL of them adding up to considerably less than the sum of their parts.
'Some of those guys are in Peru -' - what the hell IS it with UNIT personnel and Peru? If the Brig hadn't been hanging out there incessantly he might have met a New Who Doctor before it was too late...*sob*
'He didn't cash a lot of his pay cheques' - oh great. We have Old Who's claim that Pertwee was UNIT's UNPAID Scientific Advisor, we have Verdigris's claim that he built up a big bank-balance thanks to UNIT, and NOW we have uncashed cheques...
'He was involved in the death of some psychic guy...' 'Involved? I wouldn't call it that' - just cos the Doc never showed the slightest guilt about basically KILLING poor Professor Clegg doesn't mean he should deny being INVOLVED.
'The Master's dead. I killed him' - ooh! I mean er...WHEN did you kill him, exactly, Doctor? (And haven't you heard of...y'know...TIME TRAVEL?)
'A Broadsword unit is doing...whatever weird stuff those guys do' - because, of course, it's not like the Whoniverse is overrun with MILLIONS of OTHER alien-fighting organisations at the time, like the Forge and C19 and Torchwood and UNIT...Ah. It's UNIT's intelligence division. If UNIT needed such a thing, why wasn't it set up when there were alien invasions every week...oh. Cos they had the Doctor, of course. Sorry. This 'Broadsword' thing is just getting on my nerves (an SAS-style division in UNIT??) so I'm desperate to find a nit...Aha! Where the hell is it in every OTHER post-1976 story, then...? *Checks TARDIS Wiki* apart from one short story in Short Trips: 2040.
'There are some powers in the omniverse that can do anything. The Guardians, for example. The only things that bind them are codes of conduct, civil laws designed to give sentient races some means of maintaining a stable existence. I sometimes wonder if that's the reason the Time Lords are so introverted...they've bargained with creatures who could pull the arms off spiral galaxies' - well, at least it said 'omniverse' not 'mutiverse'. I doubt it's codes of conduct binding the Black Guardian so much as his equal and opposite. When did Time Lords bargain with the Guardians? The only one that spoke to 'em was the Doc and HE'S not exactly introverted.
The Brig not recognising the Doctor 'makes me worry about not existing, about having been killed before I met him...' - but even in the alt-uni, you (well, Pertwee) was only killed AFTER he'd met the Brig. And loads of men in UNIT remembered him. And is the Brig REALLY such a great actor that THE DOCTOR couldn't tell that he was lying through his teeth about not recognising him?
When did the Doc get the Chameleon Circuit fixed?
Brixton and Camden are hardly the SUBURBS.
'So how are you?'
'Stop asking that. I'm fine. I'd be much finer if you pissed off.'
'What, so that you and the Doctor could get back to the old days?'
'No. The old days are gone. That's history. You can't change history. I just want you to •••• off cos you're an irritating, selfish ••••• who wants everybody to love her.'
'Oh, and that's really terrible isn't it! You are so immature!' etc etc...god, this is the most embarrassingly artificial, badly written row since the War Games American Zone, or at least since Planet of the Daleks. And at least THEY had the excuse of needing to pad out an episode or ten.
Why not wait to hide in the boot till you get near UNIT HQ instead of for the entire, half-hour journey?
'Ace had some questions for her. Like how come she was in dreams and in reality too?' - except that THIS isn't reality, it's...oh gods have mercy on our souls...Virtual Reality. AGAIN. (As the Completely Useless Encyclopedia put it, 'It is essential that you make some reference to cyberspace...It might be tricky to insert it into your fifteenth-century historical, but in the long run it'll be worth the effort'...)
'Benny winced as her arms were jerked behind her back and handcuffed...Benton and the Doctor were standing in front of the Brigadier. He'd had them similarly cuffed...Benton snapped to attention and saluted...' - that guy must be SERIOUSLY double-joined. Of course, by the next page Benny is massaging the bridge of her nose, and by the page after THAT she's flying a helicopter, but I suppose in theory the prisoners might have been released from their bonds when they were shoved in the helicopter for, er, no readily apparent reason.
'I took up the ways of Buddhism by your example, Doctor' - ah yes. The one thing about No Future I actually REMEMBERED. The fact that the Brigadier is a Buddhist. THE BRIGADIER. A BUDDHIST. And what's this rubbish about the Pertwee Doctor being a shining example of Buddhism? Give or take the 'daisiest daisy' scene, for which the Brig was mercifully absent, Pertwee went all Buddhist for all of five minutes. It promptly killed him.
'I first became aware of alien incursion last year. Didn't have time to tell you about it during that Zygon business' - say WHAT!!!! Maybe the Brig could, perhaps, just have mentioned THE FACT THAT EVIL ALIENS HAVE ARRIVED ON EARTH WITH (NO DOUBT) A MISSION TO INFILTRATE AND KILL to the Fourth Doctor during their stroll back to the TARDIS, after dealing with the Zygons...?
'I doubt that I'd have listened' - er...right. Tom would have been SO DESPERATE to get back to...er...London that he would have TOTALLY ignored THE BRIG'S information that Earth is under attack.
'They'll be dislodged by the Dalek invasion of Earth in a few decades' - WHAT Dalek invasion of Earth a few decades after 1976?!
'And as for Miss Smith -' The Doctor CUTS OFF the Brigadier. He doesn't even care enough about Sarah to listen for a few seconds to the story of what she's been up to since he dumped her. (And given that 'I'm from 1980' he shouldn't have dumped her by '76 anyway.)
'Once was bad enough Yates, you were being controlled, but this!' - It's twice that Mike betrayed UNIT. And on only one occasion was he actually being controlled.
To be continued...
what the hell IS it with UNIT personnel and Peru?
The Exxilons taught the Incas, according to the Doctor in 'Death to the Daleks', and the Incas lived in modern day Peru. Perhaps the Exxilons left something behind, which the Tardis doesn't think is worth the Doctor's attention, but is still troublesome enough to keep UNIT busy.
When did Time Lords bargain with the Guardians?
At the dawn of time, I'd guess. Rassilon has ego enough to bargain with the Guardians. If he really created the laws of physics, as some of the books claim, he may even have been powerful enough to get the Guardians to listen to him.
Tom would have been SO DESPERATE to get back to...er...London that he would have TOTALLY ignored THE BRIG'S information that Earth is under attack.
The Doctor is clearly lying in an attempt to make the Brig feel better. By claiming, falsely, he wouldn't have listened, he absolves the Brig of all blame for not telling him.
what the hell IS it with UNIT personnel and Peru?
The Exxilons taught the Incas, according to the Doctor in 'Death to the Daleks', and the Incas lived in modern day Peru. Perhaps the Exxilons left something behind, which the Tardis doesn't think is worth the Doctor's attention, but is still troublesome enough to keep UNIT busy.
Brilliant!
When did Time Lords bargain with the Guardians?
At the dawn of time, I'd guess.
For what purpose? The Eternals banished the Carrionites, Rassilon's bow ships dealt with the Vampires, the Fledgling Empires assisted against the Racnoss...what MORE was there for the Time Lords to fight, so much more dangerous that they had to go begging to the Guardians of Light and Darkness?
Rassilon has ego enough to bargain with the Guardians.
I realise this may be slightly contradicting what I've just said, but...even I've probably got ego enough to bargain with the White Guardian, at least. He's got a silly bird on his head and he can barely even SPEAK without Sexy's support. I could wipe the FLOOR with him.
If he really created the laws of physics, as some of the books claim, he may even have been powerful enough to get the Guardians to listen to him.
But why would he have NEEDED them?
The Doctor is clearly lying in an attempt to make the Brig feel better. By claiming, falsely, he wouldn't have listened, he absolves the Brig of all blame for not telling him.
Ah! Yes, that makes more sense. Though the Doctor has never shown such consideration for the Brig's feelings in the past. (Mind you...Seven DOES seem to have a more mellow relationship with the Brig than some of his predecessors.) But it's a pretty risky thing to do - the Brig SHOULD be encouraged to go running to his ex-Scientific Advisor every time there's an alien invasion, we all KNOW what happens when he decides that, just for once, he doesn't need the Doctor...
Haaang on. The Black Star go to enormous lengths to kidnap the Brig, the Doctor, Benny, etc - and start threatening to torture 'em for information - but then as soon as they learn that UNIT jeeps are on their way, Black Star scarper, rejecting the idea of taking the Brig along for interrogation...??
All this 'Vardans/Monk media manipulation!' stuff feels so tame and shallow compared to Interference. (Admittedly Interference devoted TWO BOOKS to basically exploring this particular theme.)
Doctor and Benny: 'Time doesn't work like that. She's ferociously neat, she -' 'She?' 'Time.' 'Are you two going out, or what?' 'Once. But now she's seeing somebody else. As I was saying, she's ferociously neat. If the Brigadier gets killed by that bomb, I'll just have all my further adventures with somebody else standing in for him. Things will change as little as possible.' - Firstly, EVERYTHING CHANGES without the Brig, you git. He's a unique human and any lesser creature standing in for him might not have punched the Master at the right moment or - more to the point - touched his other self at the correct millisecond. Even more importantly, the Whoniverse is a sadder and lonelier place without him, and the Doctor of all people should realise that.
Secondly - since when did the Doctor stop being Time's Champion?! And who the hell took his place?? And when did he get this job back, since I'm sure later NAs still have Seven as Time's Champion...and in The Dying Days the Eighth Doctor specificially refers to himself as 'the Champion of Life and Time'...
The Brigadier was a 'great friend' of the last Prime Minister since WHEN! The only time we EVER saw the Brig interact with a PM was when 'Jeremy' was giving him a good spanking in Green Death. Can you IMAGINE how much shorter most Pertwee-era stories would have been if only the Brig could have got on the phone to his good pal WHO WAS RUNNING THE COUNTRY and whistled up extra troops/banned Axonite/got the funding for gold-tipped bullets a LOT sooner?
'That's why I didn't get nobbled! Haven't got time for the box' - Benton. Except that later he says he watches the cricket. There's a LOT of cricket on TV, as I distinctly remember from the Bad Old Days I was sharing a house with my brother.
The Vardans 'can tailor the appearance of the humanoid form to suit their needs' since WHEN! And why didn't they make themselves look a bit more impressive when invading Gallifrey...?
'The Doctor smiled grimly up at all the stars he knew. There was the distant sun of Iceworld, and there was Skaro's home star, still twinkling now in the seventies, back before he snuffed it out' - surely it would still be twinkling in Earth's sky AFTER he snuffed it out due to light travelling at, um, the speed of light or something...? More to the point...Skaro's sun is VISIBLE from EARTH??
OK, that scene where Danny confesses to Ace that he's the scum of the Earth because he once made a polite pass at a rape victim is the most nonsensical, pointless, inappropriate, pathetic piece of •••• since...actually, I can't think of a comparison.
Oh. Dear. The Brig yells 'Lilac!' at the Black Star terrorists and half of 'em (including Mike Yates, which would be a great relief if only I gave a toss) turn out to be UNIT double agents and promptly turn on the terrorists and save the Brig's life and stuff. My problem being...WHY - THE - •••• - DIDN'T - THE - BRIG - YELL - 'LILAC!' - AT - THEM - WHEN - HE - AND - THE - DOC - AND - BENNY - AND - DARLING - BENTON - WERE - TIED - UP - AND - ABOUT - TO - BE - TORTURED - AND - BLOWN - TO - SMITHEREENS?
(And if you're thinking his double agents will have found essential info in the meantime...no they haven't. There's only a matter of hours between the time he SHOULD have yelled 'Lilac' and the time he actually did. And those bombs VERY, VERY nearly did for Our Heroes - especially with the Doc stupidly putting himself into a coma to try to clear Benny's mind, leaving the Brig to get miraculously untied and deal with the explosives, instead of leaving Benny to be Vardan-affected for a few more minutes, for heaven's sake.)
The Brig seems surprisingly happy to accept Benny and Claire Tennant as comrades-in-arms. He doesn't even ask them condescendingly if they're armed, let alone explain that this is no job for GIRLS LIKE THEM.
To be continued...
what MORE was there for the Time Lords to fight, so much more dangerous that they had to go begging to the Guardians of Light and Darkness?
Fenris, the Osirians, the Mad Mind (from Quantum Archangel) etc. The early universe seems to have been full of powerful races and entities, most of them thoroughly evil or plain insane.
But why would he have NEEDED them?
Rassilon would never admit to needing anything. In his eyes, he'd have been telling the Guardians their place in his universe, ensuring that they'd pay the Time Lords the respect Rassilon thought they deserved.
The Brigadier was a 'great friend' of the last Prime Minister since WHEN!
Who was the last prime minister at the time? The names don't quite match up with our universe, and the dates may not either. Perhaps the Brigadier was great friends with Harold Wilson, who lost the election in 1972, one month before Three was exiled to Earth. Being Wilson's friend wouldn't carry much weight with Jeremy Thorpe.
Except that later he says he watches the cricket. There's a LOT of cricket on TV
And on the radio. If the Vardans were focused on TV while Benton was a radio fan, that could explain it.
.Skaro's sun is VISIBLE from EARTH??
To the Doctor's eyes, anyway.
still twinkling now in the seventies, back before he snuffed it out' - surely it would still be twinkling in Earth's sky AFTER he snuffed it out due to light travelling at, um, the speed of light or something..
It would be, but he's seeing it as it was before he snuffed it out, a decade earlier.
.WHY - THE - •••• - DIDN'T - THE - BRIG - YELL - 'LILAC!' - AT - THEM - WHEN - HE - AND - THE - DOC - AND - BENNY - AND - DARLING - BENTON - WERE - TIED - UP - AND - ABOUT - TO - BE - TORTURED - AND - BLOWN - TO - SMITHEREENS?
Because he had faith in the Doctor's ability to pull off miraculous escapes without any help.
And why didn't they make themselves look a bit more impressive when invading Gallifrey...?
Perhaps Time Lords aren't easily impressed by physical appearance since their own is so variable.
It would be, but he's seeing it as it was before he snuffed it out, a decade earlier.
Skaro is obviously many hundreds of light years away from Earth, and probably more. If the Doctor destroyed it in the 1980's, it would remain visible in our sky for a long, long time.
what MORE was there for the Time Lords to fight, so much more dangerous that they had to go begging to the Guardians of Light and Darkness?
Fenris
The Doctor can deal with Fenric. Hell, ANYONE prepared to cheat at chess can deal with Fenric.
the Osirians
The Osirians were around when Egypt had a civilisation, not in Rassilon's time. And Horus managed to deal with Sutekh without help from the Time Lords...
(OK, I'm lying, OBVIOUSLY Horus got a lot of unexpected help from Faction Paradox, Gallifrey's War King AND its •••••-TARDIS-From-Hell Lolita, but at least none of 'em felt the need to call on the Guardians.)
the Mad Mind (from Quantum Archangel)
Um.
You actually REMEMBER stuff from Quantum Archangel...?
The early universe seems to have been full of powerful races and entities, most of them thoroughly evil or plain insane.
It CAN'T have been THAT full or Gallifrey wouldn't have lasted five minutes. Sure, Rassilon was a lot stronger than his effete descendants of the Doctor's day, but he STILL isn't ticking any boxes for 'sane' 'cunning' 'tougher than Daleks' etc...
Rassilon would never admit to needing anything.
Which is what makes it so weird he goes along with the bizarre need-the-Doctor-to-say-his-name plan.
The Brigadier was a 'great friend' of the last Prime Minister since WHEN!
Who was the last prime minister at the time?
Unfortunately it WAS Jeremy Thorpe (Interference). Who was so nasty to our Brig that the Green Death novelisation actually replaced the real PM with a Global Chemicals imitation of his voice.
If the Vardans were focused on TV while Benton was a radio fan, that could explain it.
Nice try, but Benton's exact words are 'I only ever SEE the cricket'. (Only without the capitals and italics. Obviouly.)
Skaro's sun is VISIBLE from EARTH??
To the Doctor's eyes, anyway.
Is there any indication that the Doctor's eyesight is superior to a human's? Plenty of 'em wear GLASSES, for heaven's sake...(Admittedly, as it turns out, cos they just want to look brainy rather than actually NEED 'em...)
Because he had faith in the Doctor's ability to pull off miraculous escapes without any help.
So why had the Brig lost that faith hours later, just cos he had a gun waved at him - a considerably LESS serious situation that being tied to a table when a big bomb was just about to go off? (And the Doctor, incidentally, was deliberately rendering himself unconscious after telling the Brig to deal with the situation.)
Perhaps Time Lords aren't easily impressed by physical appearance since their own is so variable.
Though the Vardans aren't to know that (and Time Lord psychology can't possibly be their strong point, they chose THE DOCTOR to spearhead their invasion). You'd think, what with there only being about THREE of 'em to subdue the oldest and mightiest civilisation in the universe, that they'd at least try to look (and sound) a WEE bit more impressive...being large and threatening and brutal-looking probably WOULD have worked on MOST Time Lords, pathetic hothoused wimps that they are.
'"Bastards. Tempting, eh?" Doyle trailed the muzzle of his automatic along the line of twitching bodies as they roared past' - well, QUITE. Am I a homicidal maniac for wondering why the hell UNIT DIDN'T just machine-gun the Vardan invaders when they were down? Is it against the Geneva Convention or something?
Sorry, Benny suddenly KNOWS the Monk is behind all this? How, as the Doctor refused to tell her?
'It was with [the Chronovore's] help that I managed to trace all the differences between the universe that would have been, the one where the Doctor leaves himself notes and instructions and thus defeats the Vardans' - the Doc SERIOUSLY needs to leave himself notes to defeat the VARDANS? (See: Benny's view thereof below.)
'Miss Summerfield thought that the Doctor was probably -' 'Nonsense, Mr Benton. If the Doctor was dead, I'm sure that I'd know about it' - ah, bless. Like Sarah and Jo (Death of the Doctor) the Brig has that TOTALLY UNJUSTIFIED feeling that he'd just...KNOW? It certainly doesn't seem to be working in The Dying Days when they're all sure that Eight has got himself gassed...
I'm sorry - the ancient Chronovore-controlling rituals require 'the blood of Minyan, Silurian, Dalek, Human and Mandrel' - and MANDREL?!
'The Monk quickly made the sign of Rassilon' - WHAT sign of Rassilon?
Since when have MINYANS had only thirteen regenerations?
'It's still odd to hear you talking like a mystic' Doctor to Brig. You can bloody well say THAT again, Sunshine.
'I only had time to make [a new sonic screwdriver] very recently' - sure, TWO REGENERATIONS and hundreds of years passed, whenever would you have the time to make the device that had saved your life (plus universe) on a regular basis? (The irony being you shouldn't even HAVE to make one. Sexy GROWS 'em, you moron.)
'Flames were flickering down by the river, and columns of smoke were everywhere...."My God," he whispered' - would the BRIG really react like that to some of London happening to be on fire? Especially now he's a Buddhist with no single 'God' to call on?
'Sounds to me like your young lady's defected, Doctor' says the Brig. Cos she left an answerphone message for the Monk. And not because he'd seen her stab the Doctor in the chest, or anything...
'Life is hard and then you die' - actually the saying is 'Life's a ••••• and then you die'.
'It isn't him...It can't be him. He's dead' - the Monk knows perfectly well he didn't KILL the Doctor, just stab and imprison and freeze him.
'I'm going to give you these [chocolate buttons] if you promise that next time you're lost, you talk to a policeman, or a nice lady like Ace' the Doctor tells the mislaid rugrat. Since when has THE DOCTOR practically gone round telling kids 'All men are paedophiles!'?
Things I actually LIKE about this book:
The 'Not with a bank, but with a Wimpy' line.
Shirley Williams being Prime Minister - leaving aside the fact she SHOULD have been PM, it ties in nicely with Interference (one of the very few occasions the EDAs and NAs don't contradict each other) and means the Brig was speaking to her and not the dreaded Maggie in Zygons.
The silver-foil collage of the alien leader.
'"Do not the greater powers of the universe tremble in fear and cry out in terror at the very name of the Vardans?!" "The Vardans?" Benny frowned. "I think you'll find that your enemies tremble with mirth and cry out things like "Oh good, it's only the Vardans, thank goodness it wasn't somebody serious..."' (Though this DOES rather unmine...y'know...the whole book.)
Benny's attitude that 'Just having [the Doctor] gone for a while...it was like the lights had gone out on the world.' YES. THAT.
The echo of the JNT years – '"The outside of the building will be under attack from hundreds of invading aliens." The producer glanced at his crew. "I think that I have been persuaded to stay."'
But still...it beggars belief that THIS writer gave us three episodes of New Who that basically justified the existence of the human race.
Oh-kay. I do believe I've spotted the one tiny flaw in No Future's portrayal of the Monk's TARDIS as a freezing icicle-infested wasteland to remind him of all that time he spent stranded on an ice-planet thanks to the Doctor...and of his Cunning Plan to dump the Doctor forever in the same ice-bound hell-hole to which the Doctor had exiled HIM to for so long...
...The Doctor didn't actually exile him to an ice planet.
Sure, thanks to Our Hero, the Monk ended up unexpectedly landing on said world...whereupon he realised that his dimensional stabiliser had been nicked and 'Now I'll have to wander through time and space as lost as he is' - *shakes head sadly*
Bookwyrm:
'After waking up in bed with Danny, Bernice is thankful that they're in 1976, not the eighties, on the grounds that this would be akin to suicide (referencing the AIDS epidemic). Except that, as Benny likely knows, HIV has a ten-year latency period, so all those AIDS cases of the mid-eighties were being transmitted around 1976' - oh. Dear.
'For those keeping score, Gary Russell makes his second appearance in two books, despite, at this time, not having yet written a New Adventure. He was, however, reviewing them for DWM...making him perhaps a very desirable person to flatter, by - oh, we don't know - writing him into your novel and describing him as young and beautiful, say?' - ha ha ha!
'Rumour has it that Paul Cornell once joked that No Future was the worst book he'd ever read' - well it's better than Timewyrm: Revelation...
'The Monk has copies of Doctor Who stories - except the missing episodes - on video' - WHAT! Isn't the entire POINT of being the Meddling Monk that you can SAVE ALL THE MISSING EPISODES? To hell with King Harold!
Oh-kay. I do believe I've spotted the one tiny flaw in No Future's portrayal of the Monk's TARDIS as a freezing icicle-infested wasteland to remind him of all that time he spent stranded on an ice-planet thanks to the Doctor...and of his Cunning Plan to dump the Doctor forever in the same ice-bound hell-hole to which the Doctor had exiled HIM to for so long...
...The Doctor didn't actually exile him to an ice planet.
A bizarre lie still being perpetuated in Dalek Universe: 'You'll report me to the Time Lords won't you, or strand me on some weird alien planet, maybe even this one'...
HE WASN'T BLOODY STRANDED!!
We have Old Who's claim that Pertwee was UNIT's UNPAID Scientific Advisor, we have Verdigris's claim that he built up a big bank-balance thanks to UNIT, and NOW we have uncashed cheques...
Aaaand now Emancipation of the Daleks has blessed us with the information that Himself has a credit card for his UNIT expenses with millions of pounds on it, that UNIT keeps topping up...(Guess that would have explained the financial irregularities that got UK UNIT shut down (Resolution) if it hadn't been revealed to be all the Grand Serpent's fault (Flux)...)