The Doctor takes the TARDIS to Cheldon Bonniface (last seen in Timewyrm: Revelation)in the year 2010- Bernice Summerfield is to marry Jason Kane (first seen in the previous book). Guests from many previous books make an appearance, including Dorothee(Ace if you don't know your NAs), the Brig (with Doris), Benton and Yates, some Ice Warriors. Also making a return are Peter and Emily Hutchings, seen in Revelation and their daughter Ishtar (who is the Timewyrm (er, sort of)) who promptly falls in love with Chris. Performing the ceremony is Annie Trelaw, daughter of the Trelaw from Revelation. Saul is still there too. However, no-one is in for a smooth ride, as tensions mount when the villigers discover the aliens. The Master turns up, trying to construct a new body for himself, and is only defeated when Ishtar unleashes the power of the Timewyrm onto him. Because of the Master's schemeing, a clone of Jason is created, who ends up going off with Dorothee. Eventually everything sorts itself out though.
This book is very complicated, and it helps to have read at least some other NAs, or at least know the plots. There are some funny moments, and some sad ones. The book is interesting because it doesn't really have a central plot (well, aprat from the wedding). There are many different things going on, and it does occasionally get difficult to keep track.
I don't like the new covers very much, although they do demonstrate how to use the Doc7 logo without a black background. However, they were a sensible move to make the series transition to the BNAs. (And they're better than those rubbish BBC ones).
All in all a pretty good NA, if a bit too fanw*nky, but then Paul Cornell is one of the best NA writers.
Has anyone ever played the sheet music given at the back of this book? You know, the special song written for the wedding.
I certainly haven't tried playing it. I did notice that it spelt 'Kane' wrong.
Doesn't the Doctor get his gear off in this one?
I'm afraid so. For some reason a Traveler
pre-marital ceremony seems to involve lots of
kneeling around naked in a field.
Presumably the Doctor's naked self looks similar to a human - otherwise surely the doctors in Spearhead From Space and the telemovie would have said something?
Presumably the Doctor's naked self looks similar to a human - otherwise surely the doctors in Spearhead From Space and the telemovie would have said something?
And if THEY were too polite to say something, Donna CERTAINLY wouldn't have restrained herself in Journey's End...
Love the rhyme at the beginning (best lines: probably 'Petra warmed Greg Sutton up, but he very nearly blew it; Failing to win Jobel's heart, Tasambeker stabbed him through it') - but who the hell is Grendel (who 'just planned weddings which continually fell through')?
Flavia lost her job after being found drunk in charge of the Sash of Rassilon? That stupid Ancestor Cell claimed Romana challenged her to a duel or something. (I wouldn't mind the NA/EDA contradictions so much if the EDAs hadn't nicked the 'Romana is President of Gallifrey' idea from the NAs in the first place. Ungrateful gits.)
Aha! Benny is in her mid-thirties! Not until Beige Planet Mars, according to, well, Beige Planet Mars.
If JASON was 'just repeating the words on the card', how come this included the word 'obey' when Benny's reaction makes it quite clear that somehow he was expecting HER to obey HIM?
'I know who killed the Kennedys' - since when?! In Original Sin he hadn't heard the WORDS 'grassy knoll'! And if he KNEW whodunnit it was a bit unpleasant of Nine to turn up for the event...
Ace being a bridesmaid, fair enough. But KERI? What's THAT hamster done that's so much more important than the zillions of other people Benny's met?
Benny's dress has a long skirt and a train? Not on that cover illustration it doesn't.
Boy does Ace's account of her sex-life inexplicably omit rather a lot of men from the PDAs.
The Brig is 'in his tenth decade' by 2010? Yet Benton is only in his early seventies?
'He'd seen action as recently as the late thousands, leading a full regiment of troops on the King's side in the blockade of Westminster Bridge...His turn on top of a tank...had made him into a...symbol of the Dissolution. Charlie had even offered him a role in the Provisional Cabinet...The Reconstruction had pleased him, especially when they kicked Charlie's representative out of Parliament again...' - sorry, if 'Charlie' is the King I'm seriously confused about which side the Brigadier is on.
'That Duvall woman got to close to Broadsword last year that I had to persuade Tennant not to assassinate her' - OK, what is Broadsword and how the hell do they get away with assassinating journalists who uncover the truth?
'Work for him these days involved a video link to Geneva and a team of computer experts' - oh what nonsense! He's ALWAYS off to Peru!
(Guess he's gonna be in Peru FOREVER now. Him and Sarah Jane both. Dammit.)
'I don't know anything about romance, about humans doing human things.' - Ahh, this was truly the Good Old Days where the Doctor was concerned...
'You could use your TARDIS to go into the future and see if Bernice and Jason are happy.' 'And use that information to inform my actions? The powers of the universe would never allow it' - WHAT powers of the universe?
Oh god, not this 'the Brig's a Buddhist' rubbish from No Future...
'I didn't realise there were going to be any psis at this wedding.' 'My dear lady, neither of us is known as Simon' - yet somehow Dr Watson knows to spell it 'psi' not 'Si' in his diary...
'Chris is in a relationship. As much as Bernice is.' Riiight. Benny's getting married and Chris is having what Ishtar makes perfectly clear is a very temporary fling.
LOVE the way the Doc's planning on dumping everyone so it can just be 'my cat and me'.
Not a particularly convincing future, is it? Kinda the same as now only with ten-pound-coins and electric cars and allegedly some kind of hideous disaster followed by some kind of Reconstruction.
'No ambition, that one, or no sense of adventure' - what, BRAX? Alright, so this is before he got dragged round dozens of Benny books n'audios, and therefore had to turn into a power-crazed megalomaniac, but still...this IS (according to Justin Richards, if no one else) the Doctor's brother (!) so the Doc ought to be a BIT better at judging his character.
How does Jason manage to take Benny in his arms (p185) when she's already IN his arms?
What the hell is Beltempest doing at Benny's wedding when their previous encounter consisted of him attempting to hunt her to death?
'Of course, I could have settled down with Vivant' - who??
'Peace is God's ideal' - of course it is. That's why Jesus said 'I come not with peace, but with a sword.'
'Unlike Dorothee, I always rather hoped for one true love' - I thought Cornell was the one always pushing the 'Jan was Ace's one true love, sob sob' message?!
What's with the 'dear reader' and 'I can only hope that you found the experience entertaining' stuff? I thought Benny's diaries were private, not for publication?
'Still think this is the best Isley Brothers' song?' 'Oh yes. And if you hadn't agreed, how different things would have been...' - oh, of course. The Doctor couldn't possibly have invited Benny into the TARDIS if she had slightly different musical tastes to him. That is, after all, the most important criterion for a Companion.
We never do find out the significance of the ring that the Grey Man gives Benny, do we? Bloody Daniel O'Mahony.
'How can holding someone's hand make you suddenly feel stronger and more alive? One person certainly didn't know the answer to that one. Got you foxed at last, Doctor.' - OK, even I now feel we're carrying the Asexuality Agenda a bit too far. The Doc does, at least, know about holding hands.
Why the **** invite Gilgamesh to the wedding? Benny had never met him, and it wouldn't do the Web of Time any good. Of course, it does give John Peel the chance to contribute to the multi-authors' chapter.
'Bernice and Jason, and their children, visited the Hutchings family often in the next decade' - the HELL they did! CHILDREN, indeed! Why does the Doc take this LYING romantic fiction drivel so seriously? The only kid Benny has is the blue furry one who MURDERS poor Jason.
DWM: 'In...Happy Endings, Romana learns that a number of Eternals have enjoyed posing as the Gallifreyan gods of Time and Death, among other things.' - she DOES? 'The Eternals perpetrating this jolly jape presumably never met Striker and his gang, considering the latter hadn't even heard of the Time Lords, let alone pretended to be their gods' - ah. Good point. How many Eternals ARE there and why - in the extreme boredom of the Void - don't they TALK to each other more often?
'Francis was almost thirty years old; as one of the last genetically altered generation on Arcadia, he could expect to live another five years at most' - haaaang on. The Arcadians weren't genetically altered for short lives. The Counsellors just smothered them with golden light and then removed their living brains when they hit thirty. (Yes, THIRTY, not thirty-five.)
Why does this LIE about the Brig being magically rejuvenated? He doesn't LOOK rejuvenated in SJA: Enemy of the Bane, not to mention he's strongly implied to have died of old age in an old people's home in The Wedding of River Song...
Because this novel was written more than twenty years ago, long before the New Series and SJA were even thought of.
I know, I know, we're not supposed to deal in reality, but this is the only good answer.
But we WERE thinking of the New Series - well, a New Series - throughout TSLABYOD, even if we never dared to dream of a horde of spin-offs as well. Cornell should have considered that OF COURSE Who would return to us in glory and OF COURSE our Brig would be back on-screen and OF COURSE he'd've aged considerably. (Bad luck - he'd've got clean away with it if he'd claimed that SARAH JANE got rejuvenated.)
Admittedly you could say the same of RTG mentioning the immortal Professors Chesterton in Death of the Doctor, meaning Who will be unable to wheel out the REAL Ian Chesterton. (And we certainly don't want to see a recast one, not if he's got a wig as bad as fake-Polly's...)
Thinking about something and it actually happening are two different things.
In 1996, Doctor Who was that cancelled cult British show, that recent had a flop TV movie. That idea that it would come back as a series probably wasn't on most peoples radar.
Yes, RTD was no doubt thinking about it, but it would take him nine years until he had the clout to make it happen.
that recent had a flop TV movie
It wasn't a flop in Britain, it was a triumph (well, with regard to its over-nine-million viewers. What we saw on screen...not so much).
That idea that it would come back as a series probably wasn't on most peoples radar
Paul Cornell isn't most people, he's a Who Writer.
that recent had a flop TV movie
It wasn't a flop in Britain, it was a triumph
Too bad that in the U.S., where the ratings actually counted, it was a flop. It got slaughtered by an episode of Rosanne (the one where Dan had a heart attack).
Paul Cornell isn't most people, he's a Who Writer.
I take it he's the fellow that wrote this novel.
Yeah, he wrote several ground-breaking and/or mediocre Who novels before giving us PROPER - i.e. on-screen - Human Nature, Family of Blood and Father's Day. Met him at Tavern occasionally though, unlike most of my other encounters with Who writers, I don't remember anything earth-shattering occurring...in fact I don't remember anything about him. Do remember turning down the chance to attend his wedding, though, as the plus one of another Who writer. Obviously there's nothing I hate more than holy matrimony, buying other people presents, and buying myself posh clothes so I try not to retrospectively bitterly regret my decision even though RUSSELL T GOD WAS THERE DAMMIT (albeit years before He became a Living God which does help with the regrets).
What is this Tavern thing?
Gathering of Who fans, first Thursday of every month, Fitzroy Tavern, Charlotte Street.
Bookwyrm:
'The Brigadier hilariously pulls [Lord Tasham's] beard, which stays on, thus informing the soldier that Tasham isn't an evil Time Lord after all. Because... hang on, does that mean the Master wore a false beard? And the Brigadier knew this? What?' - oh. I do hope there are no implications for the Brig's moustache.
'Meanwhile, the Brigadier is apparently in his nineties, meaning he was born before 1920 and so was in his fifties by Spearhead from Space. Except he wasn't' - ah well, what's another anomaly in the Brig's Mawdryn Undead-ed timeline?
'There's also a glorious moment when the Master has the Doctor at gunpoint and utters the line "Who can save them now?". Apparently he and Cornell seem to have forgotten that there are three other cloned versions of the Doctor present and, as a consequence of Cornell forgetting, they do precisely nothing to help the situation' - to be fair, I'd forgotten about any Doctor-clones too. Er, what happened to them? I hope they didn't feel the need to do some Noble Self-Sacrifice a la Ganger-Doctor.
Mike Yates' lover is supposed to be TOMMY FROM PLANET OF THE SPIDERS?! Tommy deserves better!
'It's harder to understand why [the Doctor is obsessed by "fear makes companions of us all"] since it's just something he once said to someone while he was in a cave. It's almost as if the Doctor is aware that his history, his life, only really became important and relevant when it started to be televised' - •••• RIGHT IT IS! - 'Of course, Listen would retcon this away 18 years later, so it makes more sense now than it did then' - ah, wibbley-wobbley timey-wimey...stuff.
'The music for the wedding song is described in the text as being "a twenties lounge style". The actual sheet music printed at the back is about as far from a twenties lounge style as it's possible to get, being rather closer to a militaristic polka from 1930s Bavaria' - oh.
'Flavia lost her job after being found drunk in charge of the Sash of Rassilon? That stupid Ancestor Cell claimed Romana challenged her to a duel or something.'
Whilst Gallifrey: Lies had Romana proclaiming 'I was asked to become President after the coup against Flavia's inauspicious rule' (asked by WHOM FFS? Cos they must be redder-faced than a Liz Truss backer).
Though of course three audios later Gallifrey: Insurgency is claiming that 'Romana invoked the ancient right of challenge against her predecessor'...