Oh-kay...I'm putting this in the Thirteenth Doctor section rather than the Companions of Doctor Who one but it may get shifted depending on the amount of JODIE!.
I'm not saying my heart's sinking at the prospect but I AM saying that Who actors turned writers usually aren't much cop. Ianto and Strax - barely-adequate-to-rather-good; Fourth Doctor - you're DAMNED lucky Goss saved your bacon and redeemed Scratchman; Sixth Doctor - bad; Captain Jack and Leela - abominations KILL KILL!
Who's willing to be bet that Aldred had help "writing" this?
(autocorrect said "bed" - oh dear)
I dunno, she did co-write that Ace! book, but then it's a helluvalot easier to write non-fiction than to make up a decent story. (Also haven't got round to it yet so have no idea whether it's any good.)
I guess we'll get another explanation of how Ace left the Doctor to add to our collection of guarding-time-rift (Set Piece NA) dies-and-replaced-by-alt-uni-self (Loving the Alien PDA), joins Gallifreyan Academy (Gallifrey audios, directly contradicting Lost Story audios), dies (comics)...it's obviously going with SJA: Death of the Doctor's (and subsequent Class audios) unconvincing 'settles on Earth to set up charity' thing, but I'm curious about the 'terrible tragedy' it claims caused her to part company with the Doctor...
Anyway, it's about time an Old Who Companion encountered JODIE!, obviously it SHOULD be the Brig, but...
Moderator's Note: Moved from Companions: Classic Who: Ace section:
Would you believe...Sophie Aldred-- the author?
From doctorwhonews.net...
"Doctor Who: At Childhood’s End, the first novel from Sophie Aldred who played the Seventh Doctor’s companion Ace, is to be published 6th February 2020.
Once, a girl called Ace travelled the universe with the Doctor – until, in the wake of a terrible tragedy they parted company. Decades later, she is known as Dorothy McShane, the reclusive millionaire philanthropist who heads global organisation A Charitable Earth.
Dorothy is haunted by terrible nightmares, vivid dreams that begin just as scores of young runaways are vanishing from the dark alleyways of London. Could the disappearances be linked to sightings of sinister creatures lurking in the city shadows? Why has an alien satellite entered a secret orbit around the Moon?
Investigating the satellite with Ryan, Graham and Yaz, the Doctor is thrown together with Ace once more. Together they must unravel a malevolent plot that will cost thousands of lives. But can the Doctor atone for her past incarnation’s behaviour – and how much must Ace sacrifice to win victory not only for herself, but for the Earth? Past or future, which path do you choose?
Sophie Aldred said
"I was thrilled and honoured to have been asked to create this opportunity for the Thirteenth Doctor and Ace to meet each other. I had always hoped to be able to offer classic fans an encounter between Ace and a current Doctor in some form or other and I hope fans of the present team will enjoy the blending of two eras of the most amazing programme in the Universe."
Doctor Who: At Childhood’s End by Sophie Aldred is published by BBC Books on 6th February 2020. RRP £16.99.
It will also be available as an audiobook in CD and digital download narrated by Sophie Aldred."
Why has an alien satellite entered a secret orbit around the Moon?
It's checking out that hideous rumour that the moon is an egg?
But can the Doctor atone for her past incarnation’s behaviour
Jeez, what is Sophie Aldred gonna claim Seven DID to Ace!
Cos in my opinion just the mere SIGHT of JODIE! is enough to atone for ALL her past incarnations' behaviour, aside from Old Sixie's, of course.
I guess we'll get another explanation of how Ace left the Doctor to add to our collection of guarding-time-rift (Set Piece NA) dies-and-replaced-by-alt-uni-self (Loving the Alien PDA), joins Gallifreyan Academy (Gallifrey audios, directly contradicting Lost Story audios), dies (comics)...it's obviously going with SJA: Death of the Doctor's (and subsequent Class audios) unconvincing 'settles on Earth to set up charity' thing
Credit where it's due, instead of ignoring the ludicrous contradictions, the book will actually 'touch on the various different fates outlined for Ace in Doctor Who spin-off media'. (Radio Times interview.) Best of luck with THAT, Sunshine.
Explaining the contradictions? Hmm... Will it be 'possible futures'? Or maybe an idea I saw a long time ago that really could have paid off for the writers: The Time War created and un-created and rewrote timelines so that many contradictory things happened and unhappened - thus explaining all nits and retcons. I think someone used it as a starting point for a story that covered all the different 9th Doctors and beyond (including Shalka, Fatal Death, Lenny Henry, that animated series that never got made..)
Oh, and Big Finish have just thrown another CD into the mix (Dark Universe), it's like they just can't help themselves...
a story that covered all the different 9th Doctors and beyond (including Shalka, Fatal Death, Lenny Henry, that animated series that never got made..)
THERE IS ONLY ONE NINTH DOCTOR!
Lenny Henry's "Doctor" was an Alternate Seventh Doctor anyway according to Tardis Wiki.
Great, just what Doctor Who needs, more contradictions.
We've got enough canonicity problems without deliberately screwing ourselves up by pretending a Lenny Henry sketch show comes within a million miles of being canon.
Oh, I don't know: the member of the Lost Tribe of the Unemployed and Thatchos were great characters ;)
Who's willing to be bet that Aldred had help "writing" this?
To be fair, she openly admits it in that Radio Times interview - sadly the people she was 'working with' were Stephen Cole and Mike Tucker and they're not exactly the brightest stars in the Who-novel firmament, but hey, at least they're no Mick Lewises or Keith Toppings...
I seem to remember Timewyrm: Genesys getting a bit of flak for introducing the NAs with a naked Ace, but fair play to John Peel, SOPHIE ALDRED has a naked Ace on p11 of her book...
Ugg. Ace builds a glass and steel tower looming over the Tower of London? What a philistine.
On the plus side, she has a cat called Sorin! Adorable!
'If Brigadier Bambera had stayed in charge of UNIT then perhaps things would've gone differently' - there were other UNIT-heads since then, going by those godwful Helliax Rift/Hour of the Cybermen/Warlock's Cross audios. Also I doubt Bambera shouting 'Shame' a lot would have saved UNIT. On the other hand, at least SHE never attempted to nuke Britain...well, not deliberately anyway...
'Taciturn approval' - I think you mean 'tacit approval'...
'"Gina said that she caught a bloke poking around late at night in the alley-way behind her house. Her Malcolm chased him off." Dorothy felt a sudden surge of expectation. Could the Doctor be back in Perivale investigating things too?' - yeah, cos nothing screams DOCTOR! like rooting around in bins and being chased off by guys called Malcolm...
BBC News: 'The UFO appeared in Moon orbit at 7.10 GMT. Both NASA and the ESA have confirmed...that the object just appeared on their scanner from nowhere' - ah, just what the Whoniverse needs, another very public alien event.
'Dorothy was paranoid about what might happen if Torchwood ever caught wind of her storage facility' - remind me what state Torchwood are in at the current time...? The audios have left me in a state of some confusion. Also, our Captain seems very much in space in Fugitive of the Judoon rather than fiddling around on Earth...
'You're not going anywhere until you've had a full medical assessment' - bit dishonest of Sam to mention this AFTER she's taken advantage of Ace's ultra-convenient alien gizmo.
(Also, what's the Will/Ace age-gap? If HE'S still young enough to be a regular astronaut...)
'Your vital signs just spiked' - Sam can tell that from Mission Control?
Ace met AXOS? Sixth Doctor audio Feast of Axos gave me the impression - oh, never mind.
'You support Charlton Athletic cos your favourite uncle lived in Plumstead' - Ace has UNCLES? (Well, at least there's no mention of her hitherto-unsuspected Christian sci-fi moppet brother from The Rapture. Let us be thankful for small mercies.)
'"I should have just phoned you up and asked." "Yeah," said the Doctor quietly. "Always up for a phone call..."' - since when? Old Who Docs weren't on the PHONE.
'I always seem to find someone daft enough to come along for the ride' - didn't the War Doctor spend 300 years fighting usually-alone on the front line?
'You remember that business in the 1940s? The Cybermen in the Blitz?' - OMG Illegal Alien is canon which means that other PDAs, including Loving the Alien, is canon, which means that this isn't the REAL Ace it's the shrunken-from-sixty-foot Ace from an alternative universe! So why is she Dorothy McShane not Gale...?
'I don't mind being on my own. It's nice to get some time to myself without the baby screaming all the time' - so who's looking after her baby sister if she isn't and her parents are out at work?
What's with all the sniggering and 'yeah, right'-ing from the Fam about the existence of aliens? And gasping 'I don't believe it!' when said aliens appear?
'The abducted girls' - since when were they just girls? And if they ARE just girls, why use Ryan as bait?
'Forced into demeaning jobs' - being a waitress isn't THAT bad, surely.
'That station collects matter transmitted from Earth and boosts it onwards through the unknown' - and you can't trace it without getting a tagged Ryan and/or Yaz to go through the system? When I think how good Eccy was with teleports, when he didn't have a fraction of JODIE!'s technical skills...
Ace's departure story doesn't really fit in with the Season 26 Blu-Ray trailer ('He left with a promise that one day he'd be back'). Ah well.
'Graham stared aghast' at aliens coming aboard? The TARDIS is RIGHT THERE to retreat to if necessary . He also does a surprising lot of groaning in despair, feeling his heart plunge down to his socks, feeling his heart pound to a halt...
'Got a hanky anywhere, Graham, and something to tie it to' - JODIE!'s pockets are a disgrace! Most of her other selves would have whipped out both these items, and probably a cup of tea, to boot...
If Sorin's such a good-natured cat, why does he sulk for DAYS whenever Ace goes away?
Oh thank the gods. Sorin is merely TRAUMATISED FOR LIFE by being grabbed by the Ratts - I thought for a hideous moment that Sophie Aldred would do her Who-novel-writing duty and MURDER the poor baby, but I should have known better. Ace wouldn't destroy our childhood by joining in whatever vile oochie-killing pact all the other writers have spawned between them...(Also, no one gets their eyes gouged out for once, though sticking metal filaments like spiders' legs under their fingernails hits my squeamishness-centres just as badly.)
'You just get some of that slime on you! And make sure you've still got your tracker!' - why is Ace giving the plan away to all those Ratts?
Yaz phones the TARDIS, not Graham or the Doctor directly? I thought these people had FINALLY grasped the whole 'mobile phone' concept? (And, indeed, the stick-round-things-on-your-neck-and-communicate-through-them concept too?) JODIE! was boasting as much to Ace earlier, for heaven's sake.
Come to think of it, why mess around with trackers when you've got universal roaming mobile phone plans?
Since when does Ryan say 'Oh, my days' all the time?
'Set down on the other side of the galaxy' - actually the Doc said Svartos was in the Ninth Galaxy.
'"Let me wake up," Ace whispered. "Please, God, let me wake up now"' - as IF!
All three suns sink at once?
Did Ace not describe her repeating, precognitive nightmare to the Doctor so she could identify this planet, saving 'em hundreds of pages of...faffing about?
'"Only the Doctor was listening out for that signal," hissed Ryan. "And you killed her!"' - shouldn't Ryan be a bit more UPSET if he thinks the Doc's dead? And why would he think the Doc's dead anyway? It was Graham who watched her fake her death and he told Ryan that the Doctor got hit but 'She's been through worse. You know her. Tough as anything.'
Hang on, all the shuffling victims AREN'T hypnotised? So why the hell do Ace's friends just ignore her?
Jeez, will NO ONE IN THE UNIVERSE just SEARCH THE TARDIS CREW before locking 'em up?
'Sugar is something I heartily approve of under usual circumstances' - WHAT! Sugar is obesity-and-diabetes-and-cancer-causing EVILNESS! Sure, you liked a HELL of a lot of it in your tea when you were Capaldi (Death in Heaven) but that was a bad habit not something you APPROVED of!
'All creeds and colours were here' - Chantelle can tell their religious beliefs just by looking at them?
'The girl's core had already been shredded at a quantum level; she would be better able to survive the Wraiths' cellular predation than the others he'd taken, even without a plasma suit' - but why not put her in a plasma suit anyway, as it would help?
Crozier is sill around, augmenting people's brains?! The Time Lords were perfectly happy to kill PERI to stop him but not to...kill him?
If Sorin's such a good-natured cat, why does he sulk for DAYS whenever Ace goes away?
Maybe he's one of those cats who have genuine affection for their human pets.
All three suns sink at once?
Sure, it just depends on how they line up in their orbits and with the horizon. Of course, that's not something that would happen every evening.
...Sure, you liked a HELL of a lot of it in your tea when you were Capaldi (Death in Heaven)...
Actually, it was coffee.
Maybe he's one of those cats who have genuine affection for their human pets.
Well, OF COURSE he is - though I dunno why, ••••• has just abandoned him, probably forever, to go play with some aliens - but the good-natured ones FORGIVE their slaves when they return - providing, of course, there's copious amounts of a) Dreamies and b) grovelling - it's the bad-tempered darlings who sulk for days, as of course is their RIGHT.
Speaking of abandoning, Squeak was so close to her family she remained on that grotty Council estate after she became rich and famous, and yet has ditched 'em for outer-space without a word...
...Sure, you liked a HELL of a lot of it in your tea when you were Capaldi (Death in Heaven)...
Actually, it was coffee.
Dammit, KNEW I should've checked!
I seem to remember Timewyrm: Genesys getting a bit of flak for introducing the NAs with a naked Ace
And yet when the News of the World covered the story, they illustrated with a picture of a naked Sylvester McCoy: Dr Who's Too Blue
How adorable that they were outraged by the Doctor merely meeting a 13-year-old prostitute. Rather than, say, attempting to marry one (Adventuress of Henrietta Street).
Well, at least greeting JODIE!'s apotheosis with topless-pics-from-some-film-or-other is no longer looking so sexist. (One must find comfort wherever one can get it when faced with full-frontal nudity from the Seventh Doctor, probably not anyone's first choice when asked which Doctor they'd most like to see with their kit off...)
tbf, Jodie Jiggles will always be more interesting to hetero male DW fans than Sylvester.
quote:tbf, Jodie Jiggles will always be more interesting to hetero male DW fans than Sylvester.
Jodie has quite the lesbian fan-base, as my Tumblr feed will attest!
Never mind your Tumblr feed, as of Eve of the Daleks/Legend of the Sea Devils it's right there ON-SCREEN!
Speaking of on-screen, JODIE!'s final episode has just ripped this book's canonicity to pieces, what with claiming it's been three decades since Ace saw the Doctor. If I'd written At Childhood's End I'd be seriously annoyed with Sophie Aldred for saying such things...
Never mind your Tumblr feed, as of Eve of the Daleks/Legend of the Sea Devils it's right there ON-SCREEN!
And boy aren't they/we all celebrating!
Well I'm glad Legend of the Sea Devils made SOME people happy...
'Dorothy was paranoid about what might happen if Torchwood ever caught wind of her storage facility' - remind me what state Torchwood are in at the current time...? The audios have left me in a state of some confusion.
Well, Torchwood's alive and kicking if you believe the audios, specifically, the ones where Ace actually teams up with Torchwood (Death in Venice, Red List)...
Ace met AXOS? Sixth Doctor audio Feast of Axos gave me the impression - oh, never mind.
Pleasingly, Ace DOES meet Axos in the Quantum of Axos audio, though as she also meets the Tenth Doctor and has a K9 the continuity's not exactly spot-on...
DWM: 'She drew on the relationship-testing events of such works as Love and War to capture the right level of jaded weariness' - oh nonsense, At Childhood End's Ace is nothing LIKE the NA version! Thank the gods.