Show Some Empathy! by Matthew Clarke (my fan fiction)

Another story about Big Finish character, Elizabeth Klein. Klein is a Nazi scientist from an alternate timeline and briefly a companion of the Seventh Doctor. This story is set between A Thousand Tiny Wings and Survival of the Fittest.

I think it is really interesting that Klein is not only a Nazi, but a German who was brought up in England. While Klein's background as a German child in wartime England is mentioned in Colditz, it is not brought up in the Klein trilogy.

I am supposing that Klein was born about 1935, which would make her about 50 when she travels in the TARDIS.


After viewing the Ice Caves of Vomoth, the Doctor decided it was definitely time for a warm cup of tea. The Ice Caves of Vomoth were one of the great wonders of the universe. He had been keen to see them, especially as one of these days he was expecting Morgaine the Sunkiller to imprison him in the ice caves of her world for all eternity. He might as well get used to that sort of thing.

As the Doctor brewed some tea, he heard Klein pad in softly in her slippers. "You must have heard the kettle, Klein," he said and produced a cup for her.

Klein had changed out of her arctic weather gear and was wearing her usual TARDIS uniform of wool skirt and cardigan. The Doctor wondered if his old friend Barbara had worn that particular set of knitwear. He supposed that as Klein was about fifty and Barbara had been in her late twenties, the two women might be a different size. But then he had never professed to be an expert in women or their attire.

Over tea they talked of the ice caves they had seen that day. He told Klein about some of the other cold weather locations he had viewed. He told Klein about his encounters with the Cybermen in the Antarctic and about the Krynoid that had been buried in the icy wastes.

Somehow the conversation moved from talking about the Antarctic to twentieth century history. This brought the Doctor on to the subject of Klein's childhood.

"You were born before the war, weren't you, Klein? As a German in England, your father must have been interned."

"My whole family were interned," Klein replied, her expression darkening.

"How did you find that experience?" he asked.

"It was so horrible, Doctor. They came for my family early one morning. They took us away to this dusty old house in the country. It was a large house, but there were several German and Italian families staying there. It was extremely cramped and crowded."

"How old were you at the time?" asked the Doctor.

"I must have been six years old. I was too young to understand what was happening. All I knew was that we had been taken away from our home to a strange place. We had no time to pack. I only had my clothes; all my toys had been left behind. I must have cried every night for weeks! I had started school the year before and was enjoying it. I had made new friends and had left them all behind."

"It must have been very traumatic," the Doctor said softly.

"Yes, it was! It is terrible for a child to be imprisoned. How could they do that? Imprisoning a child just because she is German or Italian!" exclaimed Klein, tears welling in her eyes. This subject had clearly touched a deep emotional vein in her.

"Klein what you experienced was unfair and harsh. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I know that war is a difficult time, but perhaps the way you were treated was wrong. Nevertheless, you must face the fact that your suffering was only a fraction of what the Third Reich did to so many. Across Europe, millions of families and millions of innocent children were dragged from their homes by the government you believe in," said the Doctor solemnly.

Klein stared at him, her eyes still red with tears.

"Just how many innocent families were herded by your precious Third Reich into concentration camps to face slavery and slow death?"

The Doctor's face began to snarl, as he always did when showing anger.

"Was your father beaten with a horsewhip because he did not move fast enough? Were your parents threatened with guns? Were you and your parents stripped naked and robbed of all your possessions? Were they enslaved and worked to death by the British? I know food was scarce and you probably did not eat well, but were you really fed on starvation rations? All of those horrors were inflicted on countless families by the Nazis. I'm sorry, Klein, but whatever injustice you received, your self-pity is utterly hypocritical!"

Klein's face was red with rage. She stood up and looked down at the little man she travelled with.

"Doctor, how dare you accuse me of hypocrisy! You are full of lies! How dare you subject me to this Allied propaganda!" she snapped. "The Reich had to do many things that were harsh. Perhaps the Reich did some things that went too far, but I reject your judgment."

Klein stormed out of the room, her slippers cushioning her angry footsteps.

The Doctor sighed. He knew he had pushed Klein too far. Her childhood pain was too deep. Whatever the hypocrisy of her anger, she could not see beyond the trauma of her experiences. It might be a long time before she would ever be willing to face the horror of the things the Third Reich had done.

The Shadows of Avalon, by Paul Cornell (BBC novel)

"Behind them came the Lady President, the War Queen, Mistress of the Nine Gallifreys. She was dressed, utterly typically, in scarlet chinoise pyjamas with a high square collar. The usual lengths of pearls were the only accessory, save for the bangles at her left wrist. She wore, Cavis noted, oriental clogs, and her toenails were painted in the swirling colours of the vortex. She'd had a tiny Prydonian Seal tattoed on her left ankle, or perhaps it had appeared there when she'd regenerated."

Don't you just love Romana's varied outfits?


Paul Cornell received almost universal praise for his first two NA novels, Timewyrm: Revelation and Love and War. Opinions were a bit more divided by No Future, which was very much the climax of the controversial character arc with Ace. Cornell continued to receive praise for Human Nature, both as a novel and for its adaptation as a Tenth Doctor television story. The Shadows of Avalon, in the BBC range of novels follows No Future, not only in dividing fan opinion, but in its bleak and gritty portrayal of a well-loved character. Personally, I loved this novel. I adore Cornell's writing and I admire his contribution to the radical Virgin New Adventure novels. The Shadows of Avalon very much had the feel of a New Adventure, rather than a BBC book.

The bulk of this book is set in a magical otherworld in which there are dragons and 'fairies.' This world is very vividly portrayed. It turns out that this is not the world of Morgaine; apparently there are many worlds that resemble Celtic mythology. Although Battlefield is referred to (thankfully no reference to Morgaine's fate is made, thus protecting the continuity of my post-Battlefield fanfic), it does seem as though Cornell is trying to write a better version of Battlefield. The Shadows of Avalon has the Brigadier, Celts, an alternate universe and nuclear missiles.

Although this novel occupies a pivotal role in the War in Heaven story arc, it is all about the Brigadier. The Brigadier is a relatively young man again, due to the events of Happy Endings (Cornell does not give a stuff about Lawrence Miles' hints that the NAs take place in a different universe). He is consumed by grief over the death of Doris. He is remarkably similar to the embittered, brutal and bullying Brigadier that we see in Jim Morimore's Blood Heat. This angsty portrayal is the kind of thing that turns off fans who don't like the New Adventures. Despite all the angst, it is clear that he still has a deeply warm friendship with the Doctor. Through much of the novel, the Brigadier plays a very Star Trek game of "Kiss me, stupid!" with the Celtic warrior queen, Mab. Mab interestingly identifies his title with the goddess Brigida and sees her attributes in him.

The Shadows of Avalon features the destruction of the TARDIS. Unfortunately, we have all seen Frontios, so we can't quite believe it has really been destroyed. This means that although the regulars don't leave in THE TARDIS at the end, throughout the novel we are expecting the TARDIS too turn up again undamaged. I suppose the destruction of the TARDIS is such a mythos-shaking event that it is impossible to get right.

Although The Shadows of Avalon is a strong enough novel in itself, it also plays a pivotal role in the War of Heaven arc. The War elements introduced by Lawrence Miles take place in the background, unlike The Taking of Planet 5. We discover here that Compassion is in fact a TARDIS! The newly regenerated Lady President Romana has sent her two agents to capture the first sentient TARDIS to mate her with other TARDISEs produce the new breed of War TARDISes. Nevertheless, the Doctor and Fritz escape on board Compassion and spend the next few stories on the run. The transformation of Compassion is well handled by Cornell and the description of her interior is well described.

I love the new Romana! There are few things I love more than camp, super-bitch villainesses. I found myself imagining her looking like Vivien Fay in The Stones of Blood (as I said, I love my camp villainesses). Unfortunately, we only get Romana III at the beginning and the end, but thankfully she is back in The Ancestor Cell (the only enjoyable feature of that novel).

A lot of fans hated the two Celestial Intervention Agents, Cavis and Gandar. I found them hilarious! They are badass, Blaxploitation Time Lords, who hero worship the Doctor and the Master. That is the great thing about Time Lords; you can do almost anything with them. You can turn Romana from a female Doctor to a bitchy, glamourpuss ice queen and you can create CIA agents who belong in a Quentin Tarantino movie. I suppose many fans found them just too pantomime. I actually quite like silly pantomime villains, provided that they really are evil and the story is serious enough. As I said with regards to Invaders from Mars, putting comical villains in a light-hearted story is a bad idea; you need a serious villain to present some menace. On the other hand, in a more serious story, having comical villains can work quite well. Paul Cornell evidently takes the view that Time Lords only get a second heart after regeneration, as he describes the never regenerated Cavis as 'Cavis the One-hearted.' I see a bit of a problem here in that we are told that the Doctor knew Cavis when he was still on Gallifrey. This means that she is older than the First Doctor, while appearing young. Why has she not aged as the First Doctor did?

The Doctor is extremely well portrayed. He comes across as having real depth. Cornell makes the 8th Doctor such a charming character. Fitz, that other likable character of the BBC range is also handled well. Cornell has such a genius for bringing characters to life and taking them through situations that shake them to the core.

The fairies in the book turn out to be Eocenes, as seen in Dr. Who and the Silurians. This is an idea that certainly feels right. The problem is that so little attention is given to it. One might imagine that with all the Brigadier and the Doctor's shared history with the Eocenes, the fact might be worthy of a bit more comment.

For a Cornell novel, there are surprisingly few references to rock music or popular culture. I suppose there is less room for them in a novel about a pre-modern culture in an alternate world.

The Shadows of Avalon is remarkably different from the previous books in the War in Heaven arc, nevertheless it is a really solid contribution to one of the most exciting developments ever seen in Doctor Who (a development which was sadly all retro-erased by unimaginative BBC editors).

Dr. Who and the Daleks (movie)

Dr. Who and the Daleks- bigger budget, bigger studios, all-star cast. You might expect it to be so much more amazing than the t.v. original. Remarkably, it is not. We might not be surprised that The Daleks had a stronger and more thoughtful script and better conceived characters than Dr. Who and the Daleks, but we might expect Dr. Who and the Daleks to be far more impressive on a visual level. Nevertheless, the film shows to demonstrate how much more resourcefully the BBC original uses the limited resources it had available. For instance, although the Dalek city in the movie has a big and impressive entrance, it has no model shot like the original, thus there is no sense that this is any more than just one building. The movie Dalek city just looks like one small factory from the outside. The interior sets of the city in the movie are bigger, but the corridors lack the surreal menacing quality of the t.v. story.

The making of this story in colour reveals just how much the Sixties series benefited from being in black and white. The forest in The Daleks appears dark and menacing. In Dr Who and the Daleks, it looks pathetically small. The same with the caves. You can barely see the tunnels in The Daleks and so one's imagination allows one to conceive of it as massive. The cave set in the movie appears much smaller because it is more visible.

The film utterly fails to capture the depth of the original story. Themes about war and pacifism are touched upon in the movie, but not to the same extent as the serial. Even more unsatisfying, the characters have been altered beyond recognition. The Dr. Who is no longer a scary and mysterious figure, but a kindly old inventor. Susan is the kind of annoying overly clever child that populates many family movies. Ian is no longer a credible character, but a comic slapstick idiot. Barbara is a helpless blonde who seems to be barely acknowledged by even her boyfriend. The fun, comic mood of the movie may make for good entertainment on a wet Saturday afternoon, but it does show its distance from the original source.

Lead actor Peter Cushing puts in a rather impressive performance as Dr Who, though given his enormous talent, this should hardly be surprising. Playing Dr. Who was a role that he enjoyed immensely. He certainly did not feel that the role was beneath him. Roberta Tovey shows very notable talent as a child actress here. Jennie Linden is unfortunately quite forgettable as Barbara Who. She fails to generate any real interest at all. It is rather telling that Ian does not appear to show very much interest in her at all. He seems to pay more attention to her little sister most of the time! The late Roy Castle himself does not impress as Ian either. His comic performance is just too slapstick for the character to be taken at all seriously.

I do love the Daleks in this film. They look really great, even if they lack the negative effect when zapping people. Having them in different colours makes them look so much more surreal, reflecting their kitsch 60s vibe. I am really disappointed by fan reactions to the New Paradigm Daleks. I thought it was fantastic the way the new Daleks paid tribute to the coloured movie Daleks and also the 60s toys. I have a very real fear that the fab new Daleks will be quietly dropped from the show.



Dr. Who and the Daleks is an enjoyable film that one can watch occasionally, but for me its clear failings are a testament to the strength of the original serial. To my mind, there are far too many fans who are quick to dismiss the merits of The Daleks. Watching Dr. Who and the Daleks ought to demonstrate just how strong the second serial of Doctor Who really was.

Invaders from Mars, by Mark Gatiss (Big Finish Audio)

Having heard some good reports about this audio drama, I did wonder if it would change my opinion of Mark Gatiss. It did not. I still consider Mark Gatiss to be one of the worst Doctor Who writers out there.

The premise of a story set around the broadcast of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio adaptation is a good idea. The idea was not used terribly well. Orson Welles himself plays little role in his plot and the real alien invaders who turn up never actually hear the real broadcast of War of the Worlds, instead they get the Doctor's version. Invaders from Mars is not a terribly imaginative or original story; it has an alien invasion, plus different factions trying to get their hands on alien technology.

Mark Gatiss made the same mistake in Invaders from Mars that he made in Victory of the Daleks; that of throwing in everything except the bathroom sink. Gatiss has thrown in far too many characters and subplots. The Soviet spy was completely unnecessary to the development of the plot.

Invaders from Mars is very much a comedy story. Comedy in Doctor Who can have mixed results. Sometimes it works, as it does in Delta and the Bannermen, sometimes it falls flat, as with The Creature from the Pit. The comedy in Invaders from Mars left me rather cold. American mobsters are too much of an excuse for dull cliches. Invaders from Mars would have worked better had Gatiss made the aliens a little less silly. You can have laughs in Doctor Who, but the nature of the program is such that you have to have a real threat. Delta and the Bannermen worked incredibly well because it had Gavrok, an humourless black-clad villain played without any irony or parody. The silly aliens of Invaders from Mars fail to generate that kind of menace.

There are plenty of fans who will offer a contrary opinion, but in my judgment, Invaders from Mars is one of the poorer Big Finish audios. So far I have yet to encounter anything of real quality from Mark Gatiss.

Architects of Seduction, by Matthew Clarke (my fan fiction)

Another story about Big Finish character, Elizabeth Klein. Klein is a Nazi scientist from an alternate timeline. This is set between A Thousand Tiny Wings and Survival of the Fittest.

I suppose not everyone will like my portraying Klein as a lonely, frustrated woman.


Torvold was a planet of gentle rolling hills and green grasslands, decorated by tiny, but colourful flowers. It was in short, the perfect place for a picnic.

The Doctor had packed a massive hamper and spread its contents on a picnic blanket- ham, sardine sandwiches, pork pie, pickles, cheeses and cakes.

Wearing a floral dress, Klein sat on the blanket. She had removed her shoes and had curled up her bare feet under her. The Doctor sat cross-legged on the other side of the blanket.

Klein eyed the Doctor's two-tone brogues.

"Herr Doctor, I would point out that we are eating off this blanket. I suggest you either remove your feet or remove your shoes."

The Doctor sighed and took off his brogues. Ever the authouritarian, Klein was fastidious about cleanliness.

Klein pulled out a bottle.

"Doctor, I found this bottle in the TARDIS. It might help wash down our meal."

The Doctor recognised the bottle. It had been picked up by his fourth incarnation.

"That's Taran wine, Klein. It's rather strong stuff."

Klein smiled and opened up the bottle. The Doctor was surprised. Klein did not usually drink much. He suspected it was down to the subdued mood she had been in recently. Klein seemed moody lately, perhaps a little depressed. He could not deny she had reason to be depressed; everything she had loved and believed in had been erased from history.

The Doctor allowed himself a tiny glass out of politeness. Unlike some of his previous selves, he was not at all given to drinking. Klein seemed quite liberal in the amounts she poured into her glass.

The Doctor attempted to engage Klein in their usual sport of debating ethics and philosophy. She responded to his arguments, but he could tell her thoughts were elsewhere.

By the time they had finished eating, she had drunk four glasses of the Taran wine. She stared out at the rolling hills.

"So many beautiful worlds. These places make me feel so melancholy, Doctor. They seem to bring out the loneliness in me," she said.

"I don't think the wine is going to help your loneliness, Klein," warned the Doctor as she helped herself to another glass. "You must miss Jonas." Klein rarely spoke of the lover she had in her own timeline, but he did not doubt this was on her mind.

"Oh, I do, Doctor. He was everything to me once. Now all I have of him is memories."

"I'm sorry, Klein. It can't be easy seeing everything you know wiped out of history," he said gently.

"I had a few lovers amongst the high-ranking National Socialists in South America. None of them meant anything to me. You knew Herr De Florres, didn't you? I knew him in a different way," she said with a laugh. "I can tell you he was not a gentle lover. He never cared much about me. I was too old for his taste," she said with a certain bitterness.

The Doctor was shocked to hear Klein speak so openly about her private life. Clearly, the alcohol was getting to her.

"Tell me, Herr Doctor. Do Time Lords love as men and women do?" she asked.

The question took him by surprise.

"It's difficult to explain the ways of Time Lords, Klein. We are a complex people. I can tell you that I had a family at one time. I do know about the birds and the bees, for all that's worth."

Klein laughed and poured down another glass of wine.

"I know you are a lonely man, Doctor. Travelling through time and space in your blue box. So far from your own kind. I'm a lonely woman too. Everyone I know has been lost to me."

The Doctor found this line of conversation rather uncomfortable.

"Well, I have had the odd companion around with me," he said.

"Like Fraulein McShane? No doubt your other companions were mostly female. You can't deny your a man, Doctor, even if you are a little pacifist."

The Doctor blushed. This was starting to remind him of the situation with that warrior queen, Angvia.

Klein moved across to the other side of the picnic blanket, knocking aside a massive cherry pie. She laid a hand on the Doctor's leg.

"We are alone on this planet together, Herr Doctor. There is nobody here to interrupt us. We need feel no shame here."

"Klein, what are you talking about?" asked a worried Doctor.

Klein had wrapped her arms around the Doctor's shoulders.

"Doctor, you have shown me the universe, can you show me love? Show me, Doctor. Show me how a Time Lord loves his Time Lady. I may not be a Time Lady, but I can be yours today."

This was really getting out of hand. His companions were not supposed to behave like this. He especially did not expect this from a Nazi who hated his guts.

Klein had already started kissing him.

"Take me, Doctor. You are a Time Lord, I am from the master race. We travel in time, we have such a potential. Let's be together and we can rule the galaxy as..as... master and mistress!"

When people started inviting you to rule the galaxy with them, you needed to worry. Perhaps it was time for drastic measures. The Doctor made a move to give Klein a nerve pinch. As he reached for her shoulder, he aimed too low and felt something soft beneath her dress.

"You want me, Doctor! I know it!"

The Doctor yelped and bolted up. Klein tried to rise and follow him, but the wine had overcome her and she staggered and collapsed.

"Klein, you really are a more complex person than I ever realised," the Doctor muttered. Then picking up the discarded bottle of Taran wine, he noticed a warning on the label, 'Contains aphrodisiacs.' "Or perhaps not that much. She really should have read the label."


The next day, the Doctor knocked on Klein's bedroom door. After she had collapsed, he had hastily put her to bed with her dress still one.

"Good morning, Klein," he said cheerfully, carefully laying down a tray of tea and bacon sandwiches on her dressing table. Klein awoke and gave a terrible groan.

"Oh, Doctor, I feel terrible," moaned Klein. "I can't remember anything. I do hope I didn't embarrass myself."

"My dear Klein, we were alone together on a deserted planet. There was nobody there to see anything," he replied, leaving Klein looking very unhappy.

Daily POP reviews A Good Man Goes to War

Daily POP: Doctor Who- (Demons Run) A Good Man Goes to War

Demon’s Run is a mess of connect-the-dots story telling, bombastic exposition, fireworks and lots of actors posing for their action figures. It feels like a performance from Disney World rather than a television drama. Throughout the painful ordeal of the story, I wondered where this could all be leading as the music swelled and poetic verse was recited over slow motion combat. The Doctor, a goofy British guy in a jacket, was built up to be the most dangerous man to have ever lived. A massive army complete with deep-space support was assembled to hold him off while an evil woman with an eye patch attempted to steal a defenseless baby from a loving couple.

Demon’s Run attempts to be far too many things at once and in the end fails at many of them. With so many characters prancing about and jumps throughout different points in time and space to visit characters that are either new with made-up back stories or references to actual adventures, it’s an over-ambitious mess. As a story about the undoing of the Doctor, I found it impressive if more than a little annoying.

From the trailer it was apparent that Demon’s Run was not going to be an episode heavy in plot or character, but even so I was annoyed at the over-reliance on special effects and aliens. Doctor Who is better than this and so is Steven Moffat.

Once Doctor Who was the most imaginative and far-reaching science fiction drama, capable of depicting gripping suspense, high adventure or brilliant comedy. Now it seems that Doctor Who has become little more than a tool to wrap up several plot threads from series to series. The program is an extension of the plot rather than the plot an extension of the program. It’s no longer about where/when the Doctor is headed next, it’s about how it will tie into the over-arching plot involving the time baby or River Song’s identity, or any number of other concept that Moffat finds necessary.

In the end I had a nasty taste in my mouth, and just like the conclusion of many a fairground ride, the sensation that I was going to be sick.

A Good Man Goes to War

RT Davies, please come back. Next to this trash, your Journey's End is a model of coherent and thoughtful script-writing.

A Good Man Goes to War is simply a mess. Too many characters, too little time, hardly any plot whatsoever. Do we really need cameo appearances from the Spitfires and Captain Avery? I was a little surprised that Queen Elizabeth X was not thrown in. The characters that we get are cartoonish and silly. There is a complete lack of motivation in most of them.

Doctor Who does not work well as an action show. The Doctor is simply not a character who runs around shooting guns. Moffat does not get this, hence the regular use of the sonic screwdriver as a surrogate weapon. In A Good Man Goes to War we get an attempt to create a massive blockbuster movie experience. We get visual and musical references to Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings movies to aid this. Nevertheless, Doctor Who is simply not an action movie. Not only is this format unsuited to the Doctor's modus operandi, but the limited time of a Doctor Who episode means that all the action must be rushed. The strength of Doctor Who has always been in drama, and what little drama there is in this story is cloying sentiment and the Eleventh Doctor's predictable "You messed with my friends and I'm really angry" mode.

All the stuff about this war against the Doctor comes across as hollow. We have never had any mention of this before and we are given nothing to make it interesting to us. It is also pretty difficult to conceive of going to war against one man. How does one fight such a war?

The revelation that River Song is Amy's daughter is hardly much of a surprise. I can't say I care at all. How is it an interesting revelation? A character is interesting by virtue not of the facts about her, but because of how she interacts with other characters. That the Doctor is a Time Lord is not interesting in itself, but in how it affects what he does in the stories. River Song being Amy's daughter is no more interesting than River Song being anybody else's daughter, to make this of interest, we have to see how this impacts on her relationship with the Doctor and the other characters. Anybody want to place a bet that the Eyepatch Lady turns out to be the Doctor's mother?

Interestingly, Moffat has decided to re-write Time Lord history. We learn that Time Lords are the way they are because of exposure to the time vortex. Nothing to do with Rassilon and the vampires then?

The Fat Gay Anglican couple were an embarrassment. The BBC Wales has an irritating habit of implying that contemporary British liberal values are some kind of universal norm. Even if one is a supporter of the pro-gay agenda this kind of shallow perspective does one no favours. Pretending that people in all times and places really want to be trendy liberals does not advance anybody's rights.

This mid-season finale is simply awful and to be honest, painful to review.

Season 18

In my judgment this is the strongest season of Doctor Who ever. It has so many classic stories and even the weakest story, Meglos is not nearly as bad as some of the disasters of other seasons. It seems as though everything came right in Season 18.

Season 18 has its critics, particularly among those who enjoy the Williams era. Season 18 has been accused of being too serious and humourless. It has been accused of using too much technobabble (though people who say this need to re-watch The Pirate Planet). It has been pointed out that viewing figures fell during Season 18. This is fact has too be considered carefully in its historical context. The viewing figures during Season 17 may have been artificially inflated by an ITV strike. The Saturday evening slot of Doctor Who suffered serious competition during Season 18, so the declining viewing figures ought not to reflect the quality of the show.

I think it is fair to say that before Season 18, Doctor Who was a mess. Production values had declined atrociously during the Williams years. The program looked cheap. The guest cast no longer acted naturally and sent up the scripts they were given. Tom Baker had stopped being a proper lead actor and had turned into a stand-up comedian in the middle of a drama. The Doctor had become invulnerable; one no longer felt that the plots mattered or could be taken seriously. Another year of daft comedy and sloppy serials would have killed the show for good. The new producer John Nathan-Turner came on board the show with a mission to clean up Doctor Who and get it together again, a mission he took totally seriously. Over the years, John Nathan-Turner made many errors of judgment for which he has received no end of criticism from fans. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that in Season 18 he revitalised the show and made it strong again.

John Nathan-Turner insisted on quality and in this season he got it. We see improved performances, beautiful synthesizer scores, brilliant location shooting, lavish studio sets and some wonderful costume designs. The stories of Season 18 really do look and feel great. The comedy elements were substantially toned down. Tom Baker still gives us some great comic moments, but they are all the better for being more sparingly used. Tom Baker gives us some of his best performances in this season, coming across as a much more sombre, almost melancholic figure. Lalla Ward was unhappy with the changes to the show, but she maintained her strong rapport with Tom and continued to be a pleasure to watch until her departure in Warriors' Gate.

The improved quality of the show has sometimes lead to the accusation that it was 'more style than substance.' This ignores the real depth of this season. These are genuinely intelligent stories. They deal in both hard science and mysticism. We get scientific theory about entropy, but also Hellenistic philosophy. For all the stuff about Tachyonics in Leisure Hive, we get Medieval ideas about sacral monarchy and spiritual cosmology in The Keeper of Traken. Best of all, the stories of this season are wonderfully diverse, reflecting a willingness to move beyond tried and tested formulas.

While its sad to see Romana go, the departure of K9 was a wise decision. Season 18 brings in a host of new characters- Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, the new Master. Not all of these characters had been very well thought-out and the results are a mixed blessing. For all the hatred that Adric has received, he is a character with interesting depths and in this season with Tom Baker, he works well. The Keeper of Traken is most definitely Adric finest moment.


The Leisure Hive- 9/10

A great story that demonstrates the value of a more serious approach to the show. Tom Baker gives a brilliant performance in his new serious mode. After Season 17, it is a remarkable shock to have the Fourth Doctor looking vulnerable and weak.

Meglos- 5/10

The weakest story of the season. It is something of a retro-style space adventure. It is not very impressive, but there are far worse stories in other season. Its nice to see Jacqueline Hill for the last time, even if she is a little wasted in a cliched role.

Full Circle- 8/10

Not the most exciting Doctor Who story ever, but it is a story that really benefits from the improved visual quality of the season. The Marshmen are men in rubber suits, but they look great.

State of Decay- 10/10

A classic that has never been fully appreciated. State of Decay is far superior to Hincliffe attempts to evoke Hammer-style horror. Definitely Uncle Terrance's finest moment, it offers a real contribution to the Doctor Who mythos with its whispers of the Dark Times.

Warriors' Gate- 10/10

One of the most experimental Dr. Who stories ever. Warriors' Gate needs to be puzzled over, but it can be enjoyed on a purely visual level. Avoiding the need for lengthy exposition, Warriors' Gate tells what may be centuries of history with just the shot of a woman being punched.

The Keeper of Traken- 10/10

A rich story that makes effective use of an impressive studio set. The fairy tale feel of this story is quite welcome. Nobody gives a bad performance in this serial.

Logopolis- 7/10

Lawrence Miles' favorite Doctor Who story. Logopolis has a delightfully sombre aesthetic. The end of the Fourth Doctor's tenure is treated as a sort of narrative funeral. While visually impressive, the plot is not so strong and Anthony Ainley gives a performance that leaves a lot to be desired.

Morgaine in Stormcage, by Matthew Clarke (my fan fiction)

I have not written about any BBC Wales characters before, but River Song is an obvious choice for a prison series.


Having been incarcerated for 31 centuries, Morgaine was an expert on prisons. Most of that time had been spent at Ganymede Correctional Facility. That was a strict prison. Morgaine valued order and discipline and she admired the regime there. She had seen plenty of other prisons- HMP Holloway in the 21st century, the Lunar Penal Colony with its bizarre lack of segregation of the sexes (apparently they put contraceptive drugs in the food), an iso-cube in Megacity One and Necros Home for Delinquent Ladies. All of them had been marked with the mystical inscription which created the magic field necessary for her imprisonment. Escape had never been a possibility during those long, lonely centuries.

Morgaine was utterly unimpressed with Stormcage Containment Facility. Despite its grim, forbidding grey walls and bars, it was an utterly soft regime. The design of the prison was so antiquated. Holloway prison in the year 2000 would have been harder to escape from than this. The prisoners wore their own clothes. Her cellmate's strappy tops were perfect for distracting male guards. Back at Ganymede Correctional Facility, all of the guards had been female. They knew how to run things. They had sometimes forgotten to confiscate her cellmate's high heels- perfect for attacking guards with. In fact, Morgaine's companion in incarceration must have had a dozen useful objects for effecting an escape. No wonder she was constantly coming and going as she pleased. If Morgaine had been prison governor, there would be a lot more cell searches and a lot more strip searches. She would have done those herself and enjoyed it.

At the present moment, River Song had decided she was happy to stay in her cell. She lounged on the bunk trimming her nails. She was dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt.

Morgaine had been telling her cellmate about how she had bound Merlin in the ice caves for all eternity.

"Yes, you have told me all about that a thousand times," said River. "And now you are locked up. However, you keep bumping into Merlin's past self. Very timey-wimey."

"I suppose you might say that," replied Morgaine. Why couldn't she have a cellmate who was young, cute, light and fluffy? Those were the sort of girls whose company she enjoyed on those lonely prison nights. River was too absorbed by her blasted lover to take any interest in more immediately available intimacy.

"Let me guess, sweetie," said River. "Your Merlin looks like a trendy young executive in a pinstriped suit?"

"No," replied Morgaine.

"Okay, how about a sad old man with a massive nose who never got over his mid-life crisis?"

"No."

"A boring young thing who wears a stick of celery?"

"No."

"A tall chap with blond curly hair and terrible dress sense who never shuts up?"

"No."

"Okay. We're narrowing it down. How about a tiny Celtic chap who makes funny faces when he gets angry?"

"Exactly. You finally got it. I take it that is your Merlin?" said Morgaine.

"Oh no, mine is a more advanced model. Much cuter, sweetie. It won't be long before he's mine."

River might have called Morgaine 'sweetie,' but she had no interest in girl-on-girl fun. 'Boring wench' thought Morgaine to herself.

"Enjoy him while you can," sneered Morgaine. "When he falls into my hands I will bind him in the ice caves forever! From my wrath there is no escape."

"You bitch," cried River. "Not if I rescue him!" She threw a slipper in Morgaine's direction.

This was more like it. Morgaine picked up her pillow, ready for a counter-offensive.

No Future, by Paul Cornell (Virgin New Adventure)

"It's my opinion that the Doctor symbolizes the best values of British life. Eccentricity, the creative amateur, and civilization."

Can you believe that there are fans who don't like this novel? Maybe you are one of them. After all, I hate Pyramids of Mars and every other fan adores that story. If you hate the New Adventures, you are not going to like No Future. If you hate Ace being an angst-filled, violent bitch, you will hate No Future. If you hate gratuitous continuity references, you will also hate it.

No Future brings to a conclusion the story arc concerning a series of temporal alterations that began with Blood Heat. It also concludes the story arc concerning Ace's bitterness toward the Doctor. Naturally, this calls for Cornell's trademark emotional drama. This is a tale of bitterness, betrayal, but ultimately reconciliation. From this book onwards, Ace comes to terms with the Doctor (though I think she never really forgives him, as can be seen in Head Games). Forget about that hypocritical drunk, Bernice. The New Adventures should not be celebrated for introducing Benny, but for what they did with Ace. Instead of just taking a character from the television series and writing stories with her in, they took her and developed her in exciting and disturbing ways. We actually got to see a companion who was angry with the Doctor and who resented him for the things he did. This boldness with the character of Ace is what makes the Big Finish Seven/ Ace stories so dull. The Big Finish stories just want to recreate Season 26 (except with Hex thrown in some of them). The Big Finish writers just want that 'nice girl Dorothy' (as Mel described her in Head Games).

No Future reintroduces the Meddling Monk as a villain. This was a risky strategy. The danger with the Master is you make him too suave and charming. The danger with the Monk is that he ends up being there as a cute comic character. Cornell portrays the Monk masterfully, giving him a real depth. He at first appears in the guise of a record company boss who is very clearly modelled on Richard Branson. When his identity is revealed to the reader, we encounter him as a very kindly clerical figure. In this guise he shows his talents at manipulation. There is a beautiful moment where Ace breaks down before the Monk and confesses to him every sin she has ever committed and even makes some up. Despite his apparent kindness, however, this Monk is a much more evil and twisted character than the one we saw in the Hartnell years. Of course, he still gives us some camp fun; there is a wonderful moment when he sings "Don't know much about history!"

The Monk is portrayed as a second-rate, would-be Doctor. He is not only full of bitterness about past defeats, but is also full of envy towards his more accomplished counterpart. What I loved most about this portrayal was the fact that he not only plans to give the Doctor a prolonged agonising death, but he also seeks the ultimate revenge- to steal the Doctor's companion. In an almost soap opera style, the Monk attempts to seduce Ace away from the Doctor and make her his own companion. The Master never tried that. In the end Ace reveals herself to be manipulating the Monk and betrays him, yet it is obvious that she was genuinely tempted to betray the Doctor.

Not only do we get the return of the Monk, but we also get the most unlikely returning race- the Vardans! Cornell does a great job of giving the Vardans some background, history and character. We are also treated to a female Chronovore. The climax of the book echoes The Time Monster, with the Chronovore capturing the Monk to be tormented for eternity. Evidently he escaped, as he has recently reappeared in the Big Finish audios.

Cornell always does interesting things with the Brigadier. We get to see how much he admires the Doctor as an embodiment of English virtue. Perhaps in tribute to Barry Letts, Cornell reveals that the Brigadier is a Buddhist. The Brigadier believes that the Doctor is a Bodhivista, one who has gained enlightenment, but who remains in this world to help others. This is a fascinating spin on the Doctor Who mythos.

No Future is a fitting climax of the dark, angst-filled initial phase of the Virgin New Adventures. I think it is a brilliant and adorable novel and one of Cornell's best works.