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Filling the odd absence in '80s Doctor Who of a video game-centred plot, The Nightmare Fair has quite a few good ideas, but the inclusion of the Toymaker, who hasn't been on the programme since 1966, is a puzzling one and could have early been replaced with a new antagonist. At least Williams recognized The Celestial Toymaker hadn't gone nearly far enough with the deadly games idea and pushed them in a more engaging direction. It's also fun to see him knock the yellow peril stereotypes and how Mandarin robes don't belong on Gough.
Lyons tries to push the ideas of The Mind Robbers further than before to fair results. This is some really clever writing with a few fantastic moments like the Scrabble conversation, but the tensions of the TARDIS gang begin to really feel forced after a while and I didn't need an explanation for the Land of Fiction.
In Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-4) there was a regular character Lieutenant M'Ress, who was the Enterprise's relief communications officer (so sometimes replacing Uhura). M'Ress was a female Caitian - a felinoid race in the Federation. While no other details of the race were given on screen, expanded information appeared in official publications, starting in 1974, that the Caitians came from the planet Cait which is in the Lynx Constellation (later further specified as 15 Lyncis).
Therefore, looking at your Continuity 6th paragraph, the one on Cat People, while you identify the sources of several of the other Cat People races in the Roots section above, you have missed that the felinoids of Cait and the Lynx constellation are lifted as directly from Star Trek as others come from Flash Gordon and Larry Niven.
Under continuity you say:
"COBRA is the Commons Office Briefing Room something or other, who decide things such as raids on hostage situations."
COBRA is the actual, real world (not made up for the book) UK emergency response committee that is convened in cases of national emergency such as terrorist attacks, threats to the UK, public health emergencies, natural disasters etc. The membership is not fixed and depends on who is relevant to the particular situation that called for it being convened, but would involve government ministers, senior civil servants, emergency services representatives, and security service and military representatives if appropriate. It is often (but not always) chaired by the Prime Minister.
Whilst the name sounds vaguely cool and tough when it is announced that the PM has convened the COBRA committee (which always means there is some kind of emergency with national repercussions), it is actually just a straightforward acronym for the room in which this emergency committee meets in the Cabinet Office building in Whitehall - Cabinet Office Briefing Room A ... COBRA.
I think the only book that is truly unrepresented is Time's Crucible. As to the other "Nobody" entries above...
Apocalypse: Raphael is mentioned near the end.
Warhead: Vincent and Justine get in touch with Lord Tasham and help him clean up his act.
Lucifer Rising: Legion is mentioned by Spandrell at the start.
Parasite: The Artefact is mentioned as well, see above.
Sanctuary: Guy is more than *mentioned*, although he's not actually in it himself...
Zamper: Kadiatu mentions the Zamps, somebody else mentions Zamper re spaceship design.
SLEEPY: Apparently Cinnabar and Byerley's wedding is mentioned.
Also it's Hamlet Macbeth, not Hamish - but I get the damn thing confused as well.
He was in America in the Gunfighters after Salvation.
• It's somewhat convenient that the pilot fish just happen to be in the area where the Doctor and Donna are hunting for a taxi.
The Doctor hadn’t given Donna the bio-damper yet – the pilot fish probably just tracked the Huon energy.
• How does Donna know that her holiday in Spain coincided with the Battle of Canary Wharf the Doctor's talking about?
People were talking about it when she got home, and it was probably on the news?
• If Huon particles need something living to catalyse inside, why risk using a human subject who could potentially walk out on you, when you could just use caged animals?
I don’t really have an answer to this other than perhaps it needed something unique to human biology.
• It's a bit of a co-incidence that Torchwood drilled a hole to the centre of the Earth right next to the lab where they were making Huon particles.
I got the impression that the lab was built there because the hole was there…
• The Doctor says that he's going further back than he's ever been before. So he's clearly forgotten his trips to the early years of the universe/galaxy in The Edge of Destruction and Castrovalva, seeing the origin of the universe (as mentioned in Destiny of the Daleks), and the origin of the Earth in the Exploration Earthradio show, and probably a few more trips that I've temporarily forgotten. [He's referring to his current incarnation.]
As you’re pointed out, The Doctor could just have been referring to his current incarnation.
• The formation of the Earth seems to happen too fast to be realistic. [The TARDIS is speeding up time for its occupants relative to the outside, to give them a better view.]
Again, you’ve already pointed out that the TARDIS could have been speeding up their viewing of the outside events.
• If the "pilot fish" are such good shots that there's no chance of them hitting the bride, as the Empress says, then why do so many of their shots completely miss the TARDIS?
TARDIS force-field/perception-filter guided them away.
• Why are the Army, rather than the RAF, attacking the Racnoss ship? Surely the air force would be faster, and be better equipped for the task. Also, if the other Racnoss ship is capable of withstanding the pressures at the centre of the Earth for 4.6 billion years, why is the Empress's ship destroyed so easily? [There's a comment about the Empress's Huon energy being depleted, but why would that affect the strength of her ship's hull?] And is it really flying low enough to be within range of the tanks?
Good point about the RAF. Don’t know. Maybe it was designed for the higher temperatures and high pressure – perhaps cooler temperature above the surface and a change in air pressure destabilised the defence systems slightly – say maybe on an atomic level – just enough to present an Achilles’ Heel?
• In [TV]The Underwater Menace[/TV}, Professor Zaroff's plan to drain the oceans into the Earth's core would have heated the water enough to destroy the Earth. Even if we can assume that he would have drained a lot more water, surely there should have been a similar effect with this hole. And it's quite lucky that the hole missed the pockets of Stahlman's gas and of lava we saw in Inferno, though we can probably assume that there are areas of the planet which contain neither.
Less water involved, and also maybe Torchwood had precautions in place to prevent lava or gas leakage that a normal business wouldn't have had access to.
• Donna claims that she became a widow during this story, but she never actually married Lance.
Given the day that Donna had had, I think we can probably forgive her a slight inaccuracy in throwaway comment. And she’d been emotionally invested enough in the relationship that the grief was probably comparable.
l on too is a cybermen at mondas attack locatlIon at grIdca A64
I guess it was inevitable that we'd miss some of those references, thanks for filling in some of the blanks. They're now added in.
The list of references is definitely not complete.
You have nothing for Marinus, but the Voord are mentioned.
You have nothing for Aztecs, but Chris says ‘... we can’t change history. Not one line, apparently. I mean, maybe the odd word or two. I don’t know.’
I’m sure there are more; those are just the first two blanks in your table. I don’t think the rumout about every story is true, but it’s closer than you’re giving credit for.
First, a quick indirect reference: Starting in the late 70s, Doctor Who featured an increasing number of charming rogue characters. But bizarrely, they all fit the 60s archetype, which for the entire rest of the world (especially in SF) had been completely replaced by Han Solo. With Jason, they finally caught up to the late 70s. (Or reverted to the mid 30s, which is the same thing here.) Sabalom Glitz was a lovable rogue that nobody could actually love; Jason Kane is one that anyone can. Of course he's really more a parody of Han Solo taken seriously than he is the character played straight, but that's true for everything Dave Stone does.
Anyway, I realize that Dave Stone is the marmite writer of the New Adventures, but I can't believe anyone who liked Sky Pirates could hate Death & Diplomacy. Critics point out--rightly, and with Dave's assent--that the former is all broad gags and wild ideas that, while fun, add up to nothing.
As for Space Bitch Ace, I think most people would agree that the idea of her was interesting, but the execution was terrible. But I don't think that's because the writers hated the idea. She was terrible when PDE wrote her, and she was his idea, while Kate Orman, the ultimate frocks-over-guns writer, was the only one to make good use of the character.
As for Benny: almost nobody could write Space Bitch Ace, most of the writers couldn't handle Roz, and everyone did Chris well but only writing him as a completely different character beyond the surface stuff; Benny was the only companion (until Fitz) who was well-realized enough that almost everyone could make her work. And I don't see her as a Mary Sue at all. But if you don't like her, I'm obviously not going to change your mind after all these decades.
That being said, I would suggest reading one of the Benny novels: Dead Romance. Benny isn't even in it, only a distant relative of hers. (And she's not even that if you read the Mad Norwegian version.) Actually, the book before it (speaking of Mary Sues) only peripherally includes Benny as well, but I suspect you'd hate that one, as it's Dave Stone at his Dave Stoniest.
The book does have guest stars from Human Nature. Alexander Shuttleworrh shows up, and he and the Doctor discuss Joan Redfern (although not by name, IIRC).
The three Higher Eternals are from most of Cornell's books, and should probably be listed for at least Revelation.
A bunch of the Travelers show up, not just Maire.
Also, doesn't the soldier that Benny killed in Just War show up in the Puterspace pagan wedding?
Finally, Romana (and the mention of former President Flavia) is a reference to Blood Harvest (and Goth Opera, and the alternate future in Human Nature), in the same way that Ace is a reference to Set Piece, and so on for the Master, the UNIT crew, etc. Like Ace, Romana 2 is a TV character, and a recurring character, and a former companion, but like Dorothee, Lady President Romana is a VNA character.
These are now added into the article. Thanks for pointing them out.
"Turlough remembered reading about the effects of plasma damage on the biosphere of Qo’noS. Nasty business. ‘I can imagine,’ he muttered."
Qo’noS is the Klingon Homeworld in Star Trek, and its biosphere was devastated by the explosion of its moon Praxis and the energy production facilities thereon.
"The Maitre D’ was not happy. He’d been in Cubiculo 498, enjoying coffee and liqueurs with Senator Xavier on Risa"
Risa is the most famous leisure planet in the Federation in Star Trek, with the best restaurants.
Two mentions of the "Academia Scholastica on Vulcan". It sounds like its referencing the prestigious Vulcan Science Academy from Star Trek, and not the Power of The Dalek's Doctor Who Vulcan, which was an unpleasant planet, Earth's 3rd ever colony basically just for resource mining, soon abandoned and was "practically a legend" already by 2136.
"... the Cubiculo was considerably more ornate than the others, with its inlaid patterns of gold and latinum."
Gold pressed latinum - the Ferengi currency, also widely used by other races when not dealing in Federation credits.
I'm pretty sure I noticed another Star trek reference too, but can't remember what it was at the moment.
Thanks for the heads up. I've now fixed that.
An emotional roller coaster. Kate Orman explores the Doctor's feelings like no other writer thus far in the New Adventures, and does it during a terrifying epic adventure that gives up timey-wimey long before Steven Moffat was on the scene. The prose is a little rough in places but otherwise it's a damn fine story.
I was concerned about all the mentioned atrocities and disasters though. I hate when real-life disasters are given supernatural/alien origins, and The Left-Handed Hummingbird looked like it was about to become one of the most outrageous examples of this. However, Orman subverts this with Huitzilin claiming he was present at scenes of grief and pain to feed off them but didn't cause them himself. This was a relief to see.
There's a further link: Benny recalls Zamina telling her about catfood monsters when she observes a New York City bag lady with pet food (Transit).
there's not tegan in this story
he's not called 'the Monk', and he's not called 'Mortimus' either. Trying to bring the name 'Mortimus' into things creates numerous problems. Should we look at things....
1)'Mortimus' is first used in Paul Cornell's "novel" No Future. Here we learn that "Mortimus" FIRST met the Doctor in The Time Meddler(contradicting both the television serial AND its Target novelisation), and that he was stranded on the ice planet at the end of The Daleks' Master Plan(contradicting both THAT telesision serial and its Target novelisation). No Future also states that "Mortimus" left Gallifrey fifty years after the Doctor, which is inaccurate, which is Cornell completely mishearing what was ACTUALLY said in The Time Meddler.
2)Then, in Divided Loyalties, we find out that the Doctor and 'Mortimus' are very good friends ON GALLIFREY. Oh, and 'Mortimus' leaves Gallifrey BEFORE the Doctor.
3)'Mortimus' is reused by the Big Finish Audios....
First, the EIGHTH Doctor meets "the Monk"(never called 'Mortimus'), and it is stated that 'Mortimus' left Gallifrey fifty years after the Doctor, and that they haven't seen each other since The Daleks' Master Plan. And he very irritatingly introduces HIMSELF as 'the Monk'.
In 'The Rani Elite', the Sixth Doctor and the Rani discuss their time on Gallifrey, including their old friend, 'Mortimus'.
Then, in the "loco Doctors" trilogy, "the Monk" meets the FIFTH Doctor And here, he says that the Doctor is the ONLY ONE who calls him 'the Monk'.
Can it get more ridiculous? In 'The Black Hole' the SECOND Doctor meets another Time Lord who everyone starts calling 'the Monk', even though he's just said that that was a one-off disguise.
'The Monk' then pops up in a couple of BF short trips, meeting both the Third and the Fourth Doctors.
He then reappears in another Eighth Doctor audio box set, 'Doom Coalition 4', again called 'the Monk' by everyone.
But THAT'S all fine and dandy, isn't it? Sheesh.
Functionable enough but filled with that most irritating beginning writer's mistake: overreliance upon adverbs, especially to describe speech. 'Tom snapped irritably.' 'Vaiq asked slowly.' '[The Doctor] said quietly.' No more! Make it stop! Each instance is a finger leaping from the page to jab me in the eye. At least this one didn't make super obvious hints about the mysterious manipulator and it had actual chapters.
The Monk is actually called Mortimus, backing up my explanation.
He isn't the Monk like you said, he isn't The Master or The War Chief (Magnus) either. He is clearly another Time Lord who became a renagade. Look at The War Chief, he is obviously not called The War Chief but that is what we call him.
He isn't the Monk, but we still call him that. Forever that time lord will be called The Monk.
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A drab slog. It started off all right with the traumatised alternative Jo and the knowledge of the alternative Third Doctor's death, but it was all very numbing after so many pages of UNIT and the Silurians committing war crimes followed by Liz demanding peace. As much as Mortimore tries to sell us on the idea both sides have their points, it's heavily slanted towards the humans; the Silurians are immensely brutal and we see far less from their point of view, making it much harder to sympathise with them. To top it off, nothing the protagonists do matters in the end, and the identity of the villain behind the history changes is blindingly obvious thanks to poor wording. It also sees the return of the giant chapters that Deceit had, a feature I hate. It was kind of nice having illustrations again though.
'A lot of what happened before my second regeneration is hazy. Great chunks of my life are missing.'
You note the in universe factual content of the lines under Continuity above, but surely it should be mentioned (under 'roots', perhaps, or even 'Dialogue triumphs' - gave me the biggest smile in the story) that it's actually a metafictional joke - a reference to all the missing episodes, wiped by the BBC and unrecovered, from the First and Second Doctor's TV seasons.
There's a certain 60s scifi shout-out that's passed you by - must be deliberate by the author, it's so loud it's deafening to anyone who was a scifi fan kid in the 60s in Britain (as I was). He even teases: uses the name several times, causing a 'Hang on. Is he going to ...?', and dragging it out before finally the appearance and the description - 'Yes! He did it!' (big grin).
it's a shout-out to the science fiction future in the Gerry Anderson 'supermarionation' (puppet) scifi shows, specifically Thunderbirds - even more specifically the feature film 'Thunderbirds Are Go' - and also 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons' (same shared future history and universe as Thunderbirds, just a few years later), especially in the licensed official Captain Scarlet comic strips in the 'TV Century 21' comic (name changing to just TV21 part way through - presented as a newspaper from the mid 21st century in the shared future history of Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, and greatly expanding the background of the TV shows in a licensed, official way.)
In 'Thunderbirds are Go' the mid-21st century Zero-X mission to Mars, driving around in the MEV, find one native Martian life-form in the otherwise barren landscape ... which duly attacks them (possibly only because they were provoked by the Zero-X crew trying to break samples off something they don't realise is alive), forcing them to lift off dangerously and early to escape. Still a very memorable scene to me, for all that I was six at the time I saw it after the film's release (actually especially because I was only 6 and at that age it was very scary). What they had found (and tried to blow samples off) was .... Martian Rock Snakes. That's what they were called, and they also featured several times and quite luridly in the Captain Scarlet comic strips in stories that returned to Mars. And they looked like ... a string of boulders (easily mistaken for a rock pile when curled up), with a single large eye in the head 'boulder', and an attack consisting of blasts of superhot plasma. Sound familiar? Craig Hinton's Martian Rock Snakes have the same name, and the same description - he's just changed two things: made them smaller (the Thunderbirds/Captain Scarlet ones are vehicle size), and has his little ones fire the plasma from a sting on the tail rather than out of their mouths. (A Google image search on Thunderbirds Martain Rock Snake pulls up pics from the Thunderbirds Are Go film, and on Captain Scarlet Martian Rock Snake finds a whole page from a TV21 story they appear in, if you are interested.)
So - deliberate shout-out, and Thunderbirds Are Go and Captain Scarlet should be in 'Roots'.