Autumn Mist

Roots: The Lord of the Rings (Elves), A Midsummer Night's Dream, and European (especially English) folklore. The novel opens with a quotation from Vegetius. There are references to Frankenstein, Oscar Wilde, Macbeth, The Great Escape, The Wizard of Oz, the Sunday Sport, Dr Kildare, Tom and Jerry, Melody Maker, The Mabinogion, Sean Connery's performance in Dr. No, Deep Space Nine, John Wayne, Jack Daniels, Tony Robinson and Time Team, and Lennon and McCartney.

Goofs: It seems odd, given that the Sidhe are native to Earth, that we've never seen them before or since.

Double Entendres: "We can make the big small, and the small big."

Dialogue Triumphs: "Making things Right is my profession. Cheating Death's just a sort of hobby..."

"There are many who claim Lordship over Time, but only one who behaves like a true Lord. Someday you'll make someone a fine husband."

Continuity: The Sidhe are native to Earth, but live out of phase with human perception and exist in, and are able to perceive, all eleven dimensions. They can appear humanoid to human perceptions, with vaguely cat-like features including wide cheekbones, a pointed chin, pointed ears, and a flattened skull. They inspired the Leshy of Polish folklore, the Kachinas of Hopi mythology, and Elves, fairies etc. They formed a truce with mankind long ago, after Sidhe and humans fought. They can make humans vanish into their realm. They are essentially immortal. They can move through time. They have various tribes and clans, including the Leannain Sidhe. The Leannain Sidhe call the Doctor "Evergreen Man". They pay homage to the forces of order and chaos [do they know about the Guardians?], their Queen, "Titania", personifying order, and "Oberon", the Amadan na Briona, personifying chaos. The dimensional tear caused by the Nazi experiments is threatening their realm. They are vulnerable to iron, due to their electromagnetism-based lifestyle. The Doctor kills Oberon by trapping him on the USS Eldridge just before it dephases.

The dimensional tear caused by the Nazi experiments has attracted the Beast (The Taint).

The Doctor and Fitz whistle "Colonel Bogey". The Doctor drives a jeep here and flies an L5 plane. He claims that he's currently one thousand and eighteen years old. He claims it is "debatable" that he is partly human. His shadow has disappeared [following his dealings with Faction Paradox in Unnatural History - see Interference]. He steals the USS Eldridge from the Philadelphia Experiment to seal the dimensional breach.

Sam wears a Pinky and the Brain t-shirt. She once read a story about a man who changed history by stepping on a butterfly on prehistoric Earth. A German soldier shoots her in the chest at close range. The Sidhe heal her shattered heart, possibly giving her traces of Sidhe DNA in the process. She asks the Doctor to take her home after the events here.

Fitz cooks scrambled eggs on toast in the TARDIS' kitchen. He dons slacks and shirt from a tailor's shop in the Ardennes. He is forced to pose as a German Corporal. His father was originally from Leipzig. Fitz briefly adopts the alias "James Bond".

The TARDIS has a kitchen that Sam didn't know about, which contains a microwave and an oven shaped like a television. It also contains a fireplace that never goes out. The TARDIS has Heisenberg circuits.

Links: The Taint. The Sidhe were first mentioned in First Frontier and again in Unnatural History. Fitz recalls the Ruin (Dominion) and sleeping with "Dark Sam" in San Francisco (Unnatural History). Sam recalls what happened the last time that the Doctor tried to repair the TARDIS whilst in flight (War of the Daleks) and Coal Hill School (The Eight Doctors). The Doctor has told her about the Celestis and Mictlan (Alien Bodies). The TARDIS food machine is mentioned (see The Daleks, The Edge of Destruction).

Location: The Ardennes, 15th December 1944.

Unrecorded Adventures: The Doctor may have met David Niven. He drove an ambulance at El Alamein under the alias John Smith, with the military number 55583.

The Bottom Line: "Elves. What the hell else will they think of?" McIntee's most disappointing novel: Doctor Who has always merged folklore and science fiction to great effect and the Sidhe are an excellent idea, but the concept is let down by a dull, patchy plot.

Discontinuity Guide by Paul Clarke

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