Lethbridge-Stewart spinoff novels

[Lonemagpie]

http://www.kasterborous.com/2014/12/legend-begins-colonel-lethbridge-stewart-new-adventures/

Well, then... A certain Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart is heading back to the front, and I'm writing the third book of this set of four, called The Schizoid Earth...

 

[The Badger]

Congratulations in being part of this Lonemagpie, I wish you (and your fellow writers) the greatest success! The Brigadier is a significant part of the Who mythos, he deserves his own series.

 

[OmahaStar]

I just have one question about these ... Will Doris make an appearance? I always wanted to see more of her, since the Brig spoke of her so often and so fondly.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I just have one question about these ... Will Doris make an appearance? I always wanted to see more of her, since the Brig spoke of her so often and so fondly.

I'm assuming that the publisher licensed the Brig and UNIT from the creators (or their estates) much like BBV did in the 90s and early 00s with the various monsters or K-9. And, depending on who created Doris, she may not be something these novels could touch.

 

[OmahaStar]

I just have one question about these ... Will Doris make an appearance? I always wanted to see more of her, since the Brig spoke of her so often and so fondly.

I'm assuming that the publisher licensed the Brig and UNIT from the creators (or their estates) much like BBV did in the 90s and early 00s with the various monsters or K-9. And, depending on who created Doris, she may not be something these novels could touch.

I did a little digging (ok, saw a link on another site) said they've licensed the Brig, but not UNIT. This tells stories he is personally involved with after Web of Fear, when he's still a Colonel. We'll see in a few months.

 

[The Badger]

As I recall, Doris was first mentioned in 'Planet Of The Spiders', Pertwee's lat story. She had given the Brigadier his watch. She wasn't referenced again until the McCoy story 'Battlefield', where she was now married to him.

It's possible they might have known each other at the time these novels are set, but that's not certain. And As Allyn Gibson points out, it might come down to copyright issues.

 

[JoeZhang]

I just have one question about these ... Will Doris make an appearance? I always wanted to see more of her, since the Brig spoke of her so often and so fondly.

I'm assuming that the publisher licensed the Brig and UNIT from the creators (or their estates) much like BBV did in the 90s and early 00s with the various monsters or K-9. And, depending on who created Doris, she may not be something these novels could touch.

I did a little digging (ok, saw a link on another site) said they've licensed the Brig, but not UNIT. This tells stories he is personally involved with after Web of Fear, when he's still a Colonel. We'll see in a few months.

Looks to me from the wording of the first article, they have licensed the colonel as he appears as a one-off character in the Web of Fear and nothing else ? So is he even called Alistair?

Edit: yes he was called Alistair in the Web of Fear so I guess that is in.

 

[Lonemagpie]

They've licensed everything Haisman and Lincoln created for the show - all the characters from their episodes.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

They've licensed everything Haisman and Lincoln created for the show - all the characters from their episodes.

Including "The Dominators"? Quarks!

 

[Christopher]

So that means we could be seeing more of Edward and Anne Travers as well? And I guess Harold Chorley and Evans, though I doubt anyone's clamoring for their return. I think they're the only others that survived "The Web of Fear," and that was the only Haisman-Lincoln serial set in the relative present.

As it happens, I just saw "The Web of Fear" the other day, since Netflix finally got it in. It cannot be overstated how much Nicholas Courtney brought to the role of Lethbridge-Stewart right off the bat. He really brought the story alive once he showed up. His strong but relaxed performance helped make up for the near-farcical broadness of actors like Jack Watling as Travers and Derek Pollitt as Evans.

It's kind of a shame that Lethbridge-Stewart's actual first meeting with the Doctor happened off-camera. But I guess the writers and producers had no way of knowing what a momentous event that was.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

So that means we could be seeing more of Edward and Anne Travers as well?

On Facebook, Lance Parkin says his book features Travers:

I'm writing a Doctor Who novel, look, or near as. A sequel to The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear, with Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart and Professor Travers heading back to Det-Sen to look for signs of the Great Intelligence. The Tobias Vaughn style villain's played by Peter Cook and his Packer-style henchman's Dudley Moore. Lethbridge-Stewart wrestles a Yeti. The first chapter has the lines 'Lethbridge-Stewart was one of a literal handful of people still around who’d been in the thick of it. Him, Private Evans, a journalist called Chorley, the scientist Travers and her father'.

 

[Lonemagpie]

You can also expect to see Travers in mine. Plus guest stars played (in my head) by Edward Woodward and Jeremy Brett.

 

[Christopher]

Honestly, after seeing "The Web of Fear," I have little interest in seeing more of Edward Travers, not as the doddering blowhard he was at that point, anyway. Anne, on the other hand, would be nice to see again.

By the way, I noticed that "Web" seemed to be the first salvo in the UNIT dating controversy, as it were. It said that the events of "The Abominable Snowmen" were in 1935, but that Travers hadn't seen Jamie and Victoria in over 40 years, which would put the story sometime after 1975. But that's hard to reconcile even with "The Pyramids of Mars," where Sarah Jane says she's from 1980 but it's definitely more than 5 years later, let alone with "Mawdryn Undead"'s assumption that the Brigadier retired from UNIT in 1977. And the DW Wiki's entry for "Web" puts it in the 1960s, even while acknowledging the dialogue about the elapsed time.

So how will the books be treating the time frame of Col. Lethbridge-Stewart's adventures?

 

[Crusher Disciple]

I heartily approve.

 

[Lonemagpie]

So how will the books be treating the time frame of Col. Lethbridge-Stewart's adventures?

Going with the idea of Web being set at time of transmission, so the books are set around 1968/69. Since UNIT isn't licenced (Derrick Sherwin and Doug Camfield created that), UNIT dating can get stuffed.

Anyone who's bothered about the dates given in Web will have to take it up with publisher Shaun and editor Andy...

 

[Christopher]

Well, Travers's "over forty years ago" line can be easily enough rationalized as an error by an aging character whose memory is unreliable. His age makeup certainly isn't consistent with a man in his 70s.

And even though we don't see much of aboveground London in the story, it's probably best to treat it as taking place in the era it was made. Attempts to project the near future tend to end up very dated. (I was watching a UFO episode on Hulu recently, and there was a scene set at a party, and I thought, "This is the sixties-est 1980 I've ever seen!")

 

[Lonemagpie]

Well, Travers's "over forty years ago" line can be easily enough rationalized as an error by an aging character whose memory is unreliable.

That's always been my opinion

 

[Ithekro]

The reference in "The Snowmen" in the Doctor giving a map of the London Underground to the Great Intelligence would bit it at around 1968.

 

[Stevil2001]

I think Andy Frankham-Allen's Doctor Who short stories are among some of the worst pieces of prose ever committed, but I look forward to anything by Lonemagpie and Lance Parkin is always a guaranteed purchase!

 

[DrFrankhamstien]

Well, Travers's "over forty years ago" line can be easily enough rationalized as an error by an aging character whose memory is unreliable.

That's always been my opinion

And mine, too. Abominable Snowman was 1935... This much we do know. I imagine Lethbridge-Stewart will put Travers right on his ailing mathematical skill.