Though his
time was short, Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor remains my firm
favourite. Russell T Davies’ original vision of the rebooted Doctor was
literally and figuratively dark, yet his tough, Northern front belied an often
startlingly passionate, exuberant and even quite tender soul. While Matt Smith
and particularly David Tennant built their tenures on being able to turn from
daffy to dominant in the space of a double heartbeat, it was Eccleston that made that mould;
Eccleston that set the standard.
As such, it’s
nothing short of criminal that the definitive new Doctor has been almost
completely overlooked since the autumn that followed his departure. Six tie-in novels,
a few comic strips and that was his lot – it’s not that long ago that Paul
McGann’s Doctor would get that within the space of a month or three. But salvation recently came for me in
the most unlikely of forms: September’s Penguin short story, published
exclusively as an e-book and written by a newcomer to the franchise. “Eleven
Doctors, eleven months, eleven authors, eleven stories” is the slogan. Well,
this is the ninth of each.
Penned by Fast Show writer and star Charlie
Higson, “The Beast of Babylon” is a fast tale for a “fast and impatient” Doctor
whose audience have come to expect their action to come at an even faster lick
than in a Terrance Dicks-penned Target. Set in the subjective chasm between the
TARDIS’s dematerialisation and reappearance in the closing moments of Rose, this adventure follows the Doctor
as he tries to stop a creature – a god – forged in the heart of a dead star
from destroying ancient Babylon. Along for the ride is Ali – a forceful young
female that the Doctor picked up on Karkinos.
Higson
portrays Eccleston’s Time Lord exquisitely in print, capturing not just the
incarnation’s distinctive dialect, but also his runaway train delivery of it.
Nine’s mannerisms are also perfectly painted in plain, Dicks-like prose, for me
evoking that specific Target thrill that today’s precession of original novels
often struggle to. This illusion is occasionally, but nonetheless happily, shattered by insuppressibly comic lines from the Doctor, my favourite of which is, “Christ… He was a bit
like Sherlock Holmes. Knew the answers to everything. Very good at solving
mysteries. Some humans use him to measure time…” However, even these are redolent
of the revived series, and Russell T Davies in particular. This meshes tantalisingly with the ancient historic setting, which feels remarkably fresh for this
incarnation, who on television didn’t make it back any further than Dickens’ day.My favourite aspect of the tale though is how it serves as a wonderful leveller for Rose in several ways. Superficially, it mirrors the revived series’ first episode in terms of its structure and almost peripheral plot, which is there only to serve the characters as opposed to vice-versa. The Doctor strolls into Ali’s life with monsters right behind him, and within moments she’s been whisked away on the trip of a lifetime. On a deeper level though, Ali is, in of herself, a cruel reflection of Rose. I can’t say too much without running the risk of spoiling the sting in the tale, but I will say that Higson uses his author’s omniscience to profound effect here. With its initial omissions and obfuscation, this is a story made for this medium.
It seems that Eccleston era stories are like buses in my village – there are none for eight years, then two come along at once. Around the same time that I discovered “The Beast of Babylon” on the digital shelves, the release of Cavan Scott and Mark Wright’s Destiny of the Doctors audio book, Night of the Whisper, saw the ninth Doctor pulling double duty for the month. Whether this marks the beginning of a brave new era for an incarnation who’s in danger of becoming as forgotten as the warrior that he follows remains to be seen, but I sincerely hope that after years in the wilderness, the ninth (or should that be tenth now...?) Doctor’s back for good.
The Beast of Babylon is currently available to download from Amazon’s Kindle Store for just 99p. The iTunes version will set you back a further quid.
In 2013, something terrible is awakening in London’s National Gallery; in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in space an ancient battle reaches its devastating conclusion. All of reality is at stake as the Doctor’s own dangerous past comes back to haunt him.
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