What Kim Bread Did On His Holidays

The school holidays are very nearly over, which means it's almost time for new Dr Who on tv. Today is also Doctor Who Comics Day. I'll look at Titan's Four Doctors in the autumn but first, I want to post about recent prose stories of Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor.
 

Yet again, yesterday, City of Death turned up on the Horror Channel. I don't think there's ever been a more whimsical yet aimiable Doctor Who story. I didn't like it at the time- "Now stop that, too silly"- but of course, after many more viewings,  the wit and the charm and the wonderfully Seventies drabness of Paris in Springtime, not to mention the jolly score by Dudley Simpson, all beguile me.

And now, in 2015, City of Death has been novelized by James Goss. I enjoyed his 11th Doctor novel Dead of Winter ( a parody of Death In Venice) and his audiobook Dead Air, which turns The Boat That Rocked into a horror story ( yes, I know).

City was a classic case of victory from the jaws of defeat. Credited on screen to the fictitious David Agnew, it was a frantic reworking of a David Fisher story by Douglas Adams and producer Graham Williams. It was the first Who story filmed outside of the UK and thanks to the ITV strike of 1979, scored massive viewing ratings. It also featured a cameo by Elenor Bron and John Cleese ( the eponymous "Kim Bread")

In addition to fan-pleasing refrences to Nu Who ( The Medusa Cascade from The Stolen Earth, for instance) there are a number of new jokes. The fruit flan of Davros and the Australian Prime Computers references never felt forced, just joyful. I also liked Romana's dismissal of the perennial Blue Peter declaration "Here's one I made earlier" as " a shameless lie".

This is a book that adapts an old tv show with affection and panache. Who could ask for more?

The second Fourth Doctor novel of the summer was one I listened to as an audiobook read by Claire Corbett, on my journey to Selkirk and back.

The Drosten's Curse is an expansion of The Death Pit, a short story by Dundonian author and stand-up A.L. Kennedy, a Doctor-ish figure herself. The short story can be found in the Time Trips collection and, given that the first character in the story is a David Agnew, it's safe to say this is also an evocation of the Adams era of Doctor Who.

The Bah-Sokhar, a psychic monster from the Dawn of Time, awakes beneath a golf hotel in Arbroath, extering its influence on a wealthy, elderly eccentric and a horrid American teenage tourist. The Fourth Doctor is assisted in his struggle against the tyrannical teen, the self-styled "mighty Zandor", by a hapless alien bounty hunter and a plucky hotel receptionist.


This story feels like the Doctor is having a holiday prior to his Key to Time mission and Kennedy captures with ease the lofty, teasing presence of Tom's Doctor at probably the height of his popularity. She also emulates the witty tone of late 70s Who more successfully than authors of the time did (c.f. David Fisher's unfunny adaptation of his scripts for The Leisure Hive.)

 I  learned that octopuses is more correct than octopi but I doubt a teenage girl would be dreaming about David Cassidy in the summer of 1978. David SOUL, maybe or more probably John Travolta. I was also disappointed in the pronunciations of some towns: CarNOWstie and BROWty Ferry? No BBC audiobook is likely to refer to WHOLEBOURNE tube station or  MAGDALEN College.

It's a very long listen- about eight hours- but if you enjoy this period of Who, it whiles away lengthy journeys very admirably. As the Doctor almost said, "it has an ethos, a spirit all of its own, a bouquet."

Coming soon: Iron Fist and Batman's Ego

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