The Thirteenth Book I've Read This Year.

Books Rather like the Arden Shakespeares, The Black Archive has an eclectic author led format. Some include a thorough commentary on the production of the show, teasing out facts which haven't already been uncovered by Andrew Pixley, a Fact or Fiction from the monthly report to the subscribers or the Production Subtitles on the shiny disc. Others, acknowledging that those things exist, choose to spin-off a series of essays inspired by the story, considering its place with the canon of Doctor Who and wider science fiction.

Una McCormack's four essays on The Curse of Fenric cover its part in Thatcher's downfall (ish), compares it to other Who stories set during World War II or consuming its iconography, how its representation of women compares to elsewhere in the franchise and science fiction in general and finally the Doctor's development into a deity of sorts.  Lucidly and accessibly written, there are few assertions in here which I can take issue with and its frequently eye opening, especially on the status of modern companions and other narrative decisions.

Having recently watched Fenric in the context of the recent revelations in the revival of the series, you can see how script editor Andrew Cartmel laid the groundwork even if JNT squashed (on religious grounds), his idea of suggesting the Doctor as a powerful God-like being who existed before the Time Lords.  Retrospectively you can almost imagine that the Seventh Doctor is at least unconsciously aware of his previous life and has an insight which few Doctors before or since have been able to tap into.

The book is also a treasured possession because Una has been kind enough to mention me in the acknowledgements for pointing her towards one of the sources she used, looking completely out of place against the other luminaries such as Ian Briggs (the writer of Fenric), our lord the aforementioned Mr Pixley and various other academics and spin-off writers.  I had no idea until someone pointed it out to me on the social medias and it made what had been quite a grim day much, much brighter.

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