Chapter 27
Table Manners
Just for a change, this chapter shares a title with one of
Alan Ayckbourn's three The Norman Conquests plays - another
farce set in a dining room.
Captain Redred makes his transmat journey from the Deathday
to the present in what seems to him like less than no time,
but for everyone else is 673 Gallifreyan years. By the time he
gets a grasp on what's happened to him, he'll probably need
counselling.
Satthralope's starter course of fish tongues links back to
the Old Time. According to Time's Crucible, the line of
Pythias, ancient seers who once ruled Gallifrey, existed on an
exclusive diet of fish tongues. The final Pythia threw a bowl
of tongues at an envoy of Rassilon who plotted her overthrow.
Although the Pythia's followers left Gallifrey after her death
and founded the Sisterhood of nearby Karn, the role of wise
women at home is preserved and honoured by the Housekeepers,
who in some small way, still echo the once great power of
their predecessors.
The Doctor's tirade against his family and account of his
adventures, resurfaced in revised form in the Probability Tree
scene in Auld Mortality. It's part of the Doctor's credo. His
raison d'etre was to see the rich diversity of the Universe.
Ironically, this freedom is exactly what was denied to the
rest of his family as a result of his actions.
The 'Happy Name Day' moment was another occasion when the
characters took over the story. Ace, sorry Dorothée, just
climbed up on her chair and started singing in defiant support
of her best friend. I thought that was very sweet. It also
suggests that the Doctor's chosen companions are his true
family, rather than the motley crew of Cousins with whom he
got lumbered at birth.
The Vatican was obviously one of Robert Holmes's sources
for the Time Lords - witness all those Cardinals, and the
outgoing President in Deadly Assassin, who is a dead ringer
for the old Pope John. So I thought it only appropriate that
the correct term for the severing of links between Lungbarrow
and the Matrix should be an Excommunication. When I was
writing Auld Mortality, I was tempted to let the alternative
denizens of Skaro, the Thaleks, in their brief cameo
appearance, betray themselves as quasi-religious fanatics by
murderously chanting Excommunicate! But Nick Briggs, probably
wisely, wouldn't let me.
