Chapter 32
No Trespassers
Leela hasn't actually told anyone else about her
interesting condition, but Romana obviously knows. Why else
does she keep asking Leela how she is? So did she give orders
for Leela to be kept under surveillance, even in the most
intimate of situations? Or has Leela's K-9 been leaking
information about morning sickness and folic acid levels to
his counterpart?
Oh no, not another trial scene! Well, it sort of happened
that way. Earlier on, when Ferain first emerged from the
Gallifreyan woodwork, he kept talking in cold and detached
legal jargon, so when I reached this point, the Doctor started
to play Ferain at his own game. Naturally the Doctor takes the
established rules, does a quick sleight of hand and turns them
on their heads. He's such an old subversive!
Gallifreyan names: In Kate Orman's novel Sleepy, we're told
that the Doctor's name has thirty eight syllables! (Of course,
we're not told what the name is.) Gallifreyan names probably
run on the Welsh
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
principal. Although I can't believe the Doctor's name is
anything remotely like St Mary's Church in the Hollow of the
White Hazel near a Rapid Whirlpool and the Church of St.
Tysilio near the Red Cave. Anyway, that's still twenty
syllables short. If we follow Kate's ruling, the full-blown
names we get for other Gallifreyans here must be abbreviated
versions too. Even Leela has been given one by right of her
liaison with Andred: Leelandredloomsagwinaechegesima, (which
makes her sound a bit like the third Sunday before Lent.)
Blimey! Imagine how long the daily register at Prydon Academy
must take. My real problem was that while everyone else in the
universe could call the Doctor Doctor, his own Family would
obviously call him by his real name. Fortunately the Doctor's
disgrace came to the rescue. His incensed Family had struck
their embarrassing renegade's name from the House's records.
It was just the Law of Irony that brought him neatly home to
Lungbarrow on his nameday (some very Russian influences
there), which just happened, purely coincidentally, to be the
Feast of Otherstide as well. Only the Other doesn't have a
name either…
I do like the fact that the Doctor eventually became the
very thing he had planned to avoid. The Family wanted him to
be President of the High Council, but were, of course,
otherwise occupied when the event actually happened. Yet
another triumph for the Law of Irony.
