Campaign (unreleased novel)

Campaign, or Burning Artemis, was a First Doctor novel commissioned by BBC Books from writer Jim Mortimore for the Past Doctor Adventures range. The story would have featured the First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Susan meeting Alexander the Great.

However, following Mortimore's delivery of the completed novel, BBC Books cancelled it, citing its divergence from the agreed-upon outline. The finished Campaign was an experimental book set entirely inside the TARDIS in the apparent aftermath of their adventure with Alexander. The characters were experiencing a collapse of Time, which was rendered through the style and background changing from chapter to chapter or paragraph to paragraph. The final chapter revealed that the events were part of a highly-advanced virtual reality game the Doctor and his companions played in the TARDIS.

Summary

Burning Artemis

In a prologue, Alexander the Great is lost in the desert and follows animals to an oasis, where the Oracle of Ammon declares him to be an Egyptian god.

The First Doctor visits ancient Macedon, where he tutors young Alexander while Aristotle fixes the TARDIS using rudimentary Logopolitan mathematics. With the TARDIS usable, the Doctor agrees to take young Alexander for a test drive, but the TARDIS breaks down and scatters its occupants throughout history. Young Alexander is sent to his original time and place, and the Doctor has to follow the Persian Campaign to collect his companions.

Barbara arrives in India at the end of Alexander's Campaign, as he prepares to invade. She escapes the slaughter by posing as a handmaiden in Alexander's party. However, when she cannot save the king's infant son from an illness, she is sent to be executed. Thankfully, her life is spared by the Alexander's young Persian wife: Susan!

Susan materialises at an earlier time in the Campaign and plans to influence Alexander away from invasion toward diplomacy by posing as a Persian princess, who he calls "Little Star". However, she is recognised by Cleitus, a trusted advisor who met her years prior when the Doctor tutored Alexander. Cleitus denounces Susan as a spy or a demon, but Alexander has grown attracted to the idea of marrying into Persian royalty, so he drunkenly kills Cleitus. Susan agrees to marry the king but fails to deter him from massacring a town: and with horror, she recognises Ian among the fighting.

Ian materialises even earlier in the Persian Campaign, shortly after Alexander was declared future Lord of Asia by the Oracle of Apollo. While trying befriend an officer to join the army, Ian is pulled into a dangerous scheme to attack the walls of Helikarnassos, where the fighting has reached a stalemate. In the subsequent battle Ian is left for dead, then taken into the city by a general who wants to prevent Alexander from reclaiming his dead. Inside, Ian discovers a plot to burn the invaders' siege towers and battering rams, and he sneaks out to warn the army. With this advantage, Alexander seizes the town. Ian gradually rises up the ranks of the army through Herculean feats, and Alexander becomes attracted to him, appointing him shieldbearer during the strenuous invasion of Persepolis.

The Doctor rescues each of his companions at the moment that they were supposed to be killed; now they have to return to Macedonia and find the TARDIS without being recognised. Alexander captures the group, but Ian escapes. Knowing that the soldiers wish to return home rather than invading India, Ian convinces the generals not to follow their king. Ian announces the rebellion to Alexander, challenging him to live up to the ideals of his youth. The king acquiesces and agrees to return to Macedonia.

With history set back on the right track, the Doctor prepares to return to the TARDIS, but his companions feel emotionally conflicted and insist that they stay for Alexander's death in Babylon.

Campaign

to be added

Notes

Campaign charity novel cover

• Though BBC Books ultimately decided not to publish Campaign, Mortimore self-published it in 2000, with all proceeds going to charity. As this release was unlicensed, it is outside the scope of this wiki.
• The idea of a First Doctor historical featuring Alexander the Great was first floated in 1964 as a television story, and the premise would eventually be realised in 2010 in audio form with Big Finish's Farewell, Great Macedon.
• Campaign featured references to or elements from a number of obscure stories or unproduced pitches from Doctor Who's first years, including The Masters of Luxor, Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space, and the "Dr. Who" memos.
• A similar video game twist ending was used in the Doctor Who Magazine comic story Happy Deathday with the Eighth Doctor.

External links

• Campaign on the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club website