Republica (novelisation): Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox Story
{{Infobox Story SMW
|image          = Republica novelisation.jpg
|image          = Republica novelisation.jpg
|series          = ''[[Novelisations in Time & Space]]''
|series          = ''[[Novelisations in Time & Space]]''
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|number in range = 1
|number in range = 1
|number          = 1
|number          = 1
|novelisation of = Republica (audio story)
|main character  = [[The Professor (Republica)|The Professor]]
|main character  = [[The Professor (Republica)|The Professor]]
|companions      = [[Ace (Republica)|Ace]]
|companions      = [[Ace (Republica)|Ace]]
|enemy          =
|enemy          =
|setting        =  
|setting        = [[London]], [[alternate timeline (Republica)|alternate timeline]]
|editor          = [[James Hornby]]
|editor          = [[James Hornby]]
|writer          = [[Micah K. Spurling]]
|writer          = Micah K. Spurling
|publisher      = BBV Productions
|publisher      = BBV Productions
|release date    = [[2021 (releases)|2021]]
|release date    = 4 September 2021
|cover          = [[Lucy Wood-Ives]]
|cover          = [[Lucy Wood-Ives]]
|format          =  
|format          =  
Line 20: Line 21:
|next            = Cyber-Hunt (novelisation)
|next            = Cyber-Hunt (novelisation)
}}{{prose stub}}
}}{{prose stub}}
'''''Republica''''' was the first instalment in the ''[[Novelisations in Time & Space]]'' series. It was written by [[Micah K. Spurling]], adapted from [[Mark Gatiss]]' script for the 1998 audio story. Unlike the original version, this story contained the licensed usage of ''[[Doctor X]]'' from ''[[Erimem (series)|Erimem]]''.
'''''Republica''''' was the first instalment in the ''[[Novelisations in Time & Space]]'' series. It was written by [[Micah K. Spurling]], adapted from [[Mark Gatiss]]' script for the 1998 audio story [[Republica (audio story)|of the same name]]. In addition to the [[Alternate timeline (Republica)|setting]] which Gatiss had introduced in ''[[The Roundheads (novel)|The Roundheads]]'', the novelisation further tied itself to the conventional [[Doctor Who universe|''Doctor Who'' universe]] via the licensed usage of ''[[Doctor X]]'' from ''[[Erimem (series)|Erimem]]'', and also implied a temporal explanation of the relationship between the BBV "Professor and Ace" and their BBC analogues the [[Seventh Doctor]] and [[Ace]].


== Publisher's summary ==
== Publisher's summary ==
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As [[Politics|political]] factions vie for power, the travellers become embroiled in the plans of [[King]] [[Charles XIV]] who stands poised to reclaim the [[throne]]. Can they discover who is behind the drastic alteration of [[history]] or will the [[Puritan]] cause triumph throughout eternity?
As [[Politics|political]] factions vie for power, the travellers become embroiled in the plans of [[King]] [[Charles XIV]] who stands poised to reclaim the [[throne]]. Can they discover who is behind the drastic alteration of [[history]] or will the [[Puritan]] cause triumph throughout eternity?


== Plot ==
== Deviations from original story ==
On Ithaca, an alien dissident named Maxwell (see Notes) is disintegrated for his crimes against the state but is successfully reformed and smuggled offworld. Falling through a wormhole to [[Oliver Cromwell]]'s time of death, he convinces the man to appoint General John Lambert as successor rather than [[Richard Cromwell]].
* The novelisation has a framing story of Ace at an alien temple which is unique to it.
 
* The prelude greatly expands on the opening scene from the audio, naming the criminal, his comrades, and parts of their world. This section notes that it was "Originally Printed in Time Travellers Monthly #265, May 1998", referencing the [[Virgin New Adventures]] and their accompanying preludes in ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]''.
When the Professor and Ace arrive in late 1990s London, they find the world changed: technology is advanced, Puritans walk the street, Catholicism is oppressed, and a British Republic rules under a hereditary Lord Protector, its Commonwealth still containing the colony of North America. Elsewhere, the latest Lord Protector, Josiah Lambert, is worried about an approaching comet and seeks the advice of his long-time seer, the Other; and a royalist spy wing under LeCompte seeks information to aid the Franco-Spanish invasion that will 'restore' King Charles XIV to his throne.
* In-universe history book entries attributed to Dr. L. Conwyn flesh out the developing history of the Commonwealth and its world, which were not in the original audio. Minority protestant sects were legally tolerated in 1660, creating a more religiously-unified Britain. Their views on slavery were partially responsible for the slave trade being abolished in 1705, with enslaved Protestants being made citizens, and enslaved Catholics exiled. Technology advanced to the point of space travel being attempted in the 1850s, but religious conflict remained strong: France remained a rival due to Catholicism, the [[Holy Land]] was conquered by the Commonwealth, and the medical advances made by the Commonwealth in the 1940s were due to testing on prisoners arrested for "religious offences".
 
* When time is restored to normal, the book 'restarts' with Chapter One and Cromwell's original death (excerpting a book by "E. Smythe" rather than L. Conwyn, with E. Smythe being a winking reference to [[Evelyn Smythe]].
The Professor and Ace are drawn into the machinations of LeCompte's network and the threat of the British war rocket Behemoth. They discover that the Other and Le Compte are the same man, and that he is trying to manipulate the Lord Protector into firing Behemoth at the comet - which won't near Earth, and Behemoth will instead hit a nearby astrological conjunction. The Other/LeCompte is revealed to be an escaped Ithacan prisoner who has been chief seer to the Lord Protectors since Cromwell's time, all to steer Earth to reach a technological point where he can attack his homeworld in revenge. (The Royalist revolt is merely a result of his boredom.)
 
Learning this, and realising that the wormhole to LeCompte's world goes back in time, the Professor allows Behemoth to launch: thus it will kill LeCompte in the past before he escapes, and time will reset. Ace is horrified but told this timeline isn't meant to exist, and the regular timeline is restored.
 
In another time and place, Ace visits an alien temple. After a discussion with the computer cleric, she is shown the events of the Republic's fall. She is unsettled by the discovery of events neither she nor the Professor remember, and wonders if this is related to an unspecified "him".  


== Characters ==
== Characters ==
* [[The Professor (Republica)|The Professor]]
* [[The Professor (Republica)|The Professor]]
* [[Ace (Republica)|Ace]]
* [[Ace (Republica)|Ace]]
*[[LeCompte/The Other]]
* [[LeCompte]]/"The Other"
*[[Colum Devlin]]
* [[Colum Devlin]]
*[[Maria Somerset]]
* [[Maria Somerset]]
 
* [[The Cleric]]
''rest to be added''
''more to be added''


== References ==
== Worldbuilding ==
*''Doctor X'' exists in this timeline. The show once gave his female sidekick Madame X a larger role, in advance of a planned spinoff (a reference to the contemporary [[Jodie Whittaker]] years). Her foes include the Broonwins.  
* Ace mentions that "[[Geri Halliwell|the redhead]]" from the [[Spice Girls]] is wearing the wrong dress, and the Professor comments that she's carrying a harp, a reference to the British Republican flag.
*A history book called ''Tapestries: The History and Legacies of Britain'' is written by [[Evelyn Smythe|E. Smythe]].
* Ace once went out in a suit jacket to a "youth club dance" with [[Misha (Republica)|Misha]] and was [[Slur|disparagingly]] called "[[queer]]".
*As with the original audio, it's implied the Professor and Ace are the [[Seventh Doctor]] and [[Ace]]. When talking to her, the cleric refers to her as a "myriad" and mentions four personas, including "Dorothy in the cyclone, Alice down the rabbit hole": Dorothy being Ace's real name, Alice being what ''The Time Travellers'' renamed [[Sophie Aldred]]'s character as extra legal cover (with the Professor becoming the Dominie).
* ''Doctor X'' once gave his female sidekick Madame X a larger role, in advance of a planned spinoff. Her foes include the Broonwins.
*The [[Spice Girls]] exist in this timeline. Ace mentions that "[[Geri Halliwell|the redhead]]" is wearing the wrong dress, and the Professor comments that she's carrying a harp, a reference to the British Republican flag.
* A history book called ''[[Tapestries: The History and Legacies of Britain]]'' is attributed to [[Evelyn Smythe|E. Smythe]].


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
* The ''Republica'' audio was itself originally intended to be a book (called ''Cromwell's Dust''), as Mark Gatiss had pitched three Past Doctor Adventures at once when in need of quick cash and adapted this & another rejected pitch when BBV asked if he had any audio ideas.<ref>''Downtime: The Lost Years of Doctor Who'' Chapter 17 (Dylan Rees)</ref>
* Although the intent in the original ''Time Travellers'' audios was transparently that the Professor was the [[Seventh Doctor]], this is made more ambiguous by this novelisation, which explicitly names the Professor and Ace's spacecraft (carefully unnamed in the audios) as something other than [[the Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]], namely the ''[[Cosmos (spacecraft)|Cosmos]]'', the public-domain vehicle of [[Doctor Omega]]. It is suggested that the Professor's "Ace" is in some sense an alternative counterpart of the conventional BBC [[Ace]]: when talking to her, the cleric refers to her as a "myriad" and mentions four personas, including "Dorothy in the cyclone, Alice down the rabbit hole": Dorothy being the BBC Ace's real name, and Alice the BBV Ace's.
* The novelisation has a framing story of Ace at an alien temple which is unique to it.
* The prelude of Maxwell's botched execution greatly expands on the opening scene from the audio, naming the criminal, his comrades, and parts of their world. This section has a note "(Originally Printed in Time Travellers Monthly #265, May 1998)", implying this is a fictionalised account of the real events; the fugitive never actually uses the name "Maxwell". The presence of a prelude from a (fictional, in this case) magazine, references the [[Virgin New Adventures]].
* In-universe history book entries attributed to Dr. L. Conwyn flesh out the developing history of the Commonwealth and its world, which were not in the original audio. Minority protestant sects were legally tolerated in 1660, creating a more religiously-unified Britain. Their views on slavery were partially reponsible for the slave trade being abolished in 1705, with enslaved Protestants being made citizens, and enslaved Catholics exiled. Technology advanced to the point of space travel being attempted in the 1850s, but religious conflict remained strong: France remained a rival due to Catholicism, the [[Holy Land]] was conquered by the Commonwealth, and the medical advances made by the Commonwealth in the 1940s were due to testing on prisoners arrested for "religious offences".
* When time is restored to normal, the book 'restarts' with Chapter One and Cromwell's original death (excerpting a book by E. Smythe rather than L. Conwyn).


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
''to be added''
* When called "citizen", the Professor remarks that no one has called him that "since Madame Guillotine". ([[TV]]: ''[[The Reign of Terror (TV story)|The Reign of Terror]]'')
* Ace searches for [[Nitro-9|"nitro"]] in the museum computer. ([[TV]]: ''[[Dragonfire (TV story)|Dragonfire]]'', et al.)
* The Professor says a documentary about ancient Egypt is wrong. ([[TV]]: ''[[Pyramids of Mars (TV story)|Pyramids of Mars]]'')
* The Professor asks how he can be a royalist with his accent. ([[TV]]: ''[[Time and the Rani (TV story)|Time and the Rani]]'')
* Ace remembers seeing the Professor for the first time "surrounded and filled by alien blue and white", but she questions her own memories. ([[TV]]: ''[[Dragonfire (TV story)|Dragonfire]]'')
* Ace remembers experiencing "timeline gibberish". ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Blood Heat (novel)|Blood Heat]]'', ''[[The Dimension Riders (novel)|The Dimension Riders]]'', ''[[The Left-Handed Hummingbird (novel)|The Left-Handed Hummingbird]]'', ''[[Conundrum (novel)|Conundrum]]'', ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'')
 
== External links ==
{{BBVProductions|Republica-Novelisation-eBook-DOWNLOAD-p390294133}}
{{The Time Travellers}}
{{TitleSort}}
{{TitleSort}}


[[Category:Novelisations in Time & Space novels]]
[[Category:Novelisations in Time & Space novels]]
[[Category:2021 novels]]
[[Category:2021 novels]]
[[Category:The Time Travellers stories]]

Latest revision as of 21:01, 16 March 2024

RealWorld.png

prose stub

Republica was the first instalment in the Novelisations in Time & Space series. It was written by Micah K. Spurling, adapted from Mark Gatiss' script for the 1998 audio story of the same name. In addition to the setting which Gatiss had introduced in The Roundheads, the novelisation further tied itself to the conventional Doctor Who universe via the licensed usage of Doctor X from Erimem, and also implied a temporal explanation of the relationship between the BBV "Professor and Ace" and their BBC analogues the Seventh Doctor and Ace.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Professor and Ace arrive in present-day London to find the city strangely changed. England is a republic, ruled by an elderly Lord Protector more interested in a mysterious comet than the long-suppressed forces of revolution fomenting in his kingdom.

As political factions vie for power, the travellers become embroiled in the plans of King Charles XIV who stands poised to reclaim the throne. Can they discover who is behind the drastic alteration of history or will the Puritan cause triumph throughout eternity?

Deviations from original story[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The novelisation has a framing story of Ace at an alien temple which is unique to it.
  • The prelude greatly expands on the opening scene from the audio, naming the criminal, his comrades, and parts of their world. This section notes that it was "Originally Printed in Time Travellers Monthly #265, May 1998", referencing the Virgin New Adventures and their accompanying preludes in Doctor Who Magazine.
  • In-universe history book entries attributed to Dr. L. Conwyn flesh out the developing history of the Commonwealth and its world, which were not in the original audio. Minority protestant sects were legally tolerated in 1660, creating a more religiously-unified Britain. Their views on slavery were partially responsible for the slave trade being abolished in 1705, with enslaved Protestants being made citizens, and enslaved Catholics exiled. Technology advanced to the point of space travel being attempted in the 1850s, but religious conflict remained strong: France remained a rival due to Catholicism, the Holy Land was conquered by the Commonwealth, and the medical advances made by the Commonwealth in the 1940s were due to testing on prisoners arrested for "religious offences".
  • When time is restored to normal, the book 'restarts' with Chapter One and Cromwell's original death (excerpting a book by "E. Smythe" rather than L. Conwyn, with E. Smythe being a winking reference to Evelyn Smythe.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

more to be added

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Ace mentions that "the redhead" from the Spice Girls is wearing the wrong dress, and the Professor comments that she's carrying a harp, a reference to the British Republican flag.
  • Ace once went out in a suit jacket to a "youth club dance" with Misha and was disparagingly called "queer".
  • Doctor X once gave his female sidekick Madame X a larger role, in advance of a planned spinoff. Her foes include the Broonwins.
  • A history book called Tapestries: The History and Legacies of Britain is attributed to E. Smythe.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Although the intent in the original Time Travellers audios was transparently that the Professor was the Seventh Doctor, this is made more ambiguous by this novelisation, which explicitly names the Professor and Ace's spacecraft (carefully unnamed in the audios) as something other than the TARDIS, namely the Cosmos, the public-domain vehicle of Doctor Omega. It is suggested that the Professor's "Ace" is in some sense an alternative counterpart of the conventional BBC Ace: when talking to her, the cleric refers to her as a "myriad" and mentions four personas, including "Dorothy in the cyclone, Alice down the rabbit hole": Dorothy being the BBC Ace's real name, and Alice the BBV Ace's.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

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The Time Travellers series
Audio
AAiT&S Season 1
AAiT&S Season 2
AAiT&S Season 3
Prose
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