Greyhound (short story)

Greyhound
Main character(s):	Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
Key crew
Writer:	James Goss Steve Tribe
Release details
Printed in:	The Doctor: His Lives and Times
The Doctor: His Lives and Times
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Greyhound, subtitled "A memoir by Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart", was a short story released in The Doctor: His Lives and Times.

Summary

Lethbridge-Stewart is writing his memoirs, and has come to the chapter about working with the Doctor. He knows this will be removed from any publication by D Notice but feels if he doesn't write it, he "couldn't look him in the face".

Characters

• Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart

Worldbuilding

• The Brigadier's notes include
  • the Doctor's patient record from the cottage hospital.
  • a transcript of John Wakefield's report about Mars Probe 7.
  • an informational leaflet for investing in Stahlman gas.
  • the St. Cedd's College Newsletter reporting Elizabeth Shaw has "returned from sabbatical".
  • a product recall warning for the Auton's plastic flowers.
  • a report by Pentagon's "Department X12 Axonite Task Force", which reveals the US still has some traces of Axonite.
  • a memo to Lethbridge-Stewart reporting the suspected Master was actually the Spanish ambassador.
  • a TV listing for BBC3: The Clangers, Harold Chorley's show, and The Passing Parade reporting "live from Devil's End.
  • television listings for Attenborough in the Amazon.
  • a letter from Lethbridge-Stewart to Reginald Styles, apologising for the destruction of Auderly House.

Notes

• This story acts as a partial in-universe recap of the Third Doctor's era.
• The Brigadier laments the Doctor's spotty understanding of human political realities and how he lumbered him with paperwork.
• While he can't write about the Doctor, he's allowed to write about the Master (who turns out to be a member of the same club as the Doctor and has deliberately ensured they never meet there).
• After the dinosaur invasion, the Brigadier began making sure UNIT were equipped to operate without the Doctor on assumption he might not show up in time next.
• The Brigadier had an uncle in the Royal Navy. He compares his uncle's wanderlust to the Third Doctor's increasingly sporadic appearances.
• In the second television listing for Attenborough in the Amazon, it is mentioned that Attenborough is currently in Darkest Peru - Darkest Peru is a fictional part of Peru that Paddington Bear, the titular bear of A Bear Called Paddington, originates from.

Continuity

• The Brigadier refers to Jo Grant getting her job via her uncle as a bit of office politics.
• He's learned that Harold Saxon was the Master in disguise.
• The Doctor's hobnobbing at an exclusive Mayfair club, with one contact being Tubby Rowlands first mentioned in TV: Terror of the Autons. The Doctor uses these contacts to ensure UNIT get the supplies they need.
• The Doctor once namedropped knowing Mao's favourite dishes; the two knew each other in TV: The Mind of Evil.
• The US has Axonite (TV: The Claws of Axos) retained at Area 52 behind the dwarf star alloy from TV: Day of the Moon.
• The Brigadier lies that he never said "I'm fairly sure that's Cromer", saying it's just a longstanding joke by Benton. (TV: The Three Doctors)