Under Reykjavik (short story)
Under Reykjavik was a Brief Encounter short story published in DWM 174.
Summary
While the Doctor is asleep, Romana busies herself updating some of the TARDIS's burnt-out units by jacking in a G129AT ordnance unit. Unfortunately, the TARDIS lands in the bunker of Magnus Greel beneath the Supreme Alliance fortress in Iceland and the doors won't close. Romana apologises for the interruption and the sound of the TARDIS's Cloister bells ringing out — the TARDIS believing it is under attack by the Pus Creatures of Rakos, and casually chats away to Magnus. She mentions time travel and debunks Dr Findecker's work on 'double nexus particles', starting Magnus thinking about the real possibility of time travel, which is further fed when Romana, having fixed the TARDIS with one of the Doctor's old tie-pins, leaves him with a business card for an excellent plastic surgeon in 1998. As soon as she has left, Magnus is on the videophone to Findecker... the 1890s sound interesting!
Characters
References
- The Doctor is asleep, presumably resting after his latest encounter with the Daleks on Skaro.
- Dr. Findecker is doing research into time travel involving the double nexus particle.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- The war criminal Magnus Greel, first appeared in TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Even this early in his dictatorship he displays 'psychotic deviant' and cannibalistic tendencies contemplating the slaughtering, cooking and eating of Romana as an act of manners.
- The accompanying illustration by Paul Vyse depicts Romana in the Fourth Doctor-style outfit she wore in TV: Destiny of the Daleks, which would place this story at some point after that and before TV: City of Death.
- The Cloister bells were a TARDIS warning system that rang out when the TARDIS was under an extreme threat first introduced in TV: Logopolis.
- During his fifth incarnation, the Doctor and his companions Nyssa, Tegan Jovanka and Turlough would later encounter Magnus Greel in Peking, China and Reykjavik, Iceland at an earlier point in the 51st century. (AUDIO: The Butcher of Brisbane)
