The Way of Battle (unproduced short story)
The Way of Battle was a short story outlined in 2020 by Irish writer S. Brennan for Legends of Earth, a mooted BBC Books Doctor Who anthology by Emil Fortune which would have featured stories inspired by folklore from around the world, authored by non-U.K. writers writing about myths of their own native cultures.
The story was intended to feature the iconic figure of Fionn mac Cumhaill in an adventure with the Second Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon, specifically being based on "the legend that he built the Giant's Causeway as a bridge, or a gateway, to Scotland as a response to the challenge of another mythical figure, Bandonner". Development on it was abruptly halted when Legends of Earth itself was cancelled.[1]
Plot
As Fionn finishes creating the Giant's Causeway, he accidentally drags the Second Doctor's TARDIS off-course while trying to gather power to link the gateway to Scotland to face Benandonner. Mistaking Jamie for Benandonner, Fionn engages him in battle, but the Doctor steps in, playing an Irish tune on his recorder and clearing up the confusion. After it transpires that the telephone box needs to be physically moved out of the Causeway before it can take off, Fionn uses his supernatural strength to pick up the TARDIS and hurl it into the sea, before heading through the Causeway to fight his real enemy. Jamie is dismayed to see the TARDIS bobbing below the surface, but the Doctor is unperturbed, changing into swimming gear with "a delighted grin on his face".
Footnotes
- ↑ Aristide Twain (14 April 2024). “Legends of Earth”: The 2020s “Doctor Who” Anthology Which Never Was. Aristide Twain on Tumblr. Archived from the original on 14 April 2024.
