Postscript (short story)
Postscript was the eighth and final story in the anthology Stranger Tales of the City, featuring characters from Philology: The Real Professional Bag of Tricks and Stranger Tales of the City linking material.
Summary
V. M. McCrimmon is sorting mail at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Remakes Mission at South Gate when she finds an unusual envelope addressed to her and Grandfather Halfling, containing a postcard with a picture of a blonde woman in baggy black clothing on it. She takes it to Brother Gerard, who has two similar letters they received earlier, one in a velvet envelope and one whose stationary had "clearly been stolen from a Kinko's print store". The three letters are narratively unstable with each other, and the new postcard's presence destroys the other two: the woman depicted on the postcard is no longer a possibility but a certainty. McCrimmon determines that the postcard was sent by the woman's actualised potential and notices that it's blank. They decide that the postcard is a simple "hello to the world".
Characters
- Mrs V. M. McCrimmon
- Brother Gerard
References
to be added
Notes
- Co-author James Bojaciuk said that he was inspired to write this story by the death of Deborah Watling and the cross-gender recasting of a certain sci-fi icon. He originally planned for Grandfather Halfling to appear in the story, but after the character's creator Philip Purser-Hallard shot it down, Elizabeth Evershed became co-author and Halfling was replaced with one of her characters.[1]
- Postcards from the Thirteenth Doctor to Doctor Who spinoff characters were also discussed and depicted — with more overt references to Doctor Who — in the Lethbridge-Stewart short story When Times Change..., printed with The Two Brigadiers, and the Iris Wildthyme short story A Lady Doctor?. This story subtly retcons these postcards as not having been sent the Doctor herself, but her "actualised potential".
Continuity
- McCrimmon and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Remakes previously appeared in PROSE: Stranger Tales of the City linking material.
- Gerard previously appeared in PROSE: Stranger Tales of the City linking material.
- Mrs McCrimmon knew the Grandfather in her first life and is still associated with him in the City. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
- South Gate previously appeared in PROSE: God Encompasses and PROSE: Stranger Tales of the City linking material.
